Our Story
The Victor Civita Foundation grants the Educador Nota 10 Prize to Instituto Somos and the two institutions co-organize the 25th edition | 2023
“For the Victor Civita Foundation, it is an immense joy to carry out the full transfer of the Educador Nota 10 Prize to the SOMOS Institute and to be at its side as co-organizers of the 25th edition”, says Victor Civita Neto, president of the Victor Civita Foundation. Continuing with our mission, and in accordance with the bylaws of Fundação Victor Civita, we will start to sponsor and support third-party projects related to Education. With this decision, we conclude the activity of organizing the Educador Nota 10 Prize, that we created in 1998, thanking everyone who was by our side, and with the certainty that this award will continue to support and value teachers in Brazil”, concludes Victor.
The ceremony of the 24th Educador Nota 10 Prize also received winners from the previous edition | 2022
In a face-to-face event at Sala São Paulo, on June 10, the 10 winners of the 24th edition of the Educador Nota 10 Prize, enrolled in 2021 and selected in 2022, were celebrated. Hosted by Sandra Annenberg and with a pocket show by Lenine, the ceremony was entitled to a speech by the Educator of the Year 2020, Luiz Felipe Lins, on behalf of the 10 winners of that edition. The big winner of the night, selected by the judges in 2022, was Natural Sciences teacher Linaldo Luiz de Oliveira, from Mogeiro, a small village in Paraíba, who merited the Educator of the Year Prize.
Educators from the 23rd edition in 2020, who due to the COVID pandemic had only been honored online, also came to receive their trophies.
On its 23rd edition, the Educador Nota 10 Prize is awarded online | 2020
The Educador Nota 10 Prize, the largest and most important recognition in basic education in Brazil, had its process completely online and a different award ceremony this year. Due to the social distance imposed by the new coronavirus pandemic, the traditional celebration of teachers and the announcement of the winner of the great prize for Educator of the Year and the popular vote #EsseProjetoé10 took place in a TV program, with multiplatform exhibition. On October 27, from 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm, the Award was broadcast live on Futura, on Futura Play and on
the channel’s profiles on YouTube and on Facebook.
Fundação Victor Civita and Varkey Foundation join forces to promote education | 2018
Renowned for their massive efforts to appreciate and acknowledge teachers in Brazil and around the world, the organizations come together to expand initiatives in this particular field.
Fundação Victor Civita and Varkey Foundation join forces to promote education in Brazil and around the world. The two organizations are working together to acknowledge the efforts of educators across various fields. In Brazil, that is precisely what Fundação Victor Civita has done for the past 20 years with Educador Nota 10 Prize – the largest and most prominent Brazilian Basic Education award and one of the most respected in Latin America. The Varkey Foundation created the Global Teacher Prize, a one million dollar global education award, given since 2015.
“Quality education is intrinsically associated to how much value is placed in the teaching profession, which is not amongst the most attractive for young professionals and widely unacknowledged by society. The partnership with Varkey helps us expand our scope, bringing even greater visibility to Brazilian educators, and reinforcing the importance of highly engaged, quality education,” said Victor Civita Neto, President of Fundação Victor Civita.
Popular Vote #EsseProjetoé10 | 2018
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The 2018 Edition of the Educador Nota 10 Prize allowed for public participation. The Fundação Victor Civita website featured short videos on the ten competing projects, where viewers could vote for the project they thought had the greatest impact. Teacher Ivonete Dezinho from Naviraí (MS) won over the Internet with the initiative “from father to son — an approach to teaching mathematics in the professions,” with close to 25% of the vote.
20th Educador Nota 10 Prize passes the 5,000 applicants mark | 2017
The 20th Edition of the Educador Nota 10 Prize received 5,006 applications, an all-time record in the award’s history, with a 20% increase in growth from 2016. São Paulo is the state with the highest participation (1,105 applicants), followed by Minas Gerais (561), Santa Catarina (440), Paraná (319), and Rio de Janeiro (279). An Abril initiative in partnership with Globo, the Fundação Victor Civita organization, and Fundação Roberto Marinho, the award is one of the most important in its area. Over the course of 20 years, it has received over 67,000 entries. The primary traits of its entrants are female public school teachers with graduate degrees. In 2017, there were 2,881 postgraduates versus 2,740 in 2016. New regulations this year allow for entries from projects developed at the high school level.
