Education System in Brazil and academic opportunities with Czech Republic

1. Education System in Brazil and academic opportunities with Czech Republic Ticiano Costa Jordão Vice President Czech-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce

2. Overview of the Brazilian Education System – Administration and Finance • Public expenditure in education in Brazil comprises 12 per cent of total government expenditures and 4.8 per cent as a percentage of GDP. The Brazilian Constitution allocates 25 % of state and local tax revenues to education. • Literacy amongst Brazilians over the age of 15 is 86.4 per cent (Source: UNESCO 2005). • All three levels of government (municipal, state and federal) are involved in the financing and provisions of all levels of public education.

3. Overview of the Brazilian Education System – Administration and Finance • The responsibility for public education is primarily, but not necessarily, divided as follows: • elementary education: the states, the Federal District and the municipalities; • secondary education: the states and the Federal District for those matters that lie within their purview; • technical, technological and higher education: the Union and the states.

4. Overview of the Brazilian Education System – Administration and Finance • The Secretariats of Education for each state are responsible for administering the network of schools belonging to those states and to the Federal District, as well as for the supervision of the private network. • At the state level, standards are set by the State Education Councils. • Education is under the supervision of the Ministry of Education and Sports, assisted by the National Council for Education.

5. Overview of the Brazilian Education System – Administration and Finance • States are directly responsible for the administration of elementary and secondary education. • The Ministry of Education has ultimate control over most aspects of higher education. • Brazil's education system is financed by funds from both the public sector (through direct and indirect administration agencies at the federal, state and municipal levels of government) and the private sector, which charges tuition fees.

6. Overview of the Brazilian Education System - Size • At the pre-elementary level, there are approximately 94,000 institutions, with 5,718,900 students enrolled. • At the elementary level, there are approximately 197, 000, with 36 million students. • Secondary education enrolments in Brazil amount to approximately 20 million students; 13 million in lower secondary and 7 million in upper secondary.

7. Overview of the Brazilian Education System - Size • Higher education is provided by 35 federal universities, 15 state universities, 2 municipal universities and 31 private universities, as well as other establishments - 7 federations and 788 independent establishments - of which 607 are private, while the remainder function at municipal (90), state (72) or federal (19) level.

8. Overview of the Brazilian Education System - Structure • The Brazilian Educational System is divided into three levels: fundamental, intermediate and higher education. • The higher education is comprised of two levels: undergraduate and graduate. • Preschool or infant education is added to this hierarchy, for the purpose of providing assistance to children less than 7 years of age.

9. Overview of the Brazilian Education System - Structure • Pre-elementary education is not compulsory and is offered in two types of institutions: day-care centres, or equivalent institutions for children up to the age of 3 and pre-elementary school for children aged 4-6 years. • Elementary education is compulsory for all children between the ages of 7 and 14 years, consisting of eight years of education, divided into two four-year cycles. General secondary education lasts three years (grades 5-8), while technical secondary education lasts three or four years (grades 9-11), depending on the vocational certification considered. 

10. Overview of the Brazilian Education System - Structure • Higher education is organized in two levels: undergraduate and graduate studies. • The graduate studies may be understood as lato sensu (free-course, which refers to refresher courses, further education, or specialization courses) or stricto sensu (strict course, which refers to programs that require previous courses or a diploma, most often referring to Master's and Doctoral programs).

11. Overview of the Brazilian Education System - Structure • Higher education establishments include both colleges and universities. • High-level training of professionals for one or more professions or careers is mainly provided by colleges. • In addition to the high-level training of professionals, universities must also promote basic and applied research, as well as provide services to the community in the form of courses and other extension activities.

12. Overview of the Brazilian Education System - Structure • Undergraduate programs take four to six years of study, depending on the area of specialization. • At the post-graduate level, studies last two to four years in the case of Master's degree courses, and four to six years in the case of Doctoral degree courses.

13. Overview of the Brazilian Education System – Private and Public Education • Private education plays a very important role in the Brazilian educational system and is mainly administered by the Roman Catholic Church. The private sector is free to participate at all educational levels, upon government approval. • Public education at the elementary and secondary levels falls under the jurisdiction of municipalities and state governments. At the present time, as there is no public pre-elementary education, this kind of education has been developed by the private sector.

14. Overview of the Brazilian Education System – Private and Public Education • At the secondary level, the public sector accounts for approximately 85% of all lower and upper secondary school enrolments. This trend changes at the tertiary level as most students prefer to study in private universities, as opposed to the public sector.

15. The Academic Year • The academic year is divided into two semesters; the first from March through mid-July and the second from August through mid-December. Universities have a winter vacation in July and a summer vacation in December. • The regular school year is not tied to the calendar year and must include 200 days or 720 hours of actual work at all educational levels, excluding periods earmarked for examinations. 

16. Teacher Education • Elementary school teachers are trained at the secondary level. These programs are designed for teachers who want to work with the first four grades of elementary education. They are generally three years in length and lead to the Diploma of Elementary School Teacher, grades 1 through 4..  • Secondary school training is required at a minimum of three to four years of course work in order to qualify instructors to teach the fifth and sixth grades of elementary, preschool and special education.

17. Teacher Education • To teach the seventh and eighth grades, it is necessary to have university training. Secondary school teachers are trained at the post-secondary level in Bacharelado (Baccalaureate) or Licenciatura (Licenciate) programs. 

18. Brazilian universities among the best in the world • According to Webometrics Ranking of World Universities (Higher Council of Scientific Research, Spain), the University of Sao Paulo is ranked on the 87th position, gaining 26 positions since 2007. • The ranking consider the content of each university available on internet, mainly those of scientifical knowledge. • In the same ranking in 2008, among the TOP 400, comes Unicamp (159th position), UFRGS (285th), UFRJ (299th), UFSC (304th) and UFMG (356th).

19. Study grants from the EU available for Brazilian students • ALBAN – a programme created by European Union in 2002 with the purpose to offer grants for pos-graduate or Doctoral students or researchers from Latin America to study and work on research projects in European HEIs. Site:www.programalban.org • How the Czech-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce can help the Czech HEIs to benefit from this programme: • - Promote the Czech HEIs among the Brazilian HEIs and their students. • - Recommend Brazilian students to Czech HEIs.

20. Thank you very much! Ticiano Costa Jordão Vice President Mobil: +420 739064441 Email: ticiano.costa-jordao@upce.cz