The Basic Structure of Elementary Education in Brazil
Elementary or primary education in Brazil, called ensino fundamental, is free and mandatory for Brazilian children and youths aged 6 through 14. The primary school structure is divided into two levels; the first 5 grades, or years 1 through 5, and the following three grade levels, or years 5 through 9. During the first 5 years of schooling, students are usually assisted by a single teacher for the entire day while the older kids have teachers for each subject (World Education Forum, 2000). The compulsory 9 year-long program for elementary education in Brazil became effective in 2005 under a reformed law that extended the years of required schooling for all children. Considering the recent implementation of the new school years and the federal government system of the country, expanding elementary school enrollment is still in process to achieve the national goal (Portal Brasil, 2010). Similar to the education system in the United States, majority authority to control elementary schools is entrusted to municipalities and states (UNESCO-IBE, 2010). However, the curriculum taught in classrooms is structured around a common core established by the national government. Common core subjects include language arts (Portuguese), social studies (history and geography), science (mathematics, and natural), art, psychical and health education, as well as social life and ethics. The Ministry of Education, which is a federal body, regulates the overall education in Brazil, defining the guiding principles for the basic organization of the programs; states and municipalities are then responsible to implement the principles while incorporating additional materials to accommodate the local and regional needs. Education is stated as a constitutional right under Brazil’s most recent constitution written in 1988. The constitution requires states and municipals to spend 25% of their revenues and education and 18% at the federal level (Pearson Foundation, 2013).
The elementary school year in Brazil starts during the summer time, which is around the month of February for a country in the southern hemisphere. The constitution mandates schools to operate at least 200 days of schooling per year, but specific yearly schedules are left to individual schools to decide (AngloINFO, 2013). Generally across the nation, regardless of public or private, an academic day in schools are divided into three sessions: running approximately from 7:00am to 12:00pm, 12:00pm to 5:00pm, and 5:00pm to 10:00pm. A student is required to only attend one session per day. The particular system was implemented in an effort to accommodate the growing number of enrolled children in schools (AngloINFO, 2013).
According to Brazil’s national estimates recorded in 2011 UNESCO International Bureau of Education report, 96.5% of children aged 7 to 14 were enrolled in primary school. This has been a remarkable growth in Brazil, which historically had a low level of educational outcomes compared to other countries of the same economic development level (World Education Forum, 2000). In fact, during the years of 1991 to 1998, net schooling rate of the population aged 7 through 14 increased from 86% to 95.3% overall (World Education Forum, 2000). The vast majority of these kids are enrolled in public schools while around 12% of them are enrolled in private schools (Portal Brasil, 2010). Although Brazil’s successful effort to spread mass schooling is positive news to the developing society, major concerns have risen regarding the quality of education for elementary aged students in public schools. The main issue identified by policymakers is that the dramatic increase in enrollment rate was not consistently aided with expanding facilities and increase in the number of teachers (Otis, 2013). According to the School Census in 2007, about 87% of the teachers in the first years of ensino fundamental had met the legal minimum qualification requirements, and only 50% of them had higher education qualification in pedagogy (UNESCO-IBE, 2010).
Problems of Inequality in Brazilian Primary Education
Brazil’s education system at a national level has been historically marked with vast inequality. The beginning of modern education and inequality of schooling traces back to the 19th century when the European immigrants arrived and founded their own private and religious schools. Such private schools excelled in quality while the public schools remained in extremely poor conditions (Otis, 2013). Immigrant children from Africa along with children of poor natives attended public school and even so the attendance rate was very low. Universal coverage in education began in Brazil during the last decade of the 20th century with which expansion of mass schooling proliferated (Rios-Neto & de Miereles Guimaraes, 2010). Although the expansion of funding for all schools successfully increased enrollment and academic gains on the international level, the issue of unequal quality among schools continues to persist today (Otis, 2013). One of the major forces driving this inequality is the fact that the expansion of public schools were not sufficiently assisted with additional facilities and teacher supplies; thus when higher socioeconomic status parents perceived the quality of public schools fall, they chose to send their kids to private and religious schools. Recognizing this problem, the government has set out several initiatives to increase funding and resources to improve the quality of public schools and narrow the gap.
Recent Reforms in Brazil’s Elementary Education
A major improvement in the government investment into Brazil’s elementary education has been the striking increase in the government expenditure for each pupil over the last decade. Between 2000 and 2008, the government increased its expenditure per student from primary to upper secondary education by 121% (OECD, 2011). A large proportion of the budget has been directed towards improving the teacher quality in schools. Teacher’s salary was raised substantially and the minimum entry qualifications for those entering the teaching profession were raised in order to extract qualified, intelligent individuals into classrooms (Pearson Foundation, 2013).
A primary focuses of today’s elementary education in Brazil is the reliance on assessments for evaluation (Pearson Foundation, 2013). Similar to the state level assessments that are required in U.S. public schools under the No Child Left Behind Act provisions, Brazilian elementary students participate in an exam to be evaluated of their educational skills (Portal Brasil, 2010). Although there are monetary stipends associated with school level achievement scores, education policy makers in Brazil view and conduct the exam as a way to identify student needs in order to prevent the child from reaching the next grade level without mastering the skills (Pearson Foundation, 2013). The Ministry of Education developed a Basic Education Development Index (IDEB), which is a system that tracks schools’ performance and progress. Recently, the Ministry has begun tracking progress of schools in order to identify best practices of teaching and improvement and share them with other states. Local municipalities are encouraged to be creative and flexible in developing their methods to increase student performance and quality of schools. These collaborative efforts at the federal, state, and municipal levels have led to an impressive increase in Brazil’s international performance measured in the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA (Pearson Foundation, 2013). Educational reforms continue to take place throughout the different levels of the system in order to improve the quality of elementary schools in Brazil.
Video link: http://www.pearsonfoundation.org/oecd/brazil.html
The Penn State/ Brazil Connection 