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 When it abolished slavery in 1888 with the Lei Áurea, or Golden Law, Brazil missed the chance to guarantee land for the ex-slaves and school for their children. One hundred years later, the outcome of this missed opportunity can be seen in the streets and in the statistics.
The lack of land forced the migration to the cities; the lack of schooling restricted employment and productivity. The consequences are the inequality, the poverty, the option for violence, the dependency, the stagnation. In a documentary exhibited by the TV show "Fantástico" about the violent life of young people in the favelas, one mother said that if there had been full-day schooling available for her son, that tragedy would not have happened. But this project of Leonel Brizola's Integrated Centers of Popular Education (CIEPs) was interrupted when he left office as governor of Rio de Janeiro State. Had this project continued for these 20 years, Rio would have more computers and fewer guns, and none of the latter in the hands of children. In 2003, the election of President Lula and the Workers Party (PT) brought a whiff of abolition, the hope of the reorientation of Brazil under the leadership of a man of the people, an heir of the abolition. Three years later, we can say that once again, 120 years later, we have missed our chance. The position of the federal government in relation to the Fund for the Development of Basic Education (FUNDEB) is one proof of this. Just as Princess Isabel was canonized for an incomplete abolition law, the Lula government is commemorating an insufficient proposal and doing this before it is even approved. It is insufficient because the resources designated by the federal government are scant - 1.9 billion reais (US$ .89 billion) in the first year, or 53.67 reais (US$ 25.07) per child, increasing to 4.5 billion reais (US$ 2.1 billion) in 2010, or 93.75 reais (US$ 43.79) per child per year. Above all it is insufficient because education is not changed by increased funding alone. If reais were to fall as rain on Brazilian schoolyards tomorrow, the currency would turn to mud if the objectives to be met and the responsibilities to be fulfilled were not defined. Here, the opportunity missed by the Lula government is even clearer because the administration has not executed its education program or carried forward the projects initiated in 2003. The Certificação Federal de Professores (Federal Teachers Certification) project began to set a minimum standard for teacher preparation and remuneration. The first step was contracting 20 universities to conduct the teacher preparation, beginning with first through fourth grade teachers. The Escola Ideal (Ideal School) project, launched in 29 cities, would bring about the great advance of establishing full-day school sessions in all of Brazil in few years. If it had continued - the resources were guaranteed in the 2004 budget - the project would now be totally implemented in the first 29 cities, in the final phase in another 155, and in the initial phase in an additional 250. At least 10% of all the schools in other cities would have by now made this advance. The Brazil Alfabetizado (Brazil Literate) program surpassed the goal set for 2003, and it created the basis to eliminate illiteracy in Brazil. Had it continued, by now more than 10 million Brazilians would have become literate or would be in the final phase of doing so. The Programa de Apoio ao Estudante (Support to the Student Program) - which would pay the monthly allowance of university students as long as they acted as adult literacy teachers - would have produced up to two million of these newly literate Brazilians had it not been transformed into ProUni, the University for All scholarship program. All this was lost due to a short-term vision, the government's submission to corporativism, and the absolute preference for economic aspects, as well the obsession for reelection. And Brazil missed another great opportunity. Once again, a missed opportunity impeded Brazil from making the advance that is continually postponed, year after year, decade after decade, one century after another. Cristovam Buarque has a Ph.D. in economics. He is a PDT 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
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. Translated from the Portuguese by Linda Jerome -
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and that is exactly what I am all the time saying in my forums message.
But then my critics to Mr Buarque is that as an EX Governor, EX Senator and EX Minister, HE is one of the reponsible person for the failure of Brazil....as he his explaining in his article !
He is like a criminal who describes how bad are/were the other criminals.
Very Sad.