Educator of the Year is a finalist for the Global Teacher Prize | February 2017
The Educator of the Year for the 2016 Educador Nota 10 Prize, Wemerson da Silva Nogueira, age 26, is among the ten finalists for the Global Teacher Prize, an international award that elects the best teacher in the world. This year’s third edition of the award had 20,000 applicants from 179 different countries. When selecting the candidates, the Varkey Foundation, who organizes the award, and the committee that reviews the projects consider such aspects as the impact on the community where the teacher works, classroom innovation, and citizenship education. Wemerson, a science teacher at a public school in Espírito Santo, did a project with ninth graders that led them to the Rio Doce, where they analyzed elements found in the water after it was turned hazy by residue from the Samarco mining company dam – the largest environmental disaster the county has ever seen – and taught them about the periodic table in a practical way. The work also resulted in the students creating sand-based water filters, which they distributed to coastal communities.
NOVA ESCOLA and GESTÃO ESCOLAR are transferred to Fundação Lemann | 2016
Fundação Victor Civita announces the transfer of two of its titles to Fundação Lemann, beginning in 2016. The two organizations share the desire to give both publications more momentum, ensuring that they continue to grow and to keep teachers and administrators at the center of the debate on education. NOVA ESCOLA was a part of FVC for 30 years, and is considered a pioneering magazine in the area of Education, and a reference point for educators. Fundação Lemann has worked to substantially improve public education in Brazil since 2002, and has created the Associação Nova Escola (New School Association) to manage the initiatives of the NOVA ESCOLA and GESTÃO ESCOLAR titles.
Fundação Victor Civita, in turn, will devote its efforts to recognizing Brazilian educators through the Educador Nota 10 Prize.
Launch of NOVA ESCOLA CLUBE | 2015
On 09/16/15, Fundação Victor Civita launched the NOVA ESCOLA Clube. A website with all the best educational content for teacher and administrator training, interactive tools to make day-to-day life easier, and a professional social network for exchanging experiences with educators from all over Brazil. Optimized for your computer, tablet or smartphone, the site has a free area and an area for subscribers that contains unpublished, unique, interactive and multimedia content.
FVC reveals its new brand identity | 2015
To celebrate its 30th anniversary in September of this year, Fundação Victor Civita commissioned its new logo in 2014. The creation, done pro-bono by the global design and innovation company Dragon Rouge, was inspired by the dissemination and propagation of knowledge. The image depicts a delicate flower, the dandelion, spreading its seeds in order for new flowers to grow, just as FVC hopes to disseminate knowledge and continue to engage the public – the motivation behind all of its new changes and initiatives. Along with a new identity, FVC seeks to rise to meet a new challenge: “To build and disseminate knowledge, and to promote primary education practices to help educators meet the challenges of their time.”
Site encourages collaboration between educators | 2014
After 9 months of planning in 2014, FVC launched GENTE QUE EDUCA, a groundbreaking, exclusive website that is free for educators who want to exchange experiences and collaborate on professional development. The initiative was developed to encourage cooperation and dialogue between teachers, administrators, and coordinators from across Brazil. In addition to promoting interaction between Education professionals, GENTE QUE EDUCA offers other features, like a collaborative calendar of important dates and events, and the Superbusca da Educação (Education Super Search), a curated search engine. Educators can also participate in discussion boards and study groups led by several winners of the Educador Nota 10 Prize.
Book: The Teacher’s Day-to-Day | 2014
Fundação Victor Civita has released its first book in partnership with Editora Nova Fronteira. The publication, with the aid of NOVA ESCOLA, compiled tips and guidelines from various Education experts divided into chapters such as Planning, Classroom management and interaction, Inclusion, Review, Unruliness, and Bullying, among others. The book, titled “The Teacher’s Day-to-Day: how to prepare for the challenges of the classroom”, serves as a guide through different stages of the job, with easy to understand content, and clear and concise information. It was compiled based on material from NOVA ESCOLA magazine, which interviewed dozens of researchers, lecturers, teacher trainers and, of course, teachers in the field, from early childhood education to elementary school.
