Education in Brazil is broken up into three levels, with several grades in each division. The first education level is Fundamental Education and is free for everyone and mandatory for children between the ages of six and fourteen. Fundamental education is from pre-school until middle school and its primary aim is to raise literacy rates in the early years and prepare the students for Secondary education at the latter years of Fundamental education. Secondary education is the equivalent of high school with requirements of only three years, however it is not mandatory. Secondary education is mandatory for those wishing to pursue Higher Education. Higher education in Brazil, like many other
countries, can be broken into undergraduate and graduate work.
Although Brazil has set infrastructure, it is very non-effecient and non-effective. In addition, poverty, outlooks on education and the way in which money is allocated to schools places the education in Brazil in crisis. Immediate money through work is seen as more important than education. Children often do not attend school because of their parents’ lack of interest; they simply prefer send their children to work rather than school
| - 12.5% of children not in school -17% of population over 15 are illiterate -25% children in poverty are not in school |
There are inadequate schooling facilities with incompetent teachers. This combination leads to an overall failure in an education system.
However, there have been attempts to bring about resolutions to the education
crisis in Brazil. A program known as Bolsa Escola has been implemented to try to improve education by allocating money to mothers who choose to send their children to school. (For more information about Bolsa Escola click here http://are.berkeley.edu/~sadoulet/papers/BolsaEscolaReport6-6.pdf
There has also been a UNICEF program called EducAmazonia implemented to aid the education problem by providing teacher training, increasing financial resources, and providing essential teaching materials that reflect the outlooks of the Brazilian people. http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/brazil_36077.html To see a youtube video on UNICEF aiding education on Brazil, click here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnPJUmejlBo
There are also distinct discrepencies between races when it comes to educatio in Brazil. Below is a bar graph that helps to explain this.
To see more date like this one on the left click here
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