Volun. Teac. VIII - Family Planning

       In this post I would like to inform a little about family planning around the world, a very important issue, mainly in the poorest areas of the world. In order to accelerate development and to assure a living standard with all the bare necessities guaranteed to poorest citizens, many countries concern a lot about its populational growth, the informations following are taken from wikipedia and some sites about this issue.
       In China, approximately 36% of the population is currently subject to one-child policy. This restriction was introduced in 1978 to alluviate social, economic and environmental problems. The policy is controversial, nonetheless a 2008 survey, reported that 76% of the population supports the policy. In 2008, the government said that will remain for at least another decade.
        In Philippines, despite catholic church opposition, the government provide contraceptive to poor couples. Birth control debate should be a economic and humanitarian issue not a religious one.
        India has had some success through sterilization programs, large scale education and awareness about family planning. Recently a major step to control birth rates was initiated that will not only provide education to newlyweds but also give cash incentives to them to maintain a family planning.
        Iran birth rate has plummeted since 2001, its success provides a model for others developing countries, mainly require couples to take classes on contraception before receiving a marriage license.
        If you want to konw about family planning in Brazil or if you are interested in family planning, access the .portal.saude.gov.br  and you will can obtain information on:
        How to acquire contraceptive at lower costs.
        Sterilization operation for female in the SUS, with more of two children.
        For further information call  0800611997.

XII - Demographic Boom and Birth Control.

      This was published at www.news.softpedia.com at January 4th,2008 and was written by Stefan Anitei. This is a summary and the title is above.

      The peak of the recent demographic boom is experienced by the poor countries, exactly those less prepared for facing overpopulation. In the next 50 years, demographic growth will exist only in developing countries.

     Rapid population growth impedes economic development, due to the high cost of a large number of children that do not contribuite to the economy. Some developing countries oppose to birth control, considering it a type of western neo-colonialism. This is the case of catholic Latin America, where abortion and birth control are rejected for religious reasons, while many muslims prefer large families and many African cultures see in high natality a survival of the ancestors` spirits.

      The experience of the developed countries shows that once parents realize their children has higher survival chances, they opt for fewer children, allowing a better care, education and higher life standards. Education makes women see kids raising just a stage in their lives, not the main purpose of their lives. Thus, birth control is connected to economic factor, social protection and woman`s emancipation.

XI - Asia`s Latest Miracle.

         This report was published in Time.com at Nov.15,2010 and was written by Michael Schuman. This is a summary.

         Thirty years ago, Korea was poorer than Malaysia and Mexico. Since then, its GDP per capita has surged by a factor of 10 to $17,000, more than double the levels in those countries. GDP growth was 0.2% in 2009, and is estimated to be 6% this year. Yet when I left Korea in 2000, it was an open question whether its success could continue.

       Over the past decade, however, Korea has reinvented itself- it is a Asia miracle again. Korea has become a innovator, an economy that does not just make stuff, but designs and develops products, infuses them with the latest technology. Samsung and LG, not the Japanese eletronics giants, are dominating the hot new LCD TV business. In 4G phone technology, Samsumg is poised to become a leading force, while Hyundai Motor, a joke a decade ago, is a top-five automaker.

        Part of Korea`s success is simple commitment. Koreans spend some 3.5% of their GDP on R&D, compared with 1.5% in China and less than 1% in Malaysia and India. Innovation, however, is not something that can be conjured up in government offices or corporate boardrooms. You can tell people to work harder or build a more modern factory, but you can not order them to think better or be more creative. That change has to take place inside people heads. In Korea, it has. Koreans are breaking down the barriers that held the nation back, a process fostered by political freedom and a passionate embrace of the forces of globalization.

       Globalization has always been the engine behind Korea`s economic miracle. Beginning in the 1960s, a destitute Korea capitalized on its cheap labor to competitively export toys, shoes and other low-tech goods to comsume in the west. That jump-started income growth, as costs rose, Korea shifted into ships, microchips and other advanced products.

       The country was largely ruled by dictators for 26 years, until massive street protests forced free elections in 1987, and even after that, the government still intervened heavily in the economy. But, Korea has become a much more democratic society over the past decade, and the market-oriented economic reform made necessary by the 1997 financial crisis. Now the government is smaller and intervenes less. The economy of a country is very reflectiveof the politics of the country

      Above all, Korea offers a counterpoint to those political leaders, like China, who believe¨state capitalism¨ is superior to free enterprises, or that they can create an innovative economy without civil liberties. Of course, that does not mean the Korea system is perfect. The outdated education system is so rigid that parents flee the country in droves to put their kids into high schools in the U.S. and elsewhere.

      However, Korea I know is a country that confronts its challenges.

X - Education For All Report.

                         HIGHLIGHTS OF THE EFA REPORT 2010. ( This is a summary)

       Developed by an independent team and published by UNESCO, the EFA is an authoritative reference that aims to inform, influence and sustain genuine commitment toward EFA.

       The advisory board is composed of representatives from UN multilateral and bilateral agencias, NGOs, civil society groups, networks and directors of UNESCO institutes.

      Ten years have passed since the international community adopted the six Education for All goals in Dakar in 2000. There has been progress: The number of children out of school has dropped by 33 million world wide since 1999. South and West Asia more than halved the number of children out of school, a reduction of 21 million. But much remains to be done: There were 72 million children out of school in 2007, business as usual would leave 56 million children out of scholl in 2015. Millions of children are leaving school without having acquired basic skills. Some 1.9 million new teacher post will be required to meet universal primary education by 2015. The need to create inclusive education systems: Improve the learning environment by deploying skilled teachers equitably, targeting financial and learning support to disadvantaged schools, and providing intercultural and bilingual education.