Fundação Roberto Marinho, Globo and Abril support the Educador Nota 10 Prize | 2014
In June, Globo and Abril announced their partnership on the Educador Nota 10 Prize. In an unprecedented initiative, Brazil’s two largest media groups have teamed up with their respective foundations, Fundação Roberto Marinho and Fundação Victor Civita. The alliance reaffirms their commitment to education, and expands the potential for mobilization of approximately 2 million public and private school educators.
Learn more from the Jornal Nacional report: Fundação Roberto Marinho establishes partnership on the Educador Nota 10 Prize: http://glo.bo/1uUsKsn.
GESTÃO ESCOLAR gets digital version and launches website | 2013
The first digital version of GESTÃO ESCOLAR (August/September 2013) highlighted the Connected School theme. The magazine, which can be read on computers or tablets, is full of bonus content and multimedia features, such as videos, animations, photo galleries, and quizzes. The GESTAOESCOLAR.ORG.BR website features content to help administrators manage administrative duties, their staff, their space, and the learning process, among others. School administrators, coordinators and counselors can find relevant material, such as time-tested examples of management strategies, institutional projects, scholarly articles and four blogs that collaborate to reflect on the day-to-day struggle of administrators.
Victor Civita assumes the Presidency of FVC | 2013
Following the death of his father, Victor Civita Neto takes over as President of Fundação Victor Civita, set on continuing their contributions to improving the Brazilian education system.
Roberto Civita dies | May, 2013
FVC’s president died on May 26, 2017, due to complications from treatment for an abdominal aneurysm, at the age of 76. Roberto, known as RC, was head of the April Group for almost 30 years. He lived and worked in support of the freedom of expression and editorial quality, and for the improvement of education which, for him, was essential to both the individual and the progress and development of the country. Head of Fundação Victor Civita since his father’s death in 1990, he won international recognition in 2011 with the Education Leadership Award, an award given by Worldfund to entrepreneurs who stand out for their contribution to Latin American education.
NOVA ESCOLA Online Math Classes | 2013
In the first half of 2013, FVC held the last three of its online pilot courses, a project to encourage reading with the support of the Itaú Social foundation. They simultaneously began online mathematics education pilot courses, with the support of Instituto Jaime Câmara and Fundação Bradesco. The pilot courses included 954 educators from 25 Brazilian States in 2013. In all, 52 municipalities were impacted by the online training.
NOVA ESCOLA magazine gets a digital monthly version | 2013
Educators were introduced to the digital edition of NOVA ESCOLA magazine in 2013, with interactive navigation and diverse bonus content and multimedia features including lesson plans, videos, photo galleries, and links to scholarly articles and supplementary texts. Versions of the publication optimized for computers and tablets can be found on Iba, Google Play, and at the Apple Store.
Victor Civita Educador Nota 10 Prize turns 15 | 2012
The Victor Civita Educador Nota 10 Prize celebrated its 15th anniversary in 2012. During that time, it has recognized more than 150 educators and given out around BRL 1.6 million in prizes. It holds the record for most entrants for an award in all of Latin America, with more than 46,000 participants throughout its history. In 2012, it received around 2,500 applications from across the country. The winners, 10 teachers and a principal, painted a portrait of Brazilian Education.
NOVA ESCOLA Online Reading Courses | 2012
In partnership with Fundação Itaú Social, FVC now offers distance training courses in order to provide in-depth knowledge in specialized subject areas for teachers, curriculum coordinators, principals, and teacher trainers in public and private schools. The courses are guided by experts and feature activities aimed at reflecting on the practice of teaching in early elementary school and early childhood education. The reading education section contains 7 courses for groups of up to 50 participants.
