Aurelino’s Story
How an education secretary used the power of multi-sector collaboration, rooted in trust, to help more students in his city access a quality education.
Aurelino is secretary of education for the city of Ulianópolis in the rural state of Pará, Brazil.
Long ago, he entered the field of education by pure chance: “To be honest, I got a job in the secretary of education office and started to fall in love with the subject.”
The job was challenging. “When I started working in this area many years ago, the situation of education was very bad in Ulianópolis,” Aurelino recalls.
His city was not alone in this. For far too long, Pará’s education system had produced deplorable results. In 2012, more than 70% of the state’s young people had their aspirations for decent employment frustrated because they had failed to complete high school.
A dysfunctional education system not only destroyed the dreams of young people to escape the cycle of poverty, but also hindered Pará’s economic development.
Urgent, concerted action was needed to turn things around. Aurelino believed that a solution would have to involve actors beyond the school walls.
An invitation for Ulianopolis to join the Pact for Education in Pará presented an ideal opportunity for Aurelino to test this belief. The Pact was a state-wide initiative that brought together key actors from government, industry, civil society, and the media – as well as teachers, students and parents – for a complex, collaborative effort to revitalize education and improve educational outcomes in participating cities.
Ulianopolis was one of 40 pilot municipalities that adhered to the Pact. Aurelino’s participation in the Pact, and his commitment to its guiding principles of trust-building, bridging leadership and respectful collaboration made him a natural bridging leader at the local level. He knew how to move strategically and had the full support of the city mayor, herself a former secretary of education. Through his experience in the Pact, Aurelino came to a deep appreciation of the reflective awareness needed for this kind of leadership.
“First, you need to be open and willing to listen to the various parts without trying to impose your vision.
Each one has their expectations, their anguish, their ability to participate and we must respect these individualities, but at the same time we must stimulate active participation. It is also critical to be transparent, to be honest about the capacity to accomplish the goals, and the resources that exist. Finally, it is essential to create a climate of trust, which is strengthened when people see that the promises are fulfilled, that the results and contributions are recognized.”
Ulianópolis is an exemplary success story of the Pact.
In 2013, 2015, and 2017, the municipality’s rating on Brazil’s Basic Education Development Index was highest among the 144 cities in the state of Pará.
Aurelino attributes this success to the efficiency and effectiveness of collaboration and communal ownership. This experience moved Aurelino and his colleagues in Ulianópolis to carry forward the principles of the Pact to their work today.
This story is drawn from the Inner Work for Social Change case study: Jumping into the Waves of the River: Forming the Pact for Education in Pará, Brazil.