     Poverty is one of the most pervasive sources of disadvantages in education. Parents inability to afford education is one of the major reasons why children are not in school, even in countries that have abolished school fees, since the cost of uniforms, books and pencils creates barriers to school entry.

     Child labour is another corollary of poverty that is detrimental to education. While many children try to combine school with work, evidence from Latin America shows this has negative effects on learning achievement.  Children living in slums, remote rural areas or conflicted-affected areas are typically among the poorest and most vulnerable. Potentially they have the most to gain from education.

     Education Development Index (EDI) and its components are: Primary school enrollment rate, adult literacy rate, gender specific index, survival rate to grade 5.

     The countries are divided in four categories:  Far from EFA, Intermediate position, Close to EFA and EFA achieved. 36 countries, mostly in Latin America and Caribbean, Sub-saharan africa and Arab region, are in the medium category, most of this countries have a mixed progress. Adult literacy is below 80% in some countries  including Algeria, Guatemala, Kenia and Zambia. While school retention is particularly poor in Brazil, El Salvador, Phillipines and Suriname.

     In the knowledge-based global economy, learning and skills play an increasingly important role in shaping prospects for economic growth, shared prosperity and poverty reduction.

     To effectively combat marginalization, technical and vocational education programmes must look beyond schools and formal education. They must also offer a ¨second chance¨ to millions of youths. Comprehensive approaches that provide training and support are more likely to succeed.

   

    RANKING ACCORDING TO LEVEL OF EDI. (2007).       Latin  America  countries:

           1º Norway.                                                                           38º Argentina.

           2º Japan.                                                                               39º Uruguay.

           3º Germany.                                                                          51º Chile.

           4º Kazahstan.                                                                        55º Mexico.

           5º Italy.                                                                                 57º Trinidad.

           6º New Zealand.                                                                   59º Venezuela.

           7º France.                                                                             66º Panama.

           8º Netherlands.                                                                     68º Peru.

           9º U. K.                                                                                72º Paraguai. 

         10º Croatia.                                                                            75º Colombia.

         11º  Luxembourg.                                                                   79º Bolivia.

         12º Slovenia                                                                           81º Ecuador.

         13º Cyprus.                                                                            88º Brazil.

Volun. Teacher - VII - This Blog

       As I felt that this blog has been accessed and has repercussive much more than I thought. I would like to clarify that this blog is totally apolitical, as you can see obviously, that this blog support any good educational policy based on meritocracy that target a fairer country, a  more competitive economy with more opportunities, in short a better quality of life for all brazilians, because we deserve and this giant country blessed with good weather and so many natural resources has the potential to provide us.

       I think is important to have many persons supporting a propitious environment for higher education, full democracy, transparency and justice. And to create this environment, information and good education is the first step.  Nowadays with the popularization of internet, all Brazilians have the opportunity on line to share their ideas and to contribute for a better country, in a way to rise the awareness of the improvements which good education and true information provide, after all, this is the country where we are going to spend the rest of our lives, so what sort of country do you would like to live?

      This kind of amateur writing in blogs is called ¨journalism citizen¨, and only multiple and spread all over the world, in many moments of recent history, together with twitter and other social nets have contributed to citizens all over the world to fight for their demands and rights.

     Some blogs and NGOs, saved the due proportions, has contributed to relief suffering, try to improve the education and also the quality of information, watch for the due respect to the citizens`s right, among many other targets, but one thing all of them, NGO, some blogs, some institutuional websites, philanthropy and volunteering, have in common:  the pursuit of victory of the human beings over their adversities and consequently a happy, peaceful, productive and enjoyable existence. That is why, all these civil organizations and activities should have government support, to do a better country depend on all of us, not only the government, but recognition by the population is rewarding and inspiring.

Volun. Teac. VI - Enem - part III -

            In this third part I would like to tell a little about Enem` history and also more commentaries about this important issue.To begin with, Enem was created in 1998, at first it was just to assess the secondary level, but since the beginning, it was conceived to be an option to the tradicional entrance exam, called ¨vestibular¨. In 1998 there were only 157,221 inscriptions and in 2001 the number already had risen to 1,624,131, but the largest increase was in 2004 to 2005 when there were respectively 1,552,316 and 3,004,491. This happened due Enem to become the exam required to applicants to qualify for a prouni schoolarship, since then the number of applicants have increase steadily, in 2008 was around 4 millions and 2010 around 4,6 millions. What show us the growing interest in Enem and higher education.

           One doubt that it is happening every year and I think should be unveiled is why there are so many absent each year. This year the absent rate reached 27% . Past year was around 38%, but as everybody knows, the exam past year was postponed and many universities canceled its use.

           Would be because the huge number of inscriptions and the small number of places in public universities that use the enem, around 95,000. Maybe some persons less prepared gave up, thinking in the tough competition. I do not know, but would be good a research about this phenomenon to discover why this is happening and how to lower this excessive number of quitters.

           Anyway, this show us the huge number of persons wishing to study and staying excluded from the public education system. The private system has done a great benefit for brazil`s society, possibiliting millions to make their dreams come true, and nowadays is bigger than public system. But,  I am not saying that the public system is better than private system, however, everybody should always watch for their real learning, the education can not trasform into commerce, can not be only about profits and diplomas. Of course, the student`s learning more depend on their commitment and hard work, moreover,the government assessment should be taken into account and the private universities that are unqualified to work, should be closed. 

           The prouni did not solve all the problems, because there is not enough places in some professions in the private universities, for example, in medical and engineering school, the demand for places is much higher than the supply for both, public and private universities.

Vol. Teac. VI - Enem - Part II

        In the former post, I said that we should try to strengthen and to improve the ENEM and now I would like to give some reasons for that. The ENEM need to be taken seriously by everybody.

