Number 28 - A visit to a CIEP.

Ever since the first time I set foot in Brazil I have been fascinated by the CIEP"s. These schools were built while Leonel Brizola was Governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro - from 1983-1987 and 1991 - 1994. Based on a project by the anthropologist Darcy Ribeiro the aim was to provide public all- day schools with quality education, meals and extra activities like sports and art. CIEP is short for Centros Integrados de Educação Publica - Integrated Centers for Public Education.

The schools were designed by Oscar Niemeyer, the Brazilian star architect, and were conceived as simple building kits made of concrete. The schools therefore look more or less the same, and the state of Rio de Janeiro built about 500 of them.  Many of them were built in very poor areas, and they are with their special design easy to spot.

Through work I finally got a chance to visit one, and it was a great experience. The CIEP we visited is located in São Gonçalo, about an hour's drive from Rio de Janeiro, it is called CIEP 412 Dr. Zerbini.

We visited the school as part of an educational program linked to the Rio 2016 Olympics. This CIEP has got a "sister school" in Norway, and we were surprised to find the whole school decorated with Brazilian and Norwegian flags.

We were received by the school staff and all the students, and they proudly showed us around their school:

The computer lab.

The sports hall.

The library - which was in a separate building and really nice.

And a typical classroom with students that seemed to really enjoy meeting the strange foreigners!

We also got to visit an art class, and what were they working on? A Frida Kahlo project!

I told the students that Frida Kahlo is one of my favorite artists and mentioned that I had just visited the exhibition in Rio de Janeiro. At the end of the visit I got a wonderful surprise gift; an artwork made by one of the students with Frida Kahlo and the Brazilian and Norwegian flag!

For me it had been a very special day. I was happy to see that the school, even if now almost 30 years old, was in good conditions, and I was happy to see how proud the teachers and the students were of their school. The project was abandoned in Brazil, but I still think it was a brilliant program, designed to get the kids off the streets and give them a good basic education.If you want to read more, here is a link to an interesting article from the Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2013/mar/15/flatpack-flexible-oscar-niemeyer-schools

And with this I say: Happy Easter to all!