Launching the first digital editions | 2012
NOVA ESCOLA has released Grandes Pensadores (Great Thinkers), a reissue of the best-selling print issue, in digital format optimized for your computer or tablet, and the Guia de Tecnologia na Educação (Technology in Education Guide), in a digital and print edition. Aiming to paint a portrait of technology use and best practices for administrators and teachers, the guide also touches on the vision of students and offers suggestions on how to best utilize digital resources across various disciplines. The publication includes 22 testimonials from educators on successes in their classroom or in their school, opinions and tips from 20 experts, and suggestions for 40 free tools for any discipline.
FVC launches first online course | October 2009
With the success of the Matemática é D+! (Math is the Best!) program, Fundação Victor Civita opened their online training course program to elementary school teachers and curriculum coordinators interested in math education. The initiative is the result of a partnership between FVC (responsible for content production) and the Instituto Ayrton Senna’s already established distance learning technology.
GESTÃO ESCOLAR magazine launches | April 2009
Ever since its first edition, NOVA ESCOLA has included information on how to improve curriculum coordinator and school principal performance. However, there was a need for a publication dedicated solely to administrators, which regularly reported information useful to their everyday lives. To meet this need, Fundação Victor Civita launched GESTÃO ESCOLAR. The publication has already emerged as the second largest education magazine in the nation (NOVA ESCOLA is the first) and now helps those professionals improve the quality of their work, which is essential to improving the quality of teaching in Brazilian schools.
Creation of the Educational Studies and Research arm | 2009
Understanding the reality of Brazilian Education is the first step in transforming it. With that in mind, Fundação Victor Civita created an arm specially dedicated to research in that area. With the mission to investigate primary education’s largest issues, and conducted in partnership with institutions and researchers, the Educational Studies and Research arm aims to generate practical recommendations applicable to Brazilian schools and educational networks. The results of the investigations will be compiled into a book of academic articles about the studies, delivered free of charge to public universities.
The Studies and Research arm was terminated in 2016.
Launch of education radio reports | May 2008
In order to take informed discussion on issues related to teaching and learning to an even larger audience, as well as to broaden the debate on the state of education in the country, Fundação Victor Civita began two radio broadcasts. They are produced by the editorial staff of NOVA ESCOLA and GESTÃO ESCOLAR and aired daily on Radio Bandeirantes and on Tuesdays and Thursdays on Cultura Brasil and Cultura FM radio. The broadcasts are Momento da Educação (The Education Moment) on Rádio Cultura FM, and Educação em Pauta (Education on the Agenda) on Rádio Bandeirantes FM, and deliver education news and analysis.
Education Week | 2007
The list of good practices generated by the best Brazilian professors selected through the Victor Civita Prize has attained considerable reinforcement with the creation of Education Week. The annual event is open to the public and brought some of the foremost experts on education in the world to Brazil, such as Emilia Ferreiro and Delia Lerner. The goal was to further teacher education through presentations on news in each teaching discipline, discussion on school management topics, and presentation of research findings on the state of the country’s education system.
Profissão Professor program begins | February 2007
The Victor Civita Educador Nota 10 Prize, gathered extensive material on effective pedagogical practices, but there was a need to make more people aware of the work and inspire them to improve their own classrooms. That’s why Fundação Victor Civita, in partnership with TV Cultura, produced the Profissão Professor (Teaching Profession) series. The program outlined work done by winners of the award and was broadcast weekly on Saturday mornings by TV Cultura until 2010.
Letras de Luz (Letters of Light) project launch | 2007
A reading development project conducted with sponsorship from EDP Energias do Brasil, Letras de Luz (Letters of Light) lasted from 2007 until 2010. During its four-year tenure, 84 municipalities participated in the project and approximately 56,500 books were donated to public library and school collections. More than 480 reading workshops were held, along with about 850 theater performances. Approximately 6,000 people participated in the project directly and more than 550,000 benefited from the events.
