The term “education” has its origins in two Latin words: endurecere and educare. The first word means “to lead from the outside,” “to direct from the outside,” the second indicates “to sustain,” to feed, to create. The very derivation of the word suggests two major paths in the philosophy of Western education: teaching based on rules that are external to the learner and teaching aimed at encouraging learners to create their own model, their own rules in the field of learning.
Primitive society divided the tasks of men and women who were considered important in equal measure. Barros (2018?) states, after surveying the bibliography in the area, that the passage from primitive society to society divided into classes – based on private property – introduces profound changes in the entire primitive structure, when education is no longer a social function and knowledge comes to mean an instrument of domination, massification, which should only be transmitted to the most “fortunate.”
In Brazil, education is regulated by the Ministry of Education, which provides guidelines for municipal, state and private schools, as well as for public and private universities. Currently there are scholarship programs for schools and universities.
Brazilian education provides educational bases for the construction of a school culture capable of making the student reach higher education. Affirmative inclusion policies are part of this process, we can mention the SISU, and the quota system. ENEM is the selection process by which the student who completes high school can get a place in higher education.
Historically, Brazilian education has undergone several changes. Until the 19th century, public schools were concentrated in urban centers and offered few vacancies, thus making access difficult for residents of rural areas, for example. This reality provided a scenario of exclusion. In the early 20th century, some schools were rebuilt or built, starting a new phase of education. With the end of the First Republic, and the advent of the provisional government, Getúlio Vargas founded the Ministry of Education and Public Health, which at the time was headed by Francisco Campos, who promoted a reform in national education.
The Francisco Campos Reform, as it became known, had as an asset the creation, at least in law, of a National Education System, in addition to having created the National Education Council, the highest consultative body to advise the Ministry of Education. The text of the Reform determined that secondary education should be organized into two cycles: the fundamental one, of five years, and the complementary one, of two years. Thus, secondary education comprised schooling immediately after four years of primary education and was highly selective. The selectivity of secondary education and the dichotomy between vocational and secondary education were maintained, favoring the children of the elite. The first cycle, of five years, became mandatory for admission to higher education; the second, of two years, in certain schools. Admission to higher education had to keep a mandatory correspondence with secondary education, which also made access to higher education difficult. The Reform left primary education, the Normal Course (teacher-training to work in primary education) and the various branches of professional education, except for commercial education, marginalized (BITTAR, 2012, p. 158).
For a long time schools were led by the Catholic Church and representatives of Brazilian conservatism, few people had access to these establishments that were private. Democratic liberals fought for public education to become the transforming agent of society. Education, for example, was the scene of fierce ideological manifestations, as opposing interests had been disputing space on the national scene since 1932: on the one hand, the Catholic Church and conservative sectors intending to keep the hegemony they had historically maintained in the conduct of the national education policy; on the other hand, liberal, progressive and even left-wing sectors, adhering to the ideas of the Escola Nova, proposed a public school for all children and adolescents between the ages of seven and 15. This ideological dispute went through decades and educational reforms, without the Brazilian public power building a national system of public schools for all (BITTAR, 2012, p. 158).
The Brazilian education system is regulated by the Federal Constitution of 1988, with Constitutional Amendment No. 14, 1996 and the Law of Guidelines and Bases of National Education (LDB), established by Law No. 9394, 1996, which govern Regular education in Brazil in the education system of the Federation, States, Municipalities and the Federal District.
The current structure of education begins with early childhood education, from preschool to 5th grade. In elementary school, classes from 6th to 9th grade are included. Secondary education is divided into three years: it corresponds to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd year. In higher education, the duration varies according to the choice of course.
Higher education encompasses undergraduate courses in different professional areas, open to candidates who have completed high school or an equivalent and have been classified in selection processes. This level of education also includes graduate courses, which include master’s and doctoral programs and specialization courses. From the 1996 LDB onwards, sequential courses were created by field of knowledge, with different levels of coverage, which are open to candidates who meet the requirements established by higher education institutions (MENEZES; SANTOS, 2001).
In addition to the traditional structure, the Brazilian educational system includes Special Education (for people with special needs), EJA – Education for Youth and Adults (for those who did not have access to or continuity of studies in primary and secondary education at appropriate age), Distance Education (EAD), Education in the countryside, and Technical Education (aimed at technical training for the job market).
Regarding high school, Niskier, 2016, p. 7, states that:
The current high school does not please students or serve the people. We have a rigid scheme that causes 15- to 18-year-olds to stay away (about half of them are out of school). The curriculum subjects, numerous and stagnant, do not talk to each other, which led specialist Roberto Boclin to defend the thesis that technical education should be adopted as an inclusive mechanism. It is the best way to get young people out of the street, out of drug trafficking, and facilitate their encounter with job opportunities.
It is observed that over the history of Brazilian education, the education system has been modified many times, prioritizing some areas and failing to serve others. This becomes clear when in 2014 the federal government launches the PNE (National Education Plan), which aims at the implementation and improvement of Brazilian education in all its dimensions within a ten-year period. The PNE aims to universalize the education system and increase its quality. One of the points of this Plan aims to increase vacancies in universities, increase literacy and technical education rates, among others.
Education must represent a means of bringing people together and encouraging them to grow and adapt to a globalized world that undergoes constant changes. Therefore, the educational process must aim at the formation of a critical citizen inserted in this context, aiming at a fairer and more equal society.
Recife, November 27, 2018.
sources consulted
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BARROS, Luzani Cardoso. A trajetória da Educação Brasileira: uma segregação oculta. Available at: https://www.portaleducacao.com.br/conteudo/artigos/educacao/a-trajetoria-da-educacao-brasileira-uma-segregacao-oculta/17873. Accessed: 27 nov. 2018.
BITTAR, Marisa; BITTAR, Mariluce. História da Educação no Brasil: a escola pública no processo de democratização da sociedade. Acta Scientiarum Education, Maringá, v. 34, n. 2, p. 157-168, 2012.
EDUCAR: origem da palavra educar. Verbete Educar. In: DICIONÁRIO Etimológico: etnologia e origem das palavras. 2008. Available at: https://www.dicionarioetimologico.com.br/educar/. Accessed: 26 nov. 2018.
GHIRALDELLI JR., Paulo. História da educação brasileira. 4 ed. São Paulo: Cortez, 2009. 272 p.
MENEZES, Ebenezer Takuno de; SANTOS, Thais Helena dos. Verbete sistema educacional brasileiro. In: Dicionário Interativo da Educação Brasileira - Educabrasil. São Paulo: Midiamix, 2001. Available at: http://www.educabrasil.com.br/sistema-educacional-brasileiro/. Accessed: 05 de nov. 2018.
NISKIER, Arnaldo. A Reforma da educação. Carta Mensal, Rio de Janeiro, n. 740, p. 4-34, nov. 2016.
how to quote this text
SILVA, Andréa; VERARDI, Cláudia Albuquerque. The Educational System in Brazil. In: PESQUISA Escolar. Recife: Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, 2018. Available from: https://pesquisaescolar.fundaj.gov.br/en/artigo/educational-system-brazil/. Accessed om: mês dia ano. (Ex.: ago. 6 2009.)