        ENEM has done many persons that quitted school many years ago, go back to school, maybe because it is a multiple choice test with current question, where prevail the good interpretation of text and a advanced writing, and also it is a requirement test for prouni, when to achieve only 40% is enough to qualify the applicant for the public schoolarship, besides come from a poor family. Let me to tell the truth, it is not difficult to reach 40%. After all, one of the reasons that I did this blog is to help the people to be aware about the changes that they can reach through investment in education, and sometimes the only investment required is their hardwork, their commitment in their studies. The people has the right to good education, fight for this.  The fact is, a lot of older persons are having a second chance in their lives, what is very good, because for some reason these persons can not study earlier in their lives, so give them another opportunity or in some cases the only and late opportunity, is very important and fair. This year there was almost 700.000 applicants older than 30 years old. And the numbers of application form from persons that already has the secondary level has increased steadily, reaching this year 58% from all.

        Equally important is ENEM to be adopted by many public universities, it is a good way to democratize the access and broaden the range of applicants.

       The education should have always inclusionary policies. There is only benefits from that.

Vol. Teac. - VI - Enem

       Last weekend, there was ENEM and for now, everybody that did the exam, already would have known their grades, but unfortunately, again, there were problems, but despite the initial uncertainty, on friday, seems that all the problems was resolved, how was supposed to be, only the applicants, those that had problems will have to do another exam. We have to consider the great majority that have not any trouble at all. We, all in the education system, have try to strengthen this good idea: A national exam, to assess the secondary level and at the same time being a admissional exam to the public universities or to get public scholarship. We have to try rise its credibility, after two years a row of problems, perhaps it is being damaged. So, I think, it is just my humble opinion, we all, students, teachers, parents, should demand more commitment from all the persons invloved in the ENEM application, since when it is made, until when the exam is being done in the classroom, and after during the corrections. I think this is the general feeling.

       Furthermore, the exam should be applied more often, at least two or three times a year, giving the students more chances and lower their stress because only one chance a year.

       Moeover, in order to achieve total credibility, the transparency and monitoring during its application should be always a concern, to assure total fairness in the results.

      In my humble opinion, the theory of answer item (TRI), it is very complicated, I would like to know if will be publicize the value of each answer from each question, so all the students can know their grades by themselves, if not , I think, one question corrected, one point, would be easiest to understand.

      About the composition, would be very good, if the students could received their composition at home, with their grades and all the  mistakes explained.

      If the INEP to think, it is necessary charge more to implement all this improvements, I think it is worth the price. The education and all its assessment is very important in the life of the country and of the students.

    

Vol. Teac. V - Comm. of: A Short Histoty of the World

          In this post, I would like to do some commentaries about the book "A short history of the world." Written by H.G. Wells (1866-1946), who was a famous writer, author of many books, including, the very famous, "The time machine"(1895) and "The island of Dr.moreau"(1896).  Besides, he was a journalist and historian. By the way, this book is entirely available in internet, search for it in goggle and you will can read another history about a great change through investment in research and education. The chapter LXIII, and the title is: European aggression in Asia and the rise of Japan.
           Brazil has also a good history about great improvements through investment in reseach. In the 1973, was created Embrapa, it is a public company, to develop Brazil`s agriculture sector. At first, many brazilians scientists went to USA and brought back the cutting-edge agrotech from that time, but to create the agrotech for our conditions, take us too many years of our own reseach. Since then, Embrapa has made many real progress, including, transforming what was once regarded a unfit land for farming into a productive land, its main achievement has been to turn the cerrado green.
          If you want to read more about this history, you can search in www.economist.com, and look for the report with the title of,  "The miracle of the cerrado."  Published in August,26th 2010.

Vol. Teac. IV. - Comm. Ed. Art. Education For All - part II

        Carrying on with the commentaries about that report published at the guardian, I would like to add some more information to confirm that Latin America have not a so failed education system as anybody could think at first glance. When compared with Africa, Asia or Arab States anyone will see that.

        In the former post, I wrote about the school enrolment in the fundamental level, now I will give some data from the same report from Unesco about the other levels.

        The secondary enrolment ratio is: Sub-saharan Africa 34%;  Arab States 65%;  L.A. 90%.

        The tertiary enrolment ratio is: Sub-saharan Africa 6%;  Arab States 22%;  L.A. 35%.   Developed countries 67%. I would like to clarify to everybody as well that the Unesco report used the data from Gini Index, which measure the inequality in the world is outdated, the most of the data is from 2001 and the newest is from 2005, so L.A. has been improving a lot since then, L.A. has been growing on average 5.5% in the last five years and without inflation which was one of the cause of rising inequalities in the 80` and 90` years. Another research about inequality in L.A. tell that the countries where the inequality more reduce from 2002 to 2006 were: 1º Ecuador, 2º Paraguay, 3º Brazil, 4º Bolivia, but again the datas are outdated, if  there were datas from 2010, I sure that many L.A. countries would not been among the 15 most unequals countries of the world anymore.  In the UNDP` report on L.A., the chief economist of UNDP for L.A. Luis Calva says that ¨ In order to break the ongoing cycle of inequality it is necessary to implement comprehensive social policies financed with more progressive fiscal arrangements.¨

        Another part says that the tax rate in L.A. on average is 17% from GNP, less than half of the countries from OECD, in the USA is 27%. However there are two L. A. countries among the top ten countries with the highest tax rate of the world: Brazil and Argentina. In Brazil the tax rate is around 38%, so in the L.A. powerhouse, there is enough money to implement many good educational policies, it is

necessary good management of the tax money to use efficiently in order that we can see the results in our environment and in the international and national assessment educational tests, beside more investment in research and in the all levels of education. But to make this  happen it is necessary that everybody does their part in the education system. I think that the Minas Gerais state has been doing its part, according to INEP` IDEB report, the best basic public education in Brazil is from MG and in my opinion all the Mineiros teachers should be proud of this achievement and keep the good work.

