Jair Ribeiro is the Founder and President of Parceiros da Educação (Partners in Education), an NGO with the vision of transforming the São Paulo public educational system into the best of Latin America by 2040. He is also the Founder and President of Casa do Saber, a streaming online platform with over 300 courses in humanities, such as philosophy, psychology, arts, literature and history.

After a successful career in finance, technology and international commerce, Ribeiro has dedicated his work to transforming education in the state of São Paulo. Reforming public education in Brazil poses a huge challenge, as the country ranked among the lowest in the OECD’s PISA, and São Paulo, Brazil’s most populous state, has a student population as large as leading economies such as France and the UK.

Ribeiro founded Parceiros da Educação in 2004, which began by adopting one single public school in São Paulo’s most vulnerable neighbourhood. Over the years, he has led a team of specialists that developed Parceiros unique methodology, growing from that initial school to over 730 public schools directly impacting the lives of over 400,000 students.

The partnering process involves developing and supporting the implementation of a strategic multi-year plan for the school, or school district, focusing on four pillars: management, pedagogical initiatives, infrastructure and community integration.

In addition to partnering directly with these schools, Ribeiro has personally coordinated Parceiros’ efforts to impact the state’s educational policies since 2011, when he was appointed to the Department of Education’s Management Committee. He was also appointed to the State’s Board of Education.

On average, public schools under the Parceiros’ programme have improved their
educational indices by 33-54% throughout the first four years of the partnership. This implies an additional two years of schooling for the students when compared to their peer group in similar public schools. Ninety percent of second grade (7-8 years old) students from partner municipalities have been qualified as literates in Parceiros evaluation by the end of 2023. The state average is around 41%.

A natural leader, Ribeiro has gained support from leading organisations such as the Lemann Foundation, ItauSocial, Bradesco Foundation and Instituto Natura, building with them a Coalition for São Paulo’s Education to transform São Paulo’s public educational system into the best of Latin America by 2040.

Another example of Ribeiro’s leadership was the development and co implementation of the Pact for Racial Equity in Brazil, which created a new guideline for racial ESG practices in Brazil. The new protocol calls for the companies to adopt specific affirmative actions and social investments focused on improving the quality of the Brazilian public educational system. This new ESG protocol was ratified by many organisations such as the Brazilian Stock Exchange (B3), the Association of Investment Banks (AMBIMA), and UN Global Pact, as well as the most relevant black movement organisations.