Elitism is like cholesterol: there's the good and the bad. Bad elitism stems from privileges guaranteed the members of an inherited cultural or financial aristocracy. Good elitism results from competency acquired through effort and talent.

The role of a progressive government is to do away with the first type and support the second. This, in my opinion, is what the Ministry of Foreign Relations did by eliminating the English requirement in the Rio Branco Institute admissions test.

The Institute prepares Brazilians for diplomatic service, and the Ministry decided to consider a candidate's entire range of knowledge instead of his or her mastery of a single subject.

It was a mistake, I believe, to announce that the measure aimed to "de-elitize" the Brazilian diplomatic service. But, yes, I think the Ministry was correct in deciding to consider an applicant's grade in English as a classifying element for a diplomatic career but no longer a disqualifying one.

I had the honor of teaching in the Rio Branco Institute and there I encountered some of my best students. But, I always asked myself, how many equally brilliant young people were denied the opportunity to enter the Brazilian diplomatic service, stymied by the required mastery of the English language?

Students with an excellent academic record who, over the course of their diplomatic careers, could have formulated a foreign policy that would have transformed Brazil into the international leader that it is only now beginning to become, students who could have represented the country in an exceptional manner in the international community, utilizing the languages learned over the course of their training.

The knowledge of foreign languages, especially English, is an absolute necessity for the diplomat. But a previous mastery of languages says little about the potential for creativity, knowledge and competency of a young person attempting to gain admission to the diplomacy course. Henry Kissinger, for example, would have failed our diplomacy course since he still speaks with a German accent.

No Brazilian should graduate from the Rio Branco Institute if he or she is not fluent in English and other foreign languages. But the Brazilian diplomatic service cannot continue losing excellent potential diplomats simply because they have not yet mastered English when they enter the course.

These are persons who, when selections are made for admission to the Institute, lose out to others who have had the opportunity to live abroad, or who have bilingual parents, or who have had the chance to begin the study of languages early in life, or even those who possess a specific gift for learning foreign languages.

For this reason, I am convinced that, at the same time that it is eliminating English from the admission tests, the Rio Branco Institute will offer intensive courses for those selected for the program who are not fluent in the fundamental languages of international relations in the modern world, like English, Spanish, French, Russian, Arabic, Chinese.

It is also necessary to call attention to an important fact. That Ministry of Foreign Relations decision represents a gesture rare in Brazilian public administration: that of setting aside a privilege granted the dependents of its employees.

By deeming English a mandatory prerequisite, the selection process in fact favored young people who had the chance to live abroad as children, as occurs with the children of diplomats.

Without any intention of playing favorites, the disqualifying nature of the English language requirement wound up giving an advantage to the "career children." Setting aside that privilege is a surprisingly positive step in Brazilian public administration.

Cristovam Buarque has a Ph.D. in economics. He is a professor at the University of Brasília and 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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