The National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), the Ministry of Education (MEC) and the Ministry of Communications (MCom) launched the second public selection of the Fust Escolas Conectadas program. THE notice allocates R$ 53.3 million in non-refundable resources to bring high-speed internet to 1,258 public schools in the North and Northeast. 
The forecast is to benefit around 410 thousand students with connectivity for pedagogical use.
The program’s two selections, with the new investment, will reach almost 1 million students. The first, launched in 2023, provided R$60 million to connect 1,500 schools, of which 824 already have infrastructure installed.
The initiative is part of the National Strategy for Connected Schools (Enec), which combines infrastructure expansion, contracting of services and continuous quality monitoring. The guidelines of the notice were defined by MCom, MEC and Casa Civil, and approved by the Fust Management Council.
“With this second selection of projects, BNDES continues to expand the reach of Fust in regions with the worst connectivity indicators”, said the president of BNDES, Aloizio Mercadante.
The notice provides for the installation of complete infrastructure — internal and external networks, cabling, switches, routers and Wi-Fi — in addition to connection service for 24 months and full maintenance. The selected schools are in areas with the presence of fiber optics, but still without adequate connectivity for pedagogical purposes.
“This second notice is another fundamental step towards achieving, by the end of next year, our goal of bringing significant connectivity to the classrooms of all schools in the country”, said the Minister of Communications, Frederico de Siqueira Filho.
There will be 392 schools connected in Pará (Lot A), 368 in Maranhão and Ceará (Lot B) and 498 in Pernambuco and Bahia (Lot C). The schedule establishes that 15% of the units are connected within three months after signing the contracts; 50% in six months; and 100% — all 1,258 — in a maximum of nine months.
“Adequate internet in the classroom is a condition for all students to have the same opportunities to learn and develop. With this new notice, we advance in the government’s integrated action to bring quality infrastructure to schools that need it most, especially in the North and Northeast”, said the Minister of Education, Camilo Santana.
BNDES will be responsible for selecting proposals and monitoring deliveries. Three telecommunications providers will be chosen to connect schools, and a fourth will be chosen to monitor the speed, quality and availability of connections in real time, through a national platform.
The first public selection, with R$60 million, included 529 schools in Amapá and Pará, 633 in Acre and Amazonas and 341 in Bahia, Maranhão and Paraíba. The contractors were selected at the end of 2023, and 772 schools have already received connectivity infrastructure.
Fust, administered by MCom, aims to expand telecommunications networks and services, reduce regional inequalities and stimulate connectivity technologies aimed at economic and social development. BNDES acts as the financial agent and is responsible for executing and supervising projects.
