Americas Quarterly

goals while reassuring foreign investors that she will not drain resources from other sectors of the economy? Because Dilma is using monies from the oil sector to finance education, a fear persists that she will use revenue from other areas of the public budget to continue funding education and/ or other social welfare programs— instead of applying this revenue to deficits. Still, at this point the president seems to be showing a clear commitment to fiscal stability while deepening state control over oil.

Education Woes

Despite the impressive improve- ment in PISA scores, Brazilian student performance is consistently low. Brazil ranked 52 out of the 65 countries in the 2009 PISA report in overall reading and science. In mathematics, the results were even worse: Brazil ranked 56 out of 65. 5

According to estimates provided by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics in 2006, approximately 11. 7 percent of the population is illiterate—startling when compared to the roughly 3 percent in neighboring Argentina and Chile. 6 In the country’s poorer areas, students often either drop out of school entirely or are forced to stay home to help working parents. Repeating grades and poor attendance are common. 7

Human resources and infrastructure also pose daunting challenges because of the lack of well-qualified, trained teachers in primary and secondary schools. Studies indicate that teachers in resource-poor settings work fewer hours and can be absent for up to 40 days of the year’s 200 school days without losing pay. 8

Moreover, no federal programs fo-
cus on enhancing teacher training or
on retention. The Cardoso adminis-
tration sought to respond to this de-
cades-old problem by increasing the
salaries for “active” teachers through
the Fund for the Development of Fun-
damental Education and Enhance-
ment of the Teacher’s Profession
(FUNDEF), but those reforms were
not accompanied by efforts to better
train teachers or monitor their perfor-
mance. 9 According to a 2006 study by
UNICEF, teachers—facing little ac-
countability and with inadequate
training—often teach subjects they
know little about. 10 At the same time,
there is a continuing need for teach-
ing materials, desks, school supplies,
and larger classrooms in the hinter-
lands and favelas.

But perhaps the biggest ongoing challenge is funding.

School financing is the responsibility of the states, but in recent years ongoing fiscal imbalances have limited spending options and made federal support increasingly more important. At the same time, federal funding has tended to focus on tertiary education rather than primary and secondary education. The result: while Brazil pales in comparison to other countries in federal per-capita spending for primary and secondary education, spending for tertiary education is consistently well above the OECD average. 11

These educational challenges will pose the biggest problem when it comes to sustainable economic productivity and growth. In key economic sectors such as engineering, mining and technology, the demand for high-skilled labor far outpaces supply. 12

Brazil’s Instituto de Pesquisa Eco-nomica Aplicada (Institute for Applied Economic Research) reports that thousands of jobs go unfilled simply because there are not enough academically qualified applicants. 13 Last year, 24. 8 million Brazilians looked for a job, but approximately 22. 2 percent— roughly 5. 5 million people—did not have employable skills. 14

Considering the massive amount
of federal spending for anti-poverty
alleviation and health care under
Cardoso—and especially under Lula—
why is there a shortfall in support
for education? Several potential rea-
used revenue from the burgeoning oil
sector to address the country’s educa-
tional needs. This was partly accom-
plished through the creation last year
of a state-owned enterprise, Pré-Sal
Petroleo SA, which performs a dual
role of managing oil production and
administering a new social fund for
education and other anti-poverty pro-
grams. On the presidential campaign
trail, Rousseff called this social fund
Brazil’s “passport” out of poverty and
inequality. 2

There was nothing radically leftist about this approach. Brazil traditionally has maintained state ownership of its petroleum resources, along with a commitment to use the revenues to enhance social welfare.

Like Lula, President Rousseff is equally committed to investing more in education policy. She has adopted and even broadened her predecessor’s strategy of extending access to education to the poor. In June 2011, as a sign of her commitment, the president launched an expansion of Bolsa Família through an initiative called Brazil Sem Miséria (Brazil Without Misery), which aims to eradicate poverty by 2014. The program increases the amount of the monthly stipends given to the poor through Bolsa Família, with the hopes of reaching 800,000 more families by the end of 2013.3 It also focuses on improving access to public services—such as health care, running water, electricity, and education—and achieving “productive inclusiveness” by giving the poor the economic means to overcome poverty through vocational training, microcredit and jobs. 4 In total, this new program anticipates spending $13 billion over the next four years to help the 16. 2 million Brazilians living in extreme poverty gain access to a myriad of social services. Like Bolsa Família, families will receive monthly payments upon the condition that their children attend school.