      In conclusion, I think that the UNDP` report should have used updated data, the Gini Index is very outdated, if we consider all the growth and better social policies implemented in L.A. in the last six years, but is very good all the reports published by organizations from ONU, thanks to this reports we can have a idea of the world and what the governments are doing to improve the life of their citizens and comparing datas we can have a idea of the real progess among the countries.

Vol. Teac. IV.- Comm. Ed. Art. - Education For All

      In that article published by Guardian was said that ¨according to the UNDP`s recent Human Development Report for Latin America and the Caribbean, 10 of the world`s 15 most unequal countries are located in Latin America. Failing education system is the main cause¨. But, I personally believe that when anyone to compare data from Africa, Asia and L. A., will see that L. A., will appear fairer, doing progress in all regions, really trying to take care of the most impoverish students and citizens.

       To begin with, in L.A. there are many social programmes like the called conditional cash transfer(CCT) to help the poorest to stay in school. Another example is that the school enrollment in L.A. is much higher than Africa or Asia. According to the Unesco` recent Education For All(EFA) Report the number of children out-of-school in Sub-Saharan Africa is: 32 millions, in Asia is 27 millions and in L.A. is 3 millions. Besides, the Education Development Index(EDI) from EFA is divided in four categories, for example- EFA achieved: Argentina, Uruguay,etc. Close to EFA: Chile, Mexico,Venezuela,etc. Intermediate: Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador,etc. And far from EFA. Where there is only one L. A. country( Nicaragua), 5 Asian countries and 17 Sub-Saharan African countries.

       In addition, in L. A. there are many laws to protect the worker and the small entrepreneur, a more stronger legal system than Africa or Asia, which is essential to lower injustice. In short, if you to compare social and development data from these three continents, I am sure that you will see that L.A. is more advanced and trying lower its historical inequality.

       On the other hand, this inequality could lower in a much faster pace if the education received more investment in all levels, but mainly in vocational training. But like the report of the Guardian told, the society must value education more, but in my opinion, mainly the poorest, because the upper class and the middle class,I think, already know the benefits of the education, up to the government to give opportunities for the poorest persons and help them to stay in the schools.

       All in all, though, these better datas from L.A. can not be used to minimize its inequality, but the UNDP`s Report can not show the whole picture, if you analise the social and educational datas from L.A. and others continets, it will say more. In the L. A., there is a complex and heterogeneous society, with persons and their descendants from all continents and its own natives. Education must reach all of them in availability and quality, however, everybody should demand it, search it, from the authorities.

IX - Can Brazil learn from its success?

       This report was published in www.Guardian.co.uk , at 27,September 2010 and was written by Siân Herbert. This is a summary and the title is above.

     In inimitable Brazilian style, the upcoming national elections have inspired a cavalcade of electoral pledges and corruption scandals. Yet, no candidate has yet credibly tackled the most important challenge and opportunity facing Brazil today: education.

     The surge in school attendance has not been matched by a surge in quality: only 39% of Brazilians aged 25-64 have successfully completed upper secondary education(compared with 70% in UK). Education in Brazil remains under-funded, inefficiently run and disproportionately benefitting the wealthy. Brazil now needs is a cultural and structural revolution in education policy.

      Education is undervalued in Brazilian society and rarely features in debates in the public and private spheres.  According to UNDP`s recent Human Development Report for Latin America and Caribbe, 10 of the world`s 15 most unequal countries are located in Latin America. Failing education systems lie at the very heart of this problem.

     In the recent presidential debates, have been dominated by talk of the economy, development and infrastructure, as the top two candidates follow in the ¨developmentalist¨ model taken by Lula. Investment in human resources through education, though urgently needed, does not appear to be a vote winner, and the subject has been ¨practically ignored¨ by the top two candidates.

      Dilma Roussef, is campaigning on the axiom, ¨so that Brazil keeps on changing¨. Although ¨more education¨ is her fifth campaign priority. Meanwhile, the main opposition candidate, José Serra, has commited to expanding the Bolsa Familia, but has failed to put a case forward for specific educational reform. The only candidate to put education at the centre of her election campaign is the Green party`s Marina Silva, who has promised to increase GDP spending on education from 5% to 7%.

      It`s time that Brazilians politicians and the public acted to turn Brazil`s education strategy on its head - diverting generous university funds for the few towards essential schooling for the many.

A Short History of the World.

        I am posting now a summary of the chapter LVII of the book above, writen by H.G. Wells and published by Penguin books in 1938. I think is very interesting to know how the investment in research and education can change a country forever. The title of the chapter is:

                                 THE DEVELOPMENT OF MATERIAL KNOWLEDGE.

     Throughout the 18th century there was much clearing up of general ideas about matter and motion, much mathematical advance, a systematic development of the use of optical glass in microscope.

      Improved metallurgy, affording the possibility of a larger and bolder handling of masses of metal and other materials, reacted upon practical inventions. Machinery on a new scale and a new abundance appeared to revolutionise industry.

      In 1825 the first railway, between Stockton and Darlington, was opened. From 1830 onward railways multiplied. By the middle of the century a network of railways had spread over Europe.

      The steamboat was a little ahead of the steam-engine in its earlier phases. The first ship using steam (also had sails) to cross the atlantic, was the Savannah(1819), after that the evolution in sea-transport was rapid.

      The electric telegraph came into existence in 1835. The first underseas cable was laid in 1851 between   France and England. In a few years the telegraph system had spread over the civilised world, and news  which had travelled slowly from point to point became practically simultaneous throughout the earth.

      Technical knowledge and skill were developing with an extraordinary rapidity and to an extent, measured by the progress of any previous age.