Matemática é D+ project begins | October 2006
Two public schools named after Victor Civita, one in the São Paulo school district, and the other in Guarulhos, achieved disappointing results in Prova Brasil, the country’s main primary education assessment tool. Fundação Victor Civita understood that it needed to reciprocate the tribute the schools had paid to its founder with a training program to help administrators and teachers improve their methods and, consequently, their test scores. Thus, the Matemática é D+! (Math is the Best!) project was born to train teachers in math education. The content of the training was shared with a larger audience through reports, videos, materials, and special editions on the website and in the NOVA ESCOLA magazine. With that, thousands of teachers across the country were able to learn more about math teaching best practices.
Entorno project begins | February 2006
The Entorno (Surroundings) project was born with the objective to promote reading through educational and cultural events in Early Childhood Education and Elementary Schools in Freguesia do Ó and Butantã, led by Abril volunteers. Employees that volunteered to lead reading circles with students received training through lectures and workshops. Simultaneously, Fundação Victor Civita sponsored training for administrators in the 16 Freguesia do Ó and Butantã Regional Board of Education schools, which surround the Grupo Abril offices, and which received quality literary collections as well. The project reached more than 3,600 children In its 1st phase.
In 2010, given the impact of the Entorno project on participating schools, the Municipal Secretary of Education of São Paulo decided to expand the project, making it public policy. Training meetings promoted by Fundação Victor Civita are supported by the participation of the Local Trainer, Reading Room Advisor, and Supervisor of 13 Regional Boards of Education (DREs) of the city of São Paulo. They, in their own right, were made responsible for managing the schools in their respective regions. In two years, the reading projects were put into practice by teachers in around 900 schools.
Learn more about the project by watching the videos:
The Basic Teacher’s Craft Collection I | 2002
To help teachers get situated in an increasingly technological and complex universe, FVC has launched the collection titled “The Teacher’s Craft – Learn More to Teach More”, structured as a kind of distance learning course focused on the needs of early elementary school teachers. The purpose of the material was to improve teacher training, expand teacher knowledge, and develop a critical view on the controversial topics of our time. Consisting of a nine-volume boxed set and sold at cost in newsstands and bookstores, the collection was designed by leading Brazilian education experts.
With the success of “The Teacher’s Craft – Learn More to Teach More” for early elementary school teachers, Fundação Victor Civita resolved to create a new course in 2015, this time for middle school teachers (5th to 8th grade). Five volumes were prepared by a team of renowned specialists.
Good Teacher, Better Brazil Campaign | July 2001
The precarious state of Brazilian Education in the beginning of the 21st century led to an extremely negative view of the teaching profession. To help change that image, Fundação Victor Civita created the Good Teacher, Better Brazil campaign. The goal of the ads, which were published in major magazines across the country, was to help make the career attractive again. The features showed celebrities (like the presenters Jô Soares and Marilia Gabriela, and the actor Paulo Betti) next to those who taught them their greatest lessons. Filled with exciting testimonials, the campaign was very successful.
First edition of the Victor Civita Prize| October 1998
“Quality education is intrinsically linked to how much value is placed on the teaching profession, which the 1990s has shown is not amongst the most attractive for young professionals, and is widely unacknowledged by society. The Victor Civita – Professor Nota 10 Prize (which years later would become Educador Nota 10 and would include school administrators) was created to identify and recognize teachers who exercise exemplary practices in the classroom. These practices are later featured in the magazine and on the NOVA ESCOLA website, highlighting the best examples for the entire country. Today, the award is considered the highest celebration of Latin American education. Throughout its 17 years, more than USD 2.2 million in prizes have been distributed to 190 teachers.
NOVAESCOLA.ORG.BR debuts on the internet | March 1998
The internet was gaining traction in Brazil and the first computers were arriving in schools. NOVA ESCOLA launched a digital edition in tandem with that breakthrough. At novaescola.org.br, teachers had access to all printed magazine content, plus a space to discuss pedagogy. Over time, the site has grown to include videos, games, quizzes, infographics, and all kinds of multimedia content. It is now considered the largest pedagogy database in the country, gathering over 2000 lesson plans (from all areas and disciplines), in addition to thousands of articles and interviews.
