Besides religiosity, two things distinguish man from the other animals: walking on two legs and educating his children. Millennia ago he created the school. Today, however, education needs three legs: the school; the family; and the media.

Without the family’s input, the school does not heed the demands of education; without counting upon media collaboration, its work is destroyed every day. India is beginning to support itself on a fourth leg: the productive private sector, industry.

In Brazil, when contractors build a road, they fulfill the double function of profit and service—the revenue obtained and the infrastructure improved. When it loans money to a contractor for road construction, a bank fulfills the same functions of profit and service. Contractors and banks do not see education as either part of the infrastructure or as a means to realize profits.

Acting as both financier and contractor, a large enterprise in India is investing in education as a way of raising profits and improving the country’s infrastructure. IL&FS set up a sector called Learnet to develop education technologies and sell educational services.

Learnet created a small, inexpensive piece of equipment that unifies computer, television, CD/DVD reader, and projector. With it and the aid of a mouse, the student learns any subject, practically without the need of additional help. The courses range from children’s reading instruction to post-graduation studies for professionals within companies.

IL&FS is self-sustaining in its branch of origin, that of the infrastructure—not that of physical roads and hydroelectric plants, but, rather, the invisible infrastructure of education. And it is opening a new field of profit-making.

In addition, it is democratizing access to education and increasing the quality of services by disseminating a modern technology that is locally inexistent. It even takes into consideration children and young people’s thirst for access to multimedia equipment. All this is being done at a reasonable price that generates profits for the private sector.

Brazil, unfortunately, lags behind in this area. In the 1980s TV Escola [TV School] was created. Despite the advance this represented, at that time the signal reached few schools.

In 2003, TV Escola Interativa [Interactive School TV] was launched; it permitted the teacher not only to receive the programs but also to record and thus utilize them as needed by the students.

It also offered Internet access without the need of a telephone line. In 2004, TV Escola was dragging itself along slowly, and Escola Interativa has, apparently, ceased to be a priority.

In this way, India, a country that until a short time ago was lagging behind in relation to Brazil, is making a leap forward that puts it decades ahead of us. This is not due to a greater availability of resources but is, rather, a question of mentality.

The public sector sees education as part of the infrastructure. The private sector perceives that education has a great potential to generate revenue: Like the construction of roads and hydroelectric plants, the production of pedagogical equipment and educational buildings and furniture dynamizes the economy.

And the teachers perceive that the new equipment, which even permits long-distance learning, is the modern equivalent to the blackboard and the libraries of centuries past: It increases the number of students and improves the transmission of knowledge.

India’s great leap forward, like that of South Korea, Ireland, Malaysia, Argentina, Mexico, is one of mentality: Education is the principal infrastructure of the future and, to construct it, it is necessary to use all available technical resources. Increasing the number of legs that support it whenever that is necessary.

Cristovam Buarque has a Ph.D. in economics. He is a PT senator for the Federal District and was Governor of the Federal District (1995-98) and Minister of Education (2003-04). You can visit his homepage – www.cristovam.com.br – and write to him at cristovam@senador.gov.br.

Translated from the Portuguese by Linda Jerome - LinJerome@cs.com.

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