      Parallel with this extension of mechanical possibilities the new science of eletricity grew up.Then came eletric light and eletric traction, and the transmutation of forces, the possibility of sending power, that could be changed into mechanical motion or light, or heat as one chose, along a copper wire, as water is sent along a pipe, began to come through to the ideas of ordinary people.

      The British and French were at first the leading peoples in this great proliferation of knowledge, but the Germans showed such zeal and pertinacity in scientific inquiry as to overhaul these leaders.

      The British science was largely the creation of Englishmen and Scotchmen working outside the ordinary centres of  erudition. British universities were at this time in a state of educational retrogression, given over to a pedantic conning  of the Latin and Greek classics and French education was dominated by the classical tradition of the Jesuit schools, and consequently it was not difficult  for the Germans to organise a body of investigators. And though this work of research and experiment was making Britain and French the most rich and powerful countries in the world , it was not making scientific and inventive man rich and powerful.

       In this matter the Germans were a little more wiser, the German businessman had not quite the same contempt for the man of science as had his British competitor. Knowledge, they believed might be a cultivated crop, their public expenditure on scientific work was greater, and this expenditure was rewarded. By the later half of the 19th century, the German scientific worker had made German a necessary language for every science student who wished to keep abreast with the latest work in his area, and in certain branches, particularly in chemistry, Germany acquired a great superiority over its neighbours. The scientific effort of the sixties(1860s) and seventies(1870s) in Germany began to tell after  the eighties(1880s), and German gained steadily upon Britain and France in technical and industrial prosperity.

VIII - Educational Gaps Limit Brazil`s Reach.

     This report was published in www.NYtimes.com at September 4,2010 and was written by Alexei Barrionuevo, this is a summary, the title is above.

       Perhaps more than any other challenge facing Brazil today, education is a stumbling block in its bid to accelerate its economy and establish itself as one of the world`s most powerful nations, exposing a weakness in its newfound armor.

     "Unfortunately, in an era of global competition, the current state of education in Brazil means it is like to fall behind other developing economies in the search for new investment and economic growth opportunities," the World Bank concluded in a 2008 report.

     Brazilian 15-year-olds tied for 49th out of 56 countries on the reading exam of the Program for International  Student Assessment, with more than half scoring in the test`s bottom reading level in 2006. In math and science, they fared even worse.

    The urgency could hardly be clearer. Brazil has already established itself as a global force, riding a commodity and domestic consumption boom to become one of the largest economies. With huge new oil discoveries and an increasingly important role in profiding food and raw materials to China, the country is poised to surge even more.  But the nation`s educational shortcomings are leaving many Brazilians on the sidelines. More than 22% of the roughly 25 million workers available to join Brazil`s workforce this year were not considered qualified to meet the demand of the labor market, according to a government report in March. "In certain cities and states we have a problem hiring workers, even though we do have employment," said the president of the Institute for Applied Economic Research, the agency that produced the report. Earlier estimates showed that tens of thousand of jobs went unclaimed because there were not enough qualified  professionals to fill them. Finding workers with the adequate basic skills for even manual labor is becoming a challenge, and many companies are not waiting  for Brazil`s education system to catch up. The Construction giant Odebrecht, is one of several companies that train a potential labor pool for a few months in basic reading and math.   "Education is the big disadvantage when compared to China, India and Russia," said the director of human resources at Odebrecht.

     ¨Brazil will continue to grow slower than its potential,¨ said an economist at the Brazilian Economic Institute at the Getulio Vargas Foundation. ¨If it had a better education system, things would be better.

VII - Teacher effectiveness hampered by lack of incentives and... .

       This report was published in www.OECD.org at 16/06/2009 and the title complete is: Teacher effectiveness hampered by lack of incentives and bad behaviour in classrooms. This is a summary.

        The report, ¨Creating effective teaching and learning environments¨, profides for the first time internationally comparable data on conditions affecting teachers in schools in 23 participating countries.

       Its main policy lesson is that education authorities need to provide more effective incentives for teachers. Many countries make no link between appraisal of teachers` performance and the rewards and recognition that they receive. The survey, conducted with the support of the European Commission, covers 23 countries, in each country, around 200 schools were randomly selected, and in each school there were questionnaire filled in by principal and teachers.

        Among the finding of the report are that:

      In Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland and Norway. more than 90% of teachers say they do not expect any reward for improving the quality of their teaching.

      Teachers are less pessimistic in Bulgaria, Malaysia and Poland.

      In Mexico, Italy, Slovakia and Spain, more than 70% of teachers at secondary level work in schools were it was felt that classroom disturbance hinder the teaching process.

      On average teachers spend 13% of classroom time maintaining order, but in Brazil and Malaysia the proportions rises to more than 17%. In Bulgaria, Lithuania and Poland, by contrast, less than 10% of time is lost in this way. Aside from classroom disturbance, other factors hindering instruction included student absenteeism (46%) and students turning up late for class (39%).

      School authorities need to move away from the ¨hit and miss¨ policies of the past in order to develop a more scientific approach to policies based on best practice and universal high standard.

      It is the first international survey to focus on the learning environment and the working conditions of teachers. It looks at issues affecting teachers and their performance, seen through the eyes of school principals and the teachers themselves. In doing so, it aims to fill important gaps  in the international comparisons of education systems.

Volunteer Teacher II - Comment. Educat. Articles - part VI

        After a brief research in the internet, I found other professions that already has a shortage of supply and probably this problem will keep in the coming years, unless that there is now more endeavor of the authorities involved in the formation of these professionals.

         This important issue has to be taken seriously, because the investment in the formation of new professionals is very low when compares with the damage caused by shortage of these professions, damages in the development of the research, technologies, infrastructure, GNP`s growth and also not profiding all the services required by our population. In my brief research I read some reports about the shortage of the following professions.

        There are a shortage of construction workers, plumbers and eletricians, this problem is deeper in big cities, but is happening in the medium cities as well.

