Ricardo Mesquita Chioccarello and Maria da Conceição Altenfelder Mesquita , members of the Maintainers’ Council of the International School of Alphaville  and the Pedagogic Director  Norma Raghiantti Viscardi travelled to Australia and New Zealand with the objective of bringing information and innovations with reference to the advanced system of education in both countries.

The option to visit Australia and New Zealand is due to the prominent position of both countries among those with the best level of education in the whole world, according to classification defined by OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) based on the ranking by PISA , an international  program of compared evaluation, whose main objective is to produce indicators about the effectiveness of educational systems. According to PISA, the Province of Victoria, in Australia, was considered one of the five places in the world with the best educational practices, next to Finland, Austria, Belgium and the United Kingdom.

During the 17 days of the trip, the three were received by representatives of the Education Secretariats of both countries in eight official visits, and could visit more than 30 public and private education institutions, where they collected relevant information about innovative practices in the field of education.
Among the main aspects checked during the trip are: the notion, on the part of the governments of Australia and New Zealand, of the importance of education as a factor of national development; society’s commitment to education; the use of new technologies; multiculturalism and the respect towards differences; the exchange of knowledge, as well as social responsibility of the educational institutions; and the value given to students’ autonomy and creativity.

“Something that has been producing results is the investment in the preparation of, not only teachers, but principals and all who work at the school”, explains Ricardo. “There they talk a lot about the preparation for leadership. What is changing their education is that everyone is trained to have this view, and students are trained for more autonomy and to start having responsibility and positions of leadership from an early age”, he adds.
For Norma, the seriousness with which Australians and New Zealanders prioritize education is admirable. “They are extremely conscious of the importance of this subject”, she points out. “It is not just the government or people connected to the subject: all the population values education as a prime for national development.”

Maria da Conceição stresses the similarity between Australia and Brazil with reference to continental dimensions and number of inhabitants. “The fact that Australia’s territorial extension is as expressive as Brazil’s shows us that it is possible to offer quality education, despite the difficulties related to our geographic characteristics.”

Another point which stood out was that schools in Australia and New Zealand share knowledge, without considering the logic of competition. “They have a network in which they share the good things. If something works in one school, they transfer it to the others”, recollects Norma.

It is gratifying to see that a good part of the educational proposals and initiatives observed in schools in Australia and New Zealand are already part of the educational project of the International School of Alphaville. “We could see that it is possible to be a school which integrates differences, preserving our students’ multiculturalism and entrepreneurial spirit, because what is vanguard in education follows these principals”, ponders Maria da Conceição.
“We have many projects which will be implemented throughout this year with our students regarding leadership, internationalization, preparation of professionals and the use of new technologies”, concludes Ricardo.