The RMBH municipal school receives a bilingual programme

The British Government will be responsible for supporting the implementation of the project

Lucas Brown: Nova Lima is the most British city in Brazil | Credit: Raphael Sandem

The British Government in Brazil, in partnership with the Nova Lima City Council, Belo Horizonte Metropolitan Region (RMBH), has inaugurated a bilingual education project at the Municipal School Vera Wanderlei Dias, which has a comprehensive curriculum.

For six months, 40 students in the first and second year will have access to a curriculum matrix prepared entirely in English and aimed at learning the language after regular classes. The program will be followed twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with a workload of eight hours per week.

The initiative will include teachers who have received specialized training and educational materials developed by Pearson, a British education company.

“Public basic education is a challenge all over Brazil, but I am happy to be working with the city council with ambitious plans to improve education in the municipality. I would say that Nova Lima is the most British city in Brazil,” says British Consul in Belo Horizonte Lucas Browne, Lucas Browne. We are very pleased to have taken this important step.”English is the most spoken language in the world, and knowing the language provides great opportunities for new experiences. This is why the British government is making education one of its priorities in Brazil,” he adds.

Nova Lima currently has 14 full-time schools, and it will be the first city in the state—and one of the first in the country—to have a public school offering bilingual English-language instruction. In the future, the plan is for the project to cover all schools in the municipal education network.

“It is very important to bring young people closer to British culture. Nova Lima is a cosmopolitan city, and the world is the space of each of our students,” says Nova Lima Education Minister Pedro Dornas. We hope this will be an apprenticeship that not only takes into account learning English, but also art, culture and entertainment. We are very happy and hope that this project will be a reference in English language teaching nationwide,” he says.

The municipality located in the Belo Horizonte metropolitan area has a historical relationship with the United Kingdom. The city, which in the past received a large number of British immigrants, still to this day, maintains the roots of culture, cuisine and architecture typical of the region.

“It is with great pleasure that our school has pioneered the bilingual project of the Escola em Tempo Integral Programme, and we believe that, as educators, we can change the lives of many children,” said Director of the Municipal Vera Wanderlei Dias School, Daniela Monserrate.

British government initiatives

The UK is recognized worldwide as an educational hub. According to QS Universities, a global provider of services and analytics to the higher education sector, four of the world’s ten best universities are based in the UK.

The British Government is responsible for Chevening, an international masters scholarship program that has been in existence since 1983. The project contains courses in almost any field of knowledge and seeks students who have the potential to become future leaders, decision-makers and opinion-makers with the skills to promote positive change in various sectors . Present in over 160 countries, the global network of Chevening alumni currently consists of more than 50,000 people.

The UK is also active in developing social inclusion projects. Prosperity skills enhance youth and vulnerable groups’ access to education and skills development opportunities for the world of work. The initiatives, which focus on the democratization of English language learning, have already benefited more than 2.5 million students and more than 20,000 teachers in all regions of Brazil, with access to teaching materials and an English language training platform for teachers.