São Paulo Teachers Take Part in Educational Exchange in Braga, Portugal

The international mission fostered an exchange of experience on literacy, teacher training and educational practice, and introduced São Paulo school professionals to different learning spaces in the Portuguese city.

Teachers from São Paulo’s municipal school system took part this October in the São Paulo–Braga International Technical Mission in Portugal. The initiative, carried out by the city’s Department of Education (SME) together with the Department of International Relations (SMRI), focused on exchanging experience in literacy, on professional training and on strengthening educational cooperation between the two cities. According to SME, the program in Braga ran from October 13 to 23, and OnTheNet reported the group’s departure on October 6.

The mission is part of the city’s international cooperation strategy and was designed to bring local governments closer, share experience and help improve public literacy policy and the recognition of school-system professionals. According to SME, it is the first mission of its kind. Braga was chosen because it shares the Portuguese language with São Paulo and belongs to the Educating Cities movement.

Who took part

The São Paulo delegation had ten public servants: eight teachers from the municipal school system and two SME representatives. They work in classrooms, in pedagogical coordination, in teacher training and in designing and implementing the department’s policies, in different parts of the city.

The selection used objective criteria tied to professional work and to literacy results at each school: five teachers were chosen based on their schools’ results in the 2025 Literate Child Indicator (ICA), and three for their full participation in SME’s Literacy Working Group.

The program in Braga

During the mission, the group took part in technical visits and exchanges with educational, academic, scientific and cultural institutions. The experiences included:

• an institutional reception at Braga City Hall;
• Braga’s Quinta Pedagógica;
• the Calouste Gulbenkian Conservatory;
• the University of Minho;
• the Lúcio Craveiro da Silva Library;
• the Planetarium and Science House;
• the Escola de Ponte Pedrinha, where the teachers learned about the Fonologia em Ação project, related to learning in the literacy process.

At the University of Minho, the educators learned about initial teacher training in Portugal and discussed the paths to becoming a teacher. At the Lúcio Craveiro da Silva Library, the focus was on reading-promotion initiatives and on how a city’s cultural venues relate to the development of readers.

The city as a place to learn

The program went beyond schools. The group toured historical, scientific and cultural sites in Braga, such as the Fonte do Ídolo, the Roman Baths, the Biscainhos Museum, Bom Jesus do Monte and the Sameiro Sanctuary, and took a Portuguese tile-painting workshop. There were also cultural immersion activities in Porto, including the Bolhão Market and São Bento Station, and in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, with a visit to the historic center and its heritage.

These routes broadened the learning experience by letting the educators see how heritage, memory, science, culture and public spaces can also create learning opportunities. The experience reflects the Educating Cities approach and the idea that education builds lasting ties between school, territory and city life.

The mission was also guided by reciprocity: it included sharing with local partners the policies, practices, results and challenges of São Paulo’s municipal school system.

Context: literacy in the capital

In announcing the mission, SME recalled that the city’s school system received the Gold Seal of the National Literate Child Commitment, from the federal Ministry of Education, in 2024 and 2025. According to the department, 53% of children were literate in 2025, versus 48.25% in 2024 and 38% in 2023. The figures come from the city government.

What comes next

With the return to Brazil, the lessons enter a new stage. The plan is for what the educators learned and experienced to be organized and shared with other professionals in the school system, in training sessions and pedagogical workspaces, extending the reach of the initiative and supporting SME’s literacy work. The department also plans to produce a record of the mission and expects its partnership with SMRI to lead to further educational missions.

More than learning about other practices, the São Paulo–Braga Mission let the participants try out different ways of thinking about learning, teacher training and the relationship between education and the city, turning the international experience into material for strengthening public education in São Paulo.

Information from São Paulo’s Municipal Department of Education, current as of October 24, 2026. Official source (in Portuguese): SME promove Missão Técnica Internacional entre São Paulo e Braga.