Education in Brazil

Education in Brazil: The Brazilian educational system includes both public (federal, state and municipal) and private institutions, ranging from pre-school, elementary (First Degree - I Grau) and secondary (Second Degree - II Grau), to university and post-graduate levels.

Education in Brazil is compulsory for ages 7 through to 14. Public education is free at all levels. Non-profit private schools are also eligible to receive public funding.

The 1988 Brazilian Constitution allocates 25 percent of state and local tax revenues to education. Significant advances have been made in the structure of education in Brazil in the last 25 years.

In 1964, there were ten million students attending school at all levels. In 1990, there were 37.6 million students: 3.9 million in pre-school, 28.2 million at the elementary level, 3.8 million at the secondary and 1.7 million at university.

By 2000, as a result of the Real Plan, 97% of eligible children were attending school. Measures include subsidies to more than 850,000 poorer families to encourage 1.7 million children to stay at school rather than go out to work.

The government in 2001 distributed over 110 million schoolbooks, including 20 million dictionaries.

Malnutrition of school age children was a major problem that limited educational progress, so in 2001 about 38 million students receive subsidised school lunches.

Schools with limited facilities are supported by a TV School programme in which 27 million students --and one million teachers-- in more than 60,000 schools benefit from specialist TV programmes.

The Ministry of Education has ultimate control over virtually all of higher education. Its principal standard-setting agency is the Federal Council of Education.

The Federal Government maintains at least one Federal university in each state. Due to the great demand for higher education and the lack of places, colleges (faculdades) and universities in Brazil, both public and private, require an entrance exam (vestibular).

Upon completion of a full academic course of study, university students may obtain the Bachelor's Degree (Bacharelado) and may also have an additional year's teacher training (Licenciatura).

Twenty years ago there were few post-graduate course in Brazil. In 1989 there was a total of 902 tertiary institutions, including 93 universities. More than 1,000 post-graduate courses are available, most of which benefit from highly proficient faculties, on a par with similar institutions in the more advanced countries.

Now, the number of Doctoral degrees awarded from Brazilian universities is similar to countries such as the Republic of Korea, China, Italy and Canada. Brazilian scientists have become one of the most prolific groups to publish articles in some fields.