        Another field that there is a shortage is accountancy, mainly with specializetion in audit and controllability with good knowledge of English and international accountancy rules.

       In the information technology (I.T), there are shortage of professionals of all levels, since technicians until  engineers. In this field, the government also need urgently to increase the availability of broad band, to advance in a faster pace the called digital inclusion, all countries are concerning about to bring their population to internet, they know how this is important in the digital age.

       If you want more imformation about this issue, you can access any online newspaper(globo,folha,estadao..) or magazine( exame,veja..) and search by: falta de mao-de-obra qualificada. You will find many reports.

Vol. teacher III - IDEB of the States

      The IDEB(Indice de desenvolvimento da educação Básica) is a indicator calculated in the student`s performance in the INEP assessment and in the students`s to pass rate, measured from two to two years in the scale of 0 to 10. Schools from all parts of Brazil are assessed, publics and privates.

     Nowadays with ENEM required to enter in the public universities, all Brazilians students having to take part in the unificated selection system using their ENEM`s grade, will be essential to have a good public school system giving the students from the states well assessed more chance to achieve the grade required to a place in the public university or to get a prouni schoolarship. Now the competition is national, doing the students from negleted schools to concern about their problems.

    The result of the IDEB 2009 is the following:

         Public State Schools.  

             1° to 4° série.            5° to 8° série.               3° série. Ensino médio.       

            1°  MG  5,8.               1°  SP  4,3.                   1° PR 3,9.                           
             2°  SP  5,4.                 2°  SC  4,2.                  2° SC 3,7.
             3°  DF  5,4.                3°  MT  4,2.                  3° RO 3,7.                         
             4°  PR  5,2.                4°  PR  4,1.                   4° SP 3,6.
             5°  SC  5,0.                5°  MG  4,1.                  5° RS 3,6                          
             6°  ES  5,0                 6°  AC  4,1.                   6° MG 3,6

                          OVERALL    RESULT.

                              1°  MG  13,5.                               For more information access:

                              2°  SP  13,3.                                 .sistemasideb.inep.gov.br

                              3°  PR  13,2.

Vol. teacher II - Comment. Educat. Articles - part V

       I felt that when I wrote about the benefits of the increase of tertiary enrollment rate, there was a concern about the excess of graduates, but I think this increase should be in certain professional fields where there is a shortage of graduates, to the government be up to identify these fields and make a effort to balance demand and supply in the labor market.  For example, everybody knows that there is a shortage of doctors in the countryside, another field that now there is a great demand, because lower prices in the air fares, is in the aviation system. Because of presalt and new discoveries of gas fields, there must be a higher demand in the petroleum and gas industry soon.
      Would be a huge injustice, if a country with a high unemployment/subemployment like our to let  having enough professional to meet the demand, would be a huge injustice with the youngters and the country as a whole. We can not let this happen.

Vol. teacher II - Comment. Educat. Articles - part IV

        I would like to inform that The British teacher Oenone Crossley-Holland from The Times report has written a book about her experience in the NGO Teach First, a British equivalent to Teach for America, the name of the book is ¨ Hands Up¨.
       The data of  the tertiary enrollment rate is from 2005, now in 2010, this rate should be increased, because there was a expansion in the public universities since the REUNI, and also the number of private universities, including with the online graduation, but I should think not to be much.
       This rate in the 1990`s years was around 10% and have been increasing since the end of the last decade when was created many private universities. Nowadays, differently from what happened in the past, there are more universitary students in the private sector than the public sector.

Vol. Teacher II - Commentary of Educational Articles - part III

       I would like to add more advantages from a higher investment in education, besides that already said in the previous reports. Actually there are not many persons studying in tertiary education in Brazil, like there are in other countries, mainly a country with a trend growth like our, after all, that is why they put us in the called ¨BRIC¨, the emerging countries with potential to become a superpower this century. A higher percentage of the population well educated will result in lower inequality, the improvement of the skilled labour broaden the possibilities of development through improvement of products and productivity with higher gains to workers, enterprises and societies in general, because with a higher net of incomes there will be more investment and growth, consequently there will be less unemployment, less crime, less poverty and also more dignity, citizenship and respect to the human rights and the constitution.  Now I will add the data from UNESCO, published in Atlas Collection at National Geographic, Brazilian Edition 2008.
  Tertiary education enrollment rate. From one of lowest to one of highest percentage of total.

  Brazil 17%                                               Argentina 48%
  Paraguai 17%                                           Italy 50%
  Mexico 21%                                            Portugal 51%
  Turkey 24%                                             Poland 55%
  Colombia 24%                                         Canada 59%
  Cuba 25%                                                U.K. 60%
  Panama 35%                                            Spain 60%
  Bolivia 35%                                              Russia 64%
  Chile 38%                                                 U.S.A. 72%
  Japan 48%                                                South Korea 78%

Vol. Teacher II - Commentary of Educational Articles - part II

          In this second part, I would like to tell a little about the history of education in Brazil.

  The first L.D.B.( lei de diretrizes e bases) of the national education sanctioned in 1961 became compulsory the elementary school indeed, because in 1937, was established this level as being free and compulsory but, omited the resources for its application.

         The second L.D.B., sanctioned in 1971 became compulsory the former 1º grau.

         The third L.D.B. the current law, sanctioned in 1996, structured this way the education system

  Basic education.               Infant education  -  no compulsory.

          Fundamental education  -  compulsory.

          Secondary education  -  no compulsory, but trending for compulsority. Nowadays is lacking to clarify this. Yetstill is no compulsory, but there is project of law requiring it.

        Higher education  -  no compulsory.

        The third L.D.B. put compulsory for both sides in Fundamental education, this is, the government has to create places when there are not enough places for all children and teenagers, and no one can stay out of school in this level, so all parents must enroll their children. This is their duty.

