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Tarso Genro

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Ministry of Education

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The Honorable Tarso Genro was nominated to the Brazil Ministry of Education in 2004, having served as Head of the Special Secretariat of the Social Economic Development Council in the previous year. Born in São Borja in 1947, Genro brings to his Ministry a strong academic background in Law. His extensive leadership background includes appointments as a Congressman at the House of Representatives, Councilman of the City of Santa Maria, and Deputy Mayor and Secretary of State in the Porto Alegre Government.

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Education for all in Brazil: The Leap to Quality

Democratic universal quality education for all is one of the Brazilian Government priorities. Since teaching training in general is a key element of the drive to improve the quality of education at all levels, in 2004 the Brazilian Ministry of Education is developing 227 educational and teaching training programs, from Elementary School to Adults’ Education, from special classes for youth and adult literacy to undergraduate and graduate courses. The government is also financing compensatory programs, such as: the National School Meals Program, the National School Textbook Program, the National School Library Program and the Transportation Program.

The main challenges of the Ministry of Education concerns quality, effectiveness and equity issues, which will be addressed by means of the following initiatives:

  • The university reform – to enlarge and strengthen public and private Universities and to guide private institutions to reach the high quality levels of the public ones;
  • The implementation of the National Fund for Basic Education (FUNDEB), which starts at the Elementary Education Level and goes on to High School - to fund the development of the Basic Education Level and to enhance the value of the teacher profession, changing substantially the profile of public expenditure in Brazilian education. It is the first time that High School is reached by that Fund.
  • Literacy – to promote social inclusion of millions of Brazilian citizens, adjusting the programs to the concept of continued education;
  • Mobilize States and Districts – to fight against first level schools’ low standards which lead to repetition, dropouts and learning difficulties.
Brazil has already reached educational inclusion at the primary level, with 97% of all children in school. Now the challenge is to increase the access of young people in undergraduate courses – only 9% of all Brazilians reach university –, which will only be possible if all levels improve quality. Therefore Brazil decided that 2005 shall be the year of quality in basic education degree, adopting a new system of evaluation, mainly towards primary education, to verify teachers, students and schools performance.