Italy-Brazil: the first bilingual and bicultural state school

The Embassy of Italy in Brasilia and the Consulate General in Rio de Janeiro have achieved an important goal in recent months in terms of promoting and disseminating the Italian language.

The Education Secretariat of the State of Rio de Janeiro (SEEDUC) has, in fact, announced that it can provide the ‘Colegio Estatual Rodrigo Otavio Filho (CEROF)’ State School – chosen to launch a pilot project for a bicultural and bilingual school – with a suitable number of teachers specialized in teaching Italian.

As of this year, it will be possible to start teaching activities at the first bilingual and bicultural Italy-Brazil state school in the state of Rio, without the need to resort to ministerial contributions for teaching support.

The introduction of Italian into the curriculum of public schools in Brazil (where most Italian language courses privately run) is essential to foster interest in the study of this language and to guarantee continuity of teaching from primary and secondary school to university.

As highlighted by the report ‘L’italiano nel mondo che cambia 2019’ (Italian in the changing world 2019), Brazil is the eleventh country in the world in terms of the number of people studying Italian language and culture, with a total number of 40,445 enrolled in courses (including language assistantships, universities, schools belonging to the Italian education system in the world, local schools, Italian Cultural Institutes, managing bodies, Dante Alighieri societies and other contexts). The growth in the number of people enrolled in the courses of Italian Cultural Institutes, and of bodies and associations, is remarkable, as shown by the data in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Statistical Yearbook: from 24,856 (year 2018) to 81,195 (year 2020).