Brazil's first Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in the area of Education between Odebrecht and the Belo Horizonte City Government has been amended.

The Educar Consortium, led by Odebrecht, a leading Brazilian construction company, won the 20-year concession to construct primary schools and preschool facilities on July 2012. The concession contract was signed on 25 July 2012.

IFC, which recommended that the municipality enter into a PPP, acted as the lead advisor.

The partnership that initially included the construction and operation of non-educational services from 37 schools has been increased to 51. The total investment for the initial contract was US95 million and it was designed to serve some 18,000 students from the Minas Gerais capital. With the amendment in the contract, this figure increases to 25,000.

In all, 46 Children's Education Municipal Units (UMEIs) and five Municipal Elementary Schools (EMEFs) will be built. The new schools are being built by Odebrecht Infrastructure using the same architectural model that was used for the project's other 37 UMEIs. There are 1,100m² of built-up area, with classrooms, a kitchen, cafeteria, library, multi-use room, nursery area and diaper changing area.

The operation of all the PPP schools remains under the responsibility of Odebrecht Properties, which offers administrative services such as reception personnel, cleaning, gardening, laundry service and maintenance. The teachers and educational monitoring, as well as the cafeterias in the schools, continue to fall under the responsibility of the Belo Horizonte City Government and the Municipal Department of Education.

It is the goal of the country's National Education Plan (PNE) to universalize the offer of openings for 4th and 5th grade students by 2016.

Until the present moment, the consortium has already delivered 14 schools to the city of Belo Horizonte. Christini Kubo, Investment Director at Inova BH, explained that, in addition to offering a high number of openings at schools in record time at very high quality installations, the PPP allows the school administrators to dedicate themselves exclusively to educational issues, without needing to worry about administrative ones.