EDUCATION-BRAZIL: A Revolution in Secondary Schooling

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 5 1999 (IPS) - Brazil’s Education Ministry is promoting an in-depth reform of secondary education, to boost enrollment and meet growing demand, and as part of an effort to tackle social ills such as teen pregnancy and high unemployment among the young.

The number of students in secondary school has ballooned by 57.3 percent since 1994, to a total of 7.8 million in this country of 161 million. This year enrollment was 11.5 percent up from last year’s level, compared to a mere 1.1 percent rise in primary school enrollment, according to a recent census.

The rate of growth will hold steady, with an estimated enrollment of around 10 million students in the year 2002. The target for that year is for half of 15 to 17-year-olds to be enrolled in secondary school, according to Education Minister Paulo Renato Souza.

Just 32.6 percent of 15 to 17-year-olds are currently enrolled in secondary school – the three years known as middle school in Brazil – because most kids in that age group are still in primary school, due to the large number of students who flunk grades.

The high repetition level in Brazilian schools means less than half of all students finish the eight years of primary school – known as basic education – in eight years, and most secondary school students are over 17.

But significant improvements have been made in primary education in the past few years, and enrollment among seven to 14- year-olds now stands at 96 percent, while repetition rates have been cut.

The result has been growing demand for middle school education.

Demographic factors have also played a role. While the birth rate in Brazil has dropped this decade, leading to reduced pressure on primary schools, high birth rates in the past meant a larger number of Brazilians are now reaching their teens.

This year, the number of students enrolled in the first four grades of primary school dropped by 1.1 percent – a trend that should remain steady until the year 2005, according to María Helena de Castro, president of the governmental Institute of Educational Research.

Meanwhile, the labour market requires a higher level of education today, which encourages students to stay in school.

To respond to the growing demand for secondary education, and as part of the aim to cut the drop-out rate even further, the Education Ministry has launched a structural reorganisation of secondary schools.

Secondary education was previously broken down into two paths: the university entrance exam channel, in which education was based on rote memorisation of facts, focused on the highly competitive entrance exams, without teaching students to reason and think critically; and the technical-vocational option.

But today, all students must graduate from high school before opting for university or vocational education.

A survey carried out two years ago found that 62 percent of secondary school students opted for the technical-vocational route, in order to find a job as soon as possible or to obtain promotions in their jobs, rather than attending university.

Minister Souza said the reforms were focused on converting secondary school from a mere “gateway to the university” to preparing students for the needs of today’s world.

Moreover, the new curriculum will be more flexible, with one- quarter of class time left up to local criteria, while 75 percent of classes will continue to follow the national curriculum, based on new guidelines.

The aim today is “to teach students how to learn” and stimulate reflexion through an inter-disciplinary approach and closer links with the daily lives of students. The idea is to “open horizons” and prepare students for a future that more than ever will demand ongoing learning, said the minister.

The new National Middle School Exam puts greater emphasis on reasoning and reflection than on facts, as part of an aim to bring about a shift in the criteria governing admission to university.

The educational reform effort, which includes a media campaign “education today is for life”, has the support of a 500 million dollar loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), provided on the condition that the Brazilian government come up with matching funds.

The reforms are needed now more than ever, as indicated by a study by the Family Welfare Civil Society, published Monday by the daily ‘Folha de Sao Paulo’, which confirmed a direct correlation between educational level and teen pregnancy.

Among the teenage girls surveyed, ranging in age from 15 to 19, 34 percent of those who had just three years of schooling or less were already mothers or pregnant. That proportion dropped to 18 percent among teens with five to eight years of schooling, and to just six percent among those who had been in school for nine to 11 years.

The study also provided further evidence that contraceptive use was lower among teens with less schooling. Teenage girls with nine to 11 years of education were five times more likely to use birth control than those who dropped out of school at a young age.

Moreover, teens in Brazil are becoming sexually active at an earlier and earlier age. A survey carried out for the Health Ministry by the Brazilian Centre of Analysis and Planning among women aged 16 to 65 found that 32 percent had become sexually active before the age of 15, compared to just 14 percent in 1984.

Among teenage boys, the proportion has risen from 35 to 47 percent since 1984.

Of the 2.6 million teens and women giving birth in public hospitals in 1998, 25.47 percent were aged 15 to 19 and 1.22 percent were 10 to 14.

Teen mothers tend to drop out of school and those who are from poor families are often kicked out of their homes, according to Health Ministry statistics. In a poor position to enter the labour market and with few prospects for a better life, a full 40 percent become pregnant again within three years of the birth of their first child.

The data also points to a clear link between teen pregnancy and poverty. The highest rates of teen pregnancy are found in the most impoverished regions, north and northeastern Brazil.

The problem is not so much scarcity of information but a lack of opportunities, good schools, recreation and especially jobs, for youngsters from poor families, said Albertina Duarte, coordinator of the Programme of the Adolescent in Sao Paulo.

Duarte, who heads more than 100 teen orientation and health services centres, said many teenage girls actually want to have children, as the only way to change their lives.

The young bear the brunt of many of Brazil’s social ills. Nearly half of the country’s unemployed are under the age of 24, and the highest rate of violent deaths – one of the highest in the world, in fact – is registered among the young.

Overhauling secondary education is one of the government’s main attempts to design specific policies geared toward the country’s youth.