Izolda Cela
Izolda Cela is an educator and public manager with a distinguished career in education policy. She is currently a professor at the State University of Vale do Acaraú (UVA) and a member of the Education Observatory. She served as Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Education (2023–2024), contributing to the design and implementation of key programs for basic education. She held the positions of Governor (2022) and Vice-Governor of Ceará (2015–2022), with a strong focus on education and violence prevention. As State Secretary of Education of Ceará (2007–2014), she led transformative initiatives such as the Literacy at the Right Age Program (PAIC) and the creation of the State Network of Vocational High Schools. Earlier, she was Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Education in Sobral, where she helped implement public policies centered on learning outcomes and effective school management. She began her academic career at UVA in 1995, with experience in teacher education programs.
About the presentation
The presentation has as its backdrop the educational reform process initiated in the Municipality of Sobral-CE in 2001, and later extended to the other 183 municipalities in Ceará through a collaborative regime coordinated by the state secretariat from 2007 onwards. A reform process that has proven to be powerful in transforming learning outcomes, initially focused on literacy success.
The central idea of this presentation is to address strategic and structural aspects necessary to achieve results on a large scale, and with equity, in contexts of weak institutionalization and inefficiency.
The work in Sobral and Ceará has continued over the years, with the progressive expansion of goals and the increase in processes and structures. Despite its prominent position, especially when compared to its peers, but also in the Brazilian context, there is no comfort zone regarding the goals that still need to be achieved. The challenges are robust so that learning rights can be realized in classrooms that are equitably fair and democratic.
Reading
Cruz, M. do C. M. T., Farah, M. F. S. e Ribeiro, V. M. (2020) “Estratégias de Gestão da Educação e equidade: o caso do Programa Aprendizagem na Idade certa (mais PAIC)”, Revista on line de Política e Gestão Educacional. Araraquara, 24(3), p. 1286–1311. doi: 10.22633/rpge.v24i3.13904.
