The Brazilian Educational System: A recent overview

Rogério Carlos Novais

Vice Director/ Associate Professor

Faculdade de Formação de Professores (Teachers College)

Rio de Janeiro State University

Brazil: General data

-Largest country in both South America and the Latin American region. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population.

-The Brazilian economy is the world's seventh largest by nominal GDP (gross domestic product) as of 2012. A member of the BRIC group, Brazil has one of the world's fastest growing major economies.

The spoken Language is portuguese and Brazil’s capital is Brasília.

Brazil: General data

Tropical climate in

Fernando de Noronha. Snow in Caxias do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul.

The population of Brazil, as recorded by the 2010, was approximately 190 million (PNAD – National Research by Household Sample)

83.75% of the population defined as urban. The population is heavily concentrated in the Southeastern (79.8 million inhabitants) and Northeastern (53.5 million inhabitants) regions.

48.43% of the population (about 92 million) described themselves as caucasian; 43.80% (about 83 million) as mulatto, 6.84% (about 13 million) as black; 0,28% as amerindian

Brazil has the world's largest Catholic population. 73.57% of the population followed Catholicism. Minimum wage: 724,00 reais

What else? of course!

What else? Of course...

Literacy amongst Brazilians over the age of 15 is 91.3% (Source:

IBGE* 2012).

However, the number of unlettered is still high, specially in poor areas of the country: 13.163 millions, although in 20 years illiteracy has decreased from 17,2% to 8.7%. However, functional illiteracy has reached 18.3% of the population(2012). Illiteracy rate among the youth is only 1.74% . ( Source: IBGE 2012).

IBGE: Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics

And, of course a huge problem (still): Illiteracy and functional Illiteracy

The law of guidelines and basis of education

The Law of Guidelines and Basis of Education (LDB) defines and regulates the Brazilian educational system based on the principles laid down in the Constitution.

The first LDB was created in 1961, followed by a version in 1971, which lasted until the enactment of the most recent version in 1996.

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(Middle school)

The responsibility for public education is primarily, divided as follows:

a) Primary education (Fundamental school): the states and the municipalities; comprising the first 9 years

b) Secondary education (Middle school) : the states; 10th to 12th years.

c) technical, technological and higher education: the Union and the states.

Structure of Brazilian public education: Sharing responsibilities:

All three levels of government (municipal, state and federal) are involved in the financing and provisions of all levels of public education.

Financing education

Pre-school FE (1-5th grade)

FE (6th-9th) Secondary school

Total

% of GDP 0.4% 1.6% 1.5% 0.8% 4.3%

Source: INEP/Ministery of Education (2012)

Overview of the Basic Education- Size (2012)

Age 0-3 4-6 7-14 15-17 Total

Scholl-age population

10.925.893 8.696.672 26.309.730 10.357.874 45.364.276

level Nursery Education

Pre-school Fundamental school

Middle school

enrollment 2.298.707 4.681.345 30.358.640 8.400.689 45.739.381

% enrollment/ population

21.0% 53.8% 115.4% 81.1%

Distortion age/grade

16.6%-28.2% 31.1%

Total of School-age population: 23.8%

2012 FS – early years FS- final years Middle school

approbation 91.7% 84.1% 78.7%

reprobation 6.9% 11.8% 12.2%

abandonment 1.4% 4.1% 9.1%

Performance (Basic Education)

Enrollments per decade

Pre-school Fundamental school Middle school Higher school

Overview of the Brazilian Educational System (Basic Education) - Inside the Classroom

Nursery education

Pre school Fundamental school (1st-5th)

Fundamental school (6th-9th)

Secondary school (middle school)

Average class size

15.1 17.9 21.7 27.7 31.4

Average class hours

7.9 4.8 4.4 4.6 4.7

Source: MEC/INEP; www.todospelaeducacao.org.br

Average schooling (2011): 7.4 years

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Enrollments in Brazilian Universities - Comparison with other countries

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Enrollments in private x public Universities

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Higher Education - Statistic Data

institutions Courses Enrollments Others Graduates Teachers Post Graduate enrollments

Public Basic Data | | Private

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The 2010 School Census shows that Brazil had 51.5 million students enrolled in public and private basic education - kindergarten, pre-school, basic and higher education.

Of the 51.5 million, 43.9 million are studying in public networks (85.4%) and 7.5 million in private schools (14.6%).

However, according to “Folha de São Paulo” on 2011, the public system shrank 6% and the private sector expanded 18%. This is due to the improvement in income social classes C and D of the country.

Public x private education (Basic Education)

School Performance in International Evaluations: OECD*'s PISA

2012(Programme for international student assessment)

*Organisation for economic co-operation

and development

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Maths Reading Science

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While Brazil performs below the average its mean performance in Mathematics has improved since 2003 making Brazil the country with the largest performance gains since

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Public Investment in Education in the world - % of GDP

Investment per student in US$ (OECD data)

What could explain these results?

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⬇ #

#

# #

North and Northeastern States excepting #

PISA´s average score by State

Maths Reading Science

Regional inequalities What could explain these results?

What could explain these results? Distortion between private and public systems

PISA 2012: Conclusions from Brazil' s results

- Brazil: below the OECD average, however with best performance gains since 2003.

- Low performers in Maths, Reading and Science: 67.1%, 55.8%,61.0% respectively.

- Top performers: 1.1%, 0.5%, 0.3% respectively.

- Among the 25% of richer students and among the 25% of poorer students, the average score is still below when compared to OECD average in these groups. However there are visible scores differences between public and private systems.

However: - Over the decade Brazil has expanded enrollment adding 425.000 of 15 years old population at grade 7.

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Some good news from PISA 2012 (If there are any...)

85% of students reported that they feel happy at school.

73% agreed that they are interested in things they learn at school.

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So, what should we do? (Tasks for the future)

- Increase the enrollments, avoid the school dropout wih government policies.

- Ensure that 10% of GPD is applied to basic education. Ensure a better application of the resources.

- Pay better salaries to the teachers in order to encouraging them, to promote refresher courses to the teachers. " one teacher= one school= one subject"

- Free education to all; children must be at school for two shifts.

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" I have failed in everything I tried in life. I tried to alphabetize the Brazilian children and could not. I tried to save the Indians and could not. I tried to make a serious university and failed. I tried to make Brazil to develop autonomously and failed. But the failures are my victories. I'd hate to be in the place of those who have beaten me " Darcy Ribeiro

Thanks!

See you in Rio!

World Cup 2014

Olympic games 2016

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