The EFA 2000 Assessment: Country Reports
Brazil

Of all levels of education, it is on the primary level that the most constant and continued progress has been made, this being translated into the large growth in enrollments, as can be seen in Table 28. In just 9 years, between 1991 and 1999, there was an increase of 6.5 million in enrolled students, that is, 22.3%.

The policies to make primary education universal, adopted in collaboration by all three levels of government, have produced highly positive results this decade. From 1991 to 1998, the net enrolment rate of the population aged 7-14 rose from 86% to 95%. This ensured compliance with and went beyond the target set by the Ten-Year Plan for Education for All, which projected raising the school-age population covered to at least 94% by the year 2003. On the other hand, gross enrolment rates in primary education went up from 106% to 128% in the same period (Table 29).

It should be observed that the net enrolment rates are lower than the coverage rate for the 7-14 age group, because many children of 7 or over are still enrolled in pre-school programs, and especially in reading and writing classes. As pointed out above, the new financing system introduced by FUNDEF encourages correcting this distortion by lending incentive to earlier entry into primary education.

The permanent monitoring of the educational system carried out by means of the annual School Census has shown that the coverage capacity of the educational networks is already enough to guarantee access to all children between the ages of 7 and 14, as well as to cover most of the 15-17 age group. The current problem of primary education involves not so much access but especially extra- and intra-curricular factors that hinder retention in school and schooling progression. This assertion is corroborated by the results of quality control of the information provided by the School Census of 1997, which pointed to extremely high drop-out rates - as much as 20% in some regions.

As a matter of fact, analysis of the indicators put together on the basis of the School Censuses allows us to diagnose the main problems that need to be faced: repetition, which causes the gap between age and grade, over-enrollment and dropping-out; regional differences; and deficient teacher training. Though closely connected, these questions will be dealt with separately.

The gross enrolment rate and its regional repercussions already define the seriousness of two of the three problems detected. The present rate of 128% reveals that a very significant proportion of students present the age/grade gap, in other words, are older than the corresponding cohort for each grade. This phenomenon has two main causes: the first is the aforementioned late entry - after the age of 7 - which occurs most often in the rural areas; the second and more important is repetition, which is responsible for the drop-out and over-enrollment rates seen today in primary education. Repetition also shows the extent of inefficiency of Brazil’s educational system, where students take an average of 10 years to complete the 8 grades of compulsory schooling.

The age/grade gap caused by repetition bears at least two more very serious consequences: the first involves the impact on the educational systems, whose costs are swollen by about 30%, while the second directly affects the students delayed in their schooling career, reflecting on their self-esteem and performance, as can be verified in the results of the latest evaluations undertaken by INEP. The tests applied by the National Primary Education Evaluation System (SAEB), and by the Evaluation of Students who Complete Secondary School (ACEM) have shown that the performance of students tends to grow worse as the age/grade gap increases.

Table 31 indicates enrollment in primary education by age, showing the great percentage of students over 14 who are still attending this level.

Although the problem continues to be a serious matter, there was quite a positive improvement in the flow indicators, with the age/grade gap falling from 64.1% in 1991 to 46.7% in 1998, as can be seen in Table 32. The reduction was even sharper in the lower grades, a tendency surely linked to the initiative of many teaching systems to implement primary education, thereby getting rid of the problem of failing students. This policy has not yet had an effect on the upper grades, which still show the old, very high distortion rates, especially the 5^th grade (54.3%).

The high repetition rates in the 5^th grade also spring from another feature of the Brazilian educational system. Primary education in 8 grades was instituted not by integrating but rather by juxtaposing two previous levels of education, which were and remain quite different: the old primary school with just one teacher, and the old secondary schools split into subjects taught by different teachers. This divergence in the pedagogical and curricular organization of the two levels of primary education causes problems of adaptation in the 5^th grade that are reflected in higher repetition rates.

As far as regions are concerned, the worst problems related to the age/grade gap are concentrated in the Northeast and North Regions, characterized by the worst rates - 64.1% and 61.3% respectively (Table 32). This contrast is even more pronounced when these rates are placed alongside those registered in the South, namely, 25.8%, the lowest in the country.

Parallel to the positive aspect denoted by the drop in the age/grade gap, a similarly positive evolution has been observed in the main flow indicators. These gains in terms of better educational flow will obviously be enhanced by strengthening policies to improve the quality and efficiency of teaching systems (Table 33).

Table 33 – Primary education – aggregate transition rates – Brazil – 1981 – 1997

The programs being implemented in the different regions with the aim of speeding up the learning process are headed in that direction (Table 34). They involve the provision of special classes, under proper pedagogic guidance, for those students with an age/grade gap of two years or more, to enable them to complete the necessary learning, so that they can join the more advanced classes they should be attending at their age in a shorter period of time.

Unfortunately, these special catch-up classes are difficult to implement in rural areas, where schools are small and often limited to one teacher and few students. Another program was created for this population in 1998, called Active School, within the context of FUNDESCOLA activities.

It is also noticeable that the Northeast, where the age/grade gap is most pronounced, is being favored with an enrollment rate that is higher than its relative population, on account of the resources specially allocated to the region by the Federal Administration through the Nordeste Project. This program of catch-up classes is therefore a very important initiative to correct regional inequalities and foster equity and effectiveness in the system as a whole.

The positive improvement in transition rates, sustained by the systematic decrease in repetition and drop-out rates and by higher promotion rates, has brought about a substantial rise in the number of students completing primary education. Over the last four years, this growth rate was 34.4%, whereas enrollment for the same period went up by only 12.2%. This trend should hold for the next few years, enhancing the demand for secondary education and, consequently, leading to more enrollments in high schools, as can be perceived already.

The improvement in the performance of primary education can also be measured by the increase in the expected graduation. In 1995, only 52% of all students enrolled in elementary schools were expected to complete primary education, while in 1996 that figure climbed to 66%. At the same time, the average number of years to conclude the 8 grades - about 10 years, as stated earlier - is becoming shorter. Therefore, the gains in efficiency in the educational systems are quite evident, despite the persistence of serious regional discrepancies.

The recent development of primary education presents yet another positive factor, namely, the rapid growth in enrollments in the 5th to the 8th grades, precisely where the drop-out rate was the highest, reflecting the increase in promotion rates in the lower grades. This phenomenon is linked both to lower repetition rates and to the demographic factors analyzed above (Table 35).

It should also be observed that the supply conditions in primary education likewise reveal marked regional disparities in terms of school facilities, such as the lack of electricity, piped water and proper sanitation, which are most common in the North and Northeast regions. Nevertheless, it should be pointed out that the precarious nature of infrastructure conditions is more a feature of schools in rural areas, which are more abundant in these regions, representing 82% of all schools in the North and 73% in the Northeast. Only 18.6% of students enrolled in the North and 32.00% of those in the Northeast are affected. The problem has to be corrected with concentration policies and focused actions that take into account the geographical and socio-demographic characteristics of each state in the federation.

One favorable condition for the development of primary education is the student/teacher ratio, which tends to be low (Table 36).

In order to ensure a more efficient system and offer the teachers better wages, the government is stimulating states and municipalities to increase the ratio to at least 27 students per teacher, with the average class size ranging from 25 to 30 students in the lower grades and from 30 to 35 students in the upper grades.

With regard to primary education, quite a different situation can be observed between the level of training provided to teachers in the lower and upper grades, especially because the minimum training requirements are still different: for the lower (1st-4th) grades, teachers are required to have a secondary-level degree for teaching, whereas for the upper (5th-8th) grades, teachers must be college graduates (Tables 37 and 38).