The LEGO Foundation is partnering with the Lemann Foundation to make education in Brazil more equitable.

The Brazilian non-profit org was awarded a nearly US$4-million grant as part of LEGO’s Tech & Play Initiative. With this funding, the Lemann Foundation plans to implement a four-year Creative Schools Program through its Brazilian Creative Learning Network. The initiative—which will reach more than 500,000 students in the region—is designed to provide hands-on educational opportunities with a focus on technology and play.

MIT’s Lifelong Kindergarten group, the Tinkering Studio at the Exploratorium Museum, and the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach at Tufts University all had a hand in developing the Creative Schools Program as partners.

This latest grant news comes just days after The LEGO Foundation announced a partnership with the Scratch Foundation to provide resources for its online learning community. The initiative will see US$10 million in funding contributed to new digital tools, activities and educational materials for the creative coding platform to serve communities in Mexico, South Africa, Ukraine, Brazil, Colombia, Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda.

The LEGO Foundation’s ongoing efforts to make virtual learning more accessible to teachers and students globally is part of a larger industry focus on equitable education. A recent study from Common Sense Media and Boston Consulting found that nearly 16 million kids in the US alone lacked a way of logging into online classes. This education gap is of particular concern because pandemic-related lockdowns mean at-home learning is likely to continue for much of 2021.