Gulbenkian bets on the formation of children. “It seems that the world disappears”

O finnish conductor Hannu Lintu guides the regular rehearsal of the Gulbenkian Orchestra to a hundred children and young people, students from 5th to 12th years in schools in the region of Tâmega and Sousa.

“ It seems that the world for them disappears when they are playing ", says Luana, who, at the age of 13, feeds the dream of playing the violin.

It is the first time of Luana – and of all others – at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, which marks 70 years this year and is, since February, supporting 150 students from schools of Tâmega and Sousa in the disciplines of English and Mathematics, making available mentors in establishments to work learning strategies.

The six extra hours of classes offered by the “Gulbenkian Learning” initiative have helped Luana, a 7th year student in a Penafiel school, especially in the mathematical reasoning and pronunciation and grammar of English.

Also a student of the program, which aims to promote equal opportunities in access to education, Leonardo, 16 years old, had never seen a live orchestra, but was more fascinated by the Centro de Ciência Viva that they visited, within the holiday camp that took them to Lisbon for a week – a debut in the capital for much of the group.

A 10th year student in Felgueiras has already managed to “go up again” the English note, discipline to which he has “many difficulties”, and mentoring is also helping him to decide which course to follow further.

But the goal of the initiative is not only to help with grades — it is also to provide other experiences.

“ We very much want to get them to meet new people, new cities”, says Gonçalo Aires, coordinator of “Gulbenkian Learning”, telling Lusa that one of the young people of the group who accompanied Lisbon, resident in Baião, the hour and a half of Porto, has just seen the sea for the first time.

“ Our commitment to the territory is to accompany these young people from the moment they start the initiative until the end of the 12th year”, he explains. In other words, whoever starts at 5 will continue for the next eight years, until they finish compulsory schooling.

“ These students were chosen by the schools because they are students who have the ability and the potential to learn much more,” said Pedro Cunha, author and manager of the “Gulbenkian Learning” program.

It is in the area of Tâmega and Sousa that is the largest concentration of students benefiting from school social action, points out, adding that 85% of the young people who visited Gulbenkian for days “live in families whose annual income is less than seven thousand euros”.

Low economic resources result in low social, cultural and educational resources, which are likely to complete higher education by 10%, when it increases to 76% in families without these limitations. This gap in inequality in the completion of higher education in Portugal is among the highest in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

“The school course of these students continues to depend on the conditions and resources of the families” and, “if nothing is done, 90% of these students will not even complete higher education, despite being students full of potential”, says Pedro Cunha.

Portugal — stresses — “it is still a country marked by inequalities” and Gulbenkian “has been making a continued effort to impact the entire national territory.”.

The approach adopted in this pilot initiative is based on an “integrated, systematic and very intensive intervention”.

“ Our idea is that this intervention can support multiple replications, in many other areas of the country that also need a lot, where there are many young people and children who, in fact, when they enter school tomorrow, do not have the same opportunities as others,” notes the initiative, without moving forward with future geographies.

However, Gulbenkian also provides support nearby in peripheral neighborhoods of Greater Lisbon.

At Zambujal’s “Gulbenkian Study Centre” (Amadora), 11-year-old Nicole and 12-year-old Kevin prepare a study visit to Madrid, a prize for school results.

“ The tutors began to give more techniques, began to explain better, I began to understand better the subjects and started to have more results and better ", says Nicole.

Kevin also improved “everything”, in the case Portuguese, English and Mathematics, the disciplines for which they receive extra explanations at the study center: “They give us chips to make and, if we miss, [is] to do it again [...]. For me, error is more important than hitting the first one.”

Inês, 17, is finishing a professional course, but wants to go to college and study psychology.

He felt “a great support” to consolidate the material for the 12th grade exams. “It helps us a lot to take away doubts and complement our knowledge,” she describes, praising the flexibility of the study center and being able to mark explanations directly with teachers, who, in addition, brought her “things” she would never seek, because she did not even know.

Pilot project that started in November, the Gulbenkian Study Centres chose three neighborhoods of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area: Zambujal, Padre Cruz (Freguesia de Carnide, outside the city center of Lisbon) and Vale da Amoreira (Moita, already in the district of Setúbal).

In the case of Zambujal — the neighborhood that has been on the news since the murder of a resident of Zambujal, the Cape Verdean Odair Moniz, by a police officer in October 2024 — Gulbenkian challenged CooperActiva to “frame” the study center.

“ Looks like all the people who live here are bad people, huh? And I think that this Gulbenkian Study Center has shown a little the opposite, because it has also allowed a lot of news and give a very positive image of those who live here, and especially of children and young people”, says Ana Paula Silva, a social worker with 30 years of work in the neighborhood.

Focused on promoting school success, CooperActiva ensures the Gulbenkian project, which covers 30 children and young people, betting on transition cycles (4th, 6, 9th, 11th and 12th years).

But the support goes beyond the school year, ending: “It was very important to maintain some routine, especially because in terms of offering what these children and young people have is little.”

Thus, the explanations remain, although “a little lighter” and “in a more pedagogical way”, but whenever possible to “consolidate and work content”.

They chose to make a magazine, which will have content in Portuguese, English and mathematics, and will also have radio and photography laboratories and sessions in a dance school, which will allow them “to have a more diverse contact with the issue of culture, with the question of artistic expression, [...] with activities outside their routine”.

Students from the three Gulbenkian Study Centres will visit Madrid in July, “a prize for the effort they have made during the year”.

At the end of a session oriented to set some rules and anticipate scenarios, Ana Paula Silva recalls: “They are young people who almost none of them left Portugal. They also don’t have much experience of getting out of the neighborhood.”