EDUCATION-BRAZIL: Universities Prepare Students for Bygone Reality

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 14 2000 (IPS) - Universities in Brazil, as in many parts of the world, have let the world pass them by, and are now struggling to catch up and readapt to the new social and economic reality.

The principal factor behind the educational lag is “training for employment,” when this type of labour relation is disappearing, says Luiz Carlos Scavarda, Planning and Development adviser at the private University of Sao Francisco in Sao Paulo.

Training people with “a boldness that carries them into the future” must be the goal of both university and secondary education, because the current world “offers work and opportunities, not jobs,” declared Scavarda, an expert in university reform.

The rigid separation between the various traditional courses of study and degrees runs up against the dismantling of the “positivist world” and changes in the labour market, according to Ana Lagoa, a journalist with broad experience in education issues.

The reforms promoted by educational officials and private universities do not keep pace with the rapid processes of technological and social transformations, she said.

“Technical knowledge learned as a course begins will already be obsolete by semester end,” affirmed Lagoa, citing numerous experts she interviewed for the weekly supplement “Education, Work and Jobs,” which she directs for the Rio de Janeiro daily ‘Jornal do Brasil.’

This disparity is especially evident in computer technology, which explains why some of the most brilliant professionals in the area, like Microsoft’s Bill Gates for example, never finished a university degree, or never even began university studies.

In Brazil, traditional professionals, apparently indispensable for a country under construction, suffer high unemployment rates and many university graduates work jobs that are unrelated to their studies.

The Federal Council of Engineering and Agronomy (CONFEA) reports unemployment levels of 11.7 percent in the sector. Of the 20.8 percent of engineers who hold jobs unrelated to their university training, nearly half saw themselves forced to look outside the sector because they were unable to obtain employment as engineers.

Professional “detours” and unemployment are particularly common among agronomists, said Gerson Quirino, co-ordinator of a Professional Practice Commission at CONFEA.

Very few of the agricultural professionals who have graduated from universities or technical schools work in the sector, because their traditional employer – the government – no longer hires them, Quirino pointed out.

Government agencies that develop and distribute agricultural technologies are on the road to extinction and they are no longer hiring agronomists, who now serve as managers, or in other roles in agro-chemical, seed or agricultural trade firms, he explained.

In addition to outdated educational curriculums and the lack of structure in rural areas, the instability typical of agriculture – vulnerable to economic and climatic crises – contributes to unemployment and “flight from the fields,” stated Quirino.

However, there are still 55 schools throughout the country, nearly all public, producing some 4,500 new agronomists each year. Some institutions have changed their study plans in order to instil their students with the spirit of learning for the sake of knowledge, especially because many of them are children of large landowners or hope to become farmers.

Only nine private agronomy schools attempt to incorporate new technologies, such as precision agriculture, or other new ideas about agri- business, lamented Quirino.

A more flexible training programme, more appropriate to the current state of the economy and concentrating on services, offers greater employment possibilities, concludes a study of communications graduates, co- ordinated by Maria Immacolata Lopes, at the University of Sao Paulo.

“There are few unemployed” among those graduating in journalism, radio, television, film, advertising and public relations, though many work in areas outside of their focus area and often outside the communications field altogether, observed Lopes.

They tend to work in banks, retail, tourism and administration, since “the knowledge they acquired allows it,” said the expert. The highest level of deviation from the area of study – 60 percent – occurs among those graduating in public relations.

Because they use their educations to pursue a range of work opportunities, unemployment among graduates in these areas is no more than four percent, as compared to Brazil’s general unemployment rate, currently 7.6 percent.

This phenomenon also explains why communications degrees – offered by 86 schools throughout the country – are some of the most popular among students. Entrance exams at the most prestigious institutions are very competitive, with dozens of candidates vying for each available space.

But society itself has yet to catch up with global changes. Traditional courses of study, such as engineering, medicine and law, are still in highest demand, though Brazil already suffers an oversupply of professionals in those areas.