Vol. Teacher. II - Commentary of Educational Articles

      In this first series of educational reports. I would like to comment one thing, that is commom to each one, they emphasize the worries that many countries are having with the quality of education in order to have a more competitive economy in this globalised age.

      We can see that Brazilian educational background was neglected, only in 1990s decade when was created ¨Bolsa-educação¨ and the fundamental school became compulsory, was when the children enrollment in the basic education increased.

      Rich countries are worried also, the U.S.A. and U.K. are always trying to do something in order to have better students  or to attract them in order to become good professionals to keep  and to innovate its advanced technologies and in this way to maintain its higher gains in the world trade.

The Dark Side of Globalization.

    This report was published in Economist.com in May29th2008, this is a summary. The title is above.

       Jobs come, but they may soon go again.  A decade ago, Samorin, a small town in Slovakia, was one of many good places in which to watch the effect of globalisation. Workers, trade unions and politicians mourned factories moving east. But, as a European official explain, such shifts were fully expected: offshoring¨ was the whole idea of enlargement of the E.U.¨. The process, though wrenching to some, made the European Union as a whole more competitive and spread the benefits of global trade to every corner of Europe.  Like its neighbours, Slovakia has seen wages rising fast as new jobs arrived and many of its own people headed west, but rising labour costs are only part of a more complicated story.

      But, things have moved on in Samorin, this town has already lost a factory to offshoring. Samsonite, an American luggage-maker closed its plant in 2006, shedding all 350 staff and shifting production to China.

    The big test will come if or when growth rates slow and pay fall in real terms. Companies with strong trade unions, have already seen strike over pay.   Samorin is a witness to the way that globalisation is fragmenting as supply break into ever smaller parts, sending jobs in all directions. The E.U. restructuring monitor, an E.U. outfit that tracks globalisation, has analysed about dozen cases of offshoring from new members of the E.U.

    Gunter Verheugen, E.U. comissioner for enterprise and industry, has been touring some of the new member countries, urging governments to prepare for rising labour costs. The newcomers`success was based on three things, he says: "Cheap labour, skilled and motivated workers and existing industrial base".          Now costs are rising but productivity is growing very slowly, from a low base. The newcomers face the same problem as Spain and Portugal did on entry: Relying too heavy on foreign investors to bring technologies and jobs. In the long term, if they can not compete on costs, they have to compete on quality and innovation.

Correa`s Curriculum

        This report was published in the Economist.com, on August, 20th 2009.   This is a summary.   The title is above.

       The president seeks to improve ailing  schools and universities. Education reforms in Ecuador, promoted by President Rafael Correa, have led to protests and tear-gas on the streets. The teachers union and the students federation are furious at proposals to sack bad teachers and universities account better for the $2.3 billion the government spends on them.

      Ecuador`s schools are poor even by South America`s generally low standards. Although  almost all of its children enroll in primary education, fewer  than two-thirds make it to secondary school.  He has, since coming to office in January 2007, spend around $280m repairing school and building new ones. But it is not just about spending more money. Mr. Correa wants to supervise more closely how the education budget is spent, and to improve  the quality and consistency of teaching.

       Early in his first term, applications for teaching jobs were set a voluntary test of reading proficiency and logic. Just 4%  of those taking the logic test passed it. The government is now making  tests compulsory.Those who flunk them will be offered a year`s training. Those who fail a second time face the sack. The reforms seem highly popular except, among the teachers. A teacher in quito complain that coercion is the wrong way to go about reforming. Others grumble at their meagre pay.The government is promising   pay rises but, it intend to link  them to performance.

       Ecuador`s  universities are also having to shape-up. Low-quality ones will be shut, while state-funded  ones will have to account  publicy for the $490m a year they receive.                                                    

Teach First, Cry Later

   Article published in the Timesonline.co.uk, on August 25,2009 and was written by Damian Whitworth. This is a summary and the title comes above.

      During her second year as a teacher in an inner secondary school, Oenone crossley sat to a man at a dinner party who had quit as a teacher after less than a year to join the Army, he was sent to Iraq, an experience that he described as easier than teaching. The man was exaggeranting, she says now, but adds that in Iraq, ¨maybe you do not have that demoralisation and the personal attack that you have in the classroom.  She says that Teach First warned her and other recruits that they would experience extreme highs and lows in schools, but I had never experienced the hard where you feel just kind of utterly destroyed.

       She describes an enviroment where even those who behave find the odds against them in their chaotic home lives. This was bought home to her in the most sobering fashion, when one of her school student was stabbed to death by an ex-boyfriend.

     One of her most depressing abservations is that students could not understand why she was a teacher, they thought I was capable of a better job, a better job, in their opinion, being almost everything bar emptying dustbins. They see teachers being battered by students day in, day out and not receiving any respect from them. It is a weird paradox that these teenagers are obsessed by the idea of being shown respect, but fail to show any to teachers.

      During her second year, struggling with exaustion and stress, Crossley started to see a therapist. She looked around at the other teachers and saw some who were¨visibly frazzled¨, others ¨had found a way of working within the system so they could function, I realised I did not want to do it¨.

     She was taken a job at another school in south London. One of the criticisms of her previous school is that the boundaries were not consistent when it came to behaviour and there were few sanctions for unruliness. A lot of forms were filled in, but there were not enough detentions or other follow-up actions once students were removed from classes.

      One of the biggest problem is that you can not teach 30 kids. Her new school is trying to combat this by giving the teachers more hours with the students. The idea is to find a middle way between primary school, where teachers get to know a class very well and secondary school, where they may get a pupil for two or three hours a week. ¨It is not impossible to give any student a good education. You just have to get the conditions right¨, she says.

Still a lot to learn.

      This report was published  in Economist.com in June 4th 2009. The title is above. This is a summary.

