Education in Brazil

Abstract

Education has presented a problem in all countries, but particularly in Brazil. Under Empire there was a great respect for culture and education, but very little encouragement and inducement were offered to youth. The school is an extension and specialization of family. The validity of this statement is clearly seen in Brazilian history, for education in Brazil has been private and pragmatic: it has been a matter of training at home and on job. Schools came later. Finally, when they did come, they were at first controlled by family; and only gradually did outside social groups-the Church and religious orders, and then State-take on direction of schools. Slow to develop idea of school as a separate social institution, Brazilians were last nation on continent to establish universities; in 1921, there were only three universities for all Portuguese-Brazilian subjects-the University of Coimbra, University of Lisbon and University of Brazil located in Rio de Janeiro. As Dr. Alceu Amoroso Lima says, the Brazilian's reliance on talent rather than scholarship is another reason why education is such a problem in Brazil. Since Brazilian's intelligence is alert and comprehending they trust it much more than they do culture or even education. Learning in Brazil, as a formal process, is at moment inadequate. Some Brazilian educators say that many of their students lack passion for research, for analysis and deep study, for they depend on their natural intelligence-and they surely are intelligent. Illiteracy is another problem in Brazil. Only since 1930, with creation of Ministry of Education and Health, has nation as a whole attempted to eradicate this stigma to advancement. The illiteracy rate in 1930 census was 70 per cent; in 1940 illiteracy rate dropped to 55 per cent; again in 1950 census illiteracy rate fell to 33 per cent. Using these three dates, 1930, 1940, and 1950, as a