Launch of VEJA na Sala de Aula | March 1998
Ever since the SALA DE AULA magazine ceased publication, high school teachers hadn’t been able to count on a tool to help them educate young people. An agreement between Fundação Victor Civita and VEJA magazine began to meet some of the demand for that information: VEJA Na Sala de Aula (VEJA in the Classroom) was born (an initiative that lasts until today, currently in an online version at http://www.vejanasaladeaula.com.br). A VEJA editorial announced: “The goal of the publication is to transform the news into teaching material, providing a new teaching and learning tool for thousands of students and teachers across the country.” Today, its lesson plans have received 1.5 million views on the NOVA ESCOLA site.
Victor Civita dies | August 1990
Victor Civita died of cardiac arrest on August 24, 1990 in São Paulo. In one of the notes he left his children regarding his posthumous wishes, he stated that all the money from his bank accounts, stocks, or personal assets should revert to the Foundation. The children, who already had companies of their own, wouldn’t receive a dime. “If you fail to live off the companies you have, then you don’t deserve them,” he decreed. His wife Sylvana made an addendum to that same text explaining that the order to allocate all personal assets to the Foundation included her jewelry.
Launch of SALA DE AULA magazine | April 1988
The success of NOVA ESCOLA with elementary school teachers led to the creation of a publication for the next step in education – high school. Thus, SALA DE AULA was born, a magazine intent on contributing to the transformations and innovations that, even at the time, were urgent at that level of schooling. Adversely affected by the economic crises under Collor, SALA DE AULA never made it: the last edition hit newsstands in December 1990. Eight years later, FVC would contemplate high school with another publication (Link to VEJA na Sala de Aula).
First NOVA ESCOLA educational poster | April 1987
Over a short period of time, NOVA ESCOLA arrived in most Brazilian cities and gained respect for its content. The Federal Government began to realize that the magazine was a great way to communicate with the Brazilian people, and that it was possible to reach a huge number of families. In 1987, a project in partnership with the Ministry of Health delivered more than 290,000 posters about the poisonous snakes of Brazil free of charge. In the magazine, a report showed teachers how to teach the topic to their students. The Ministry had been campaigning to reduce the number of deaths from venomous animals, and the project was a success. In the following years, more than 50 different posters were produced in partnership with other ministries and institutions, totaling more than 25 million printings. They addressed varied subjects, such as health, science, astronomy, cartography, and traffic.
Launch of NOVA ESCOLA magazine | March 1986
Victor dreamt for some time of creating a magazine that could reach every Brazilian teacher and that could help them teach. Editora Abril had tried to launch two titles with that same focus (Escola, in 1972, and Professora Querida, in 1983), but the publications operated at a loss and were terminated after a few editions. It was different with NOVA ESCOLA. In the launch issue, Victor Civita wrote an editorial about what inspired the publication: “To provide teachers with information necessary for their self-improvement; to appreciate them; to resurrect their prestige and position as leaders in the community; to integrate them into the processes of change occurring in the country; and to promote experience and knowledge exchange among all first-rate Brazilian teachers.” An agreement with the Ministry of Education allowed for the 220,000 public elementary schools that existed in the country at the time to receive editions of the magazine. The cover price – Cr$ 12,000, somewhere around 6 Brazilian reais, corrected for inflation – was its production cost, as it still is today.
Creation of Fundação Victor Civita | September 1985
Victor Civita was one of the country’s greatest entrepreneurs. Born in New York, USA to an Italian family, he founded the largest publishing group in Brazil, Editora Abril, in 1950. In 1985, at 78 years of age and already professionally successful, “Mr.” Victor, as he was known by his employees, wanted to somehow give everything he had achieved back to Brazilians. For him, “An educated people is a rich and a strong people, because they know how to produce and to prosper.” Moved by this mission and wanting to fight for a country where schools, good teachers, incentives to the teaching career, and educational support materials weren’t hard to come by, the entrepreneur decided to create a private foundation for the public good, focused on improving education. Thus, Fundação Victor Civita was born, a non-profit entity maintained by the Civita family.