São Paulo – The city of Campinas, 83 km away from São Paulo, will be home to the first South American unit of Lebanon’s Sabis Educational Systems school network. The project should see USD 30 million in investment and create 150 direct jobs, among teachers and staff. The venture was announced during a ceremony last Friday (16th) at the Campinas City Hall.
“Talks were ongoing for two years. Sabis’ directors visited us to see the city’s potential, and we showed them the importance of entering Brazil via Campinas. They wanted to buy a 30,000 to 40,000 m2 plot and wound up buying a 330,000 m2 one,” Samuel Rossilho, the Economy, Social Development and Tourism secretary of Campinas, explained to ANBA over the phone.
Rossilho said the tract of land the Lebanese group has bought is set in one of five local technology parks, next to the Campinas University (Unicamp). “They will be at the heart of knowledge in Campinas. It will be a bilingual school covering from preschool to high school. And they plan on becoming a college in the future,” he revealed.
The initial plan provides for a 25,000 m2 built area with room for expansion, including the building of dorms for students and teachers and a green area.
The contents taught to students at the Sabis school in Campinas will follow the curriculum set by the Brazilian Ministry of Education (MEC). Classes will be taught in Portuguese and English, and the students will use the Lebanese group’s books. According to Rossilho, construction is expected to begin in the first half of 2016 and the school should be open in 2018.
The unit should begin with 800 students and eventually expand to 5,000. “Campinas is a very interesting city for a school of this level,” Rossilho mused. He said the city is home to major multinational corporations, and the Lebanese group will cater to a demand for bilingual teaching for the children of these corporate professionals.
According to the secretary, unlike most bilingual schools in Brazil, which are often very expensive, Sabis sets out to offer this type of education at a more affordable price point. “It is a high-level project, one with a much lower cost than other schools of this type in this region and in the [rest of the] state of São Paulo,” he remarked.
New projects
During the conversation with ANBA, Rossilho stressed that Campinas is intent on embarking in new projects with the Arab countries. “The coming of Sabis will get us in touch with the Arab world, and we are greatly interested in this,” he said.
“We are in talks with an enterprise from the Dubai government and the prospects are good. It’s a very interesting project,” the secretary said. He declined to provide any details, but said the focus is on entertainment.
According to Rossilho, Kabalan Frangie, consul of Lebanon in São Paulo, “has been a great partner” of the Campinas City Hall. “We wants to create agreements with the Arab World, especially in research and development,” emphasized the secretary.
Rossilho and Frangie attended the ceremony of the announcement of Sabis’ project in Campinas. Also in attendance were Jonas Donizette (affiliated with political party PSB), mayor of Campinas; Carl Bistany, president of Sabis Network; Solange Pelicer, Campinas’s secretary of Education, and Ermínio Lucci, director of Investments of Investe São Paulo, the agency for investment promotion of the state of São Paulo.
Sabis Network
Sabis was founded in 1886, but it was only after 1970 that the school started its expansion program outside of Lebanon. Currently, it’s operating in 18 nations, the majority of them in the Middle East. Among the countries outside the Arab World that host branches of the school are the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Romania.
Besides the branch in Campinas, Sabis is planning to build more schools in Brazil and also in other countries of Latin America.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum & Sérgio Kakitani