      Brazil`s woeful schools, more than perhaps anything else, are what hold it back.They are improving, but too slowly. When comes to the quality of schools, it falls far short even of many other developing countries  despite heavy spending on education.

      In the OECD`s worldwide tests of pupils`s abilities in reading, maths and science. Brazil is near the bottom. Until the 1970s, South Korea was about as prosperous as Brazil but, helped by its superior school system, it has leapt ahead and now has around four times the national income per head.

      Brazil began its education late. When the country was a Portuguese colony even the elite has little access to education at home. In 1930 just one in five children went to school.

     Cash transfer to poor families, conditional on their children attending school, became generous and were    enrolled together with other programmes. Thanks  to this programmes 97%  of children aged 7-14 now have access to schooling and attendance is good. The lack of improving schooling falls to state and municipal governments. They face many problems, but two standing out.

     First Brazil suffers from teacher`s truancy. Teachers enjoy a right to five days` absence a year, but some take many more. On a bad day in a bad school in bad states, teachers absenteeism can reach 30%.

      Second, too many  pupils repeat whole schools years over and over and after, lots os children drop out early. Just 42% complete high school. Improving the quality of all school so that more children pass would lead to a market increase in the amount of money available to each pupil. To acomplish this Brazil needs  qualified teachers who are in short supply. Many have two or three different jobs and complaint  that conditions are intimidating and the pay is low.

      Jonathan Hannay, who runs support for children at risk, a local charity, and has four children in Diadema area, says things have improved in the past year, if only because teachers and pupils now work from matching sets of teaching manuals and exercises books. Such small  changes can make a difference. But, if it is ever to live up to its potencial. Brazil needs to keeping reforming schools bearing down on the teachers union and spending more on basic education.

Lessons from Locke.

    This report was published in Newsweek at August 2008, and was written by Donna Foote, former Newsweek correspondent, author  of ¨Relentless Pursuit, a year in the trenches with Teach for America¨,    published by Knop in April 2008. This is a summary and the title is above.

     TFA is not only the postgrad destinations of choice for many of America`s top college seniors, it`s also a magnet for reform-minded  philanthropists. Despite a battered economy, TFA is on target to raise $110 million in 2008, a 40% hike over the previous year. The number of applicants has spiked to a record high, now 25,000 college senior compete for the privilege of taking one of the toughest jobs on earth.

    This summer 3,700 corps members who were carefully culled for their  leadership skills, underwent an intensive five-week crash course in teaching. In a few weeks, they will begin their two-year classroom commitments. They will be assigned to school like Locke high school in Watts, LA, where I spent my year as an embed. At Locke, a school  hemmed  in by competing gangs, 2% of ninth graders  are proficient in algebra, 11% read at grade level. Too many can`t read at all. I learned that when a friend  asked   me to visit the school  months earlier. As I sat in her classroom , she enunciated  the word ¨cat¨. Her embarrassed ninth graders reluctantly repeated the exercise. It was excruciating to watch. When I realized that Locke would be a training site  for TFA, I wondered: What could be learned about how we educate our most impoverished students. Lessons emerged on a daily basis. Some of the most important: The American  system of education  is broken. America has been wrestling with the problem of declining student achievement ever since 1983, when  the government issued the report ¨A nation at risk¨,  which warned  of a rising tide of mediocrity, that threatened our country`s future. Twenty-five years on, the tide is in. At Locke, 1,000 ninth graders were enrolled in 2001, only 30  were eligible to apply to a California state campus. The impact an uneducated populace has on the integrity of the country`s social fabric and the health of the economy can not be underestimated.

     We have not effective system to attract, train, retain and promote high-caliber candidates for our schools. Today`s teachers score in the lowest quartile of college grads. But the truth is, up to half of all the country`s teachers bail within five years. Low pay, low status, low satisfaction undoubtelly drive many out. The transformation of teaching into a financially  rewarding profession  with high standards of admission and accountability, would go a long way toward establishing staff stability.

Low marks

This report was published in the Economist.com at 12 April 2007. This is a summary and the title is:

                            

                                         LOW   MARKS.

       Education is still letting the country down.

       Brazil came dead last in maths and fourth from the bottom in reading tests administered in 40 countries by the OECD. Working-age brazilians  have  an average of 4.1 years of schooling, compared with six in China. This is the biggest obstacle to Brazilians ambitions.

       To be fair, herculean progress has already been made. Little more than a decade ago some 17% of children aged  7-14 did not go to school. That changed in the 1990s when the federal government started    distributing money to states and municipalities on the basis of enrollment in primary school.

       Brazil spends 4.3% of GDP on public education. Much of the money is wasted. Brazil is among the world champion in grade repetition. Undertrained, overstretched teachers know other way of controlling their classroom. Starting, salaries for teachers are low, which deters good candidates, encouragement  and incentives are both in short supply. In some places the school system is plagued by absences for medical reasons. And students spend an average of only three hours a day in class.

       Worry about Brazil`s lagging education system is becoming more widespread. A gaggle of enterprises and NGOs banded together last year to form ¨Everyone for education¨. a moviment to push for better results.Global competition is obliging enterprises to adopt international quality standards. Which  in turn demand a workforce more educated.

       Fundef, the federal fund that financed the expansion of primary education in poorer states, has been turn to Fundeb, which covers pre-school and high school as well.

       State and local initiatives also seem to be making a difference. Seven of the ten highest scoring  school    districts in the state of São Paulo had a private company  COC, to manage their classroom. In COC run schools teachers attend monthy training sessions, are constant evaluated and learn how to deal with problems children.

VOLUNTEER TEACHER - Why I Create this Blog

          In the last five years and half, I have written summaries of reports from some online newspapers and magazines, sometimes about education, sometimes about Brazil`s economy or other important subjects and when I wanted go deep in some issue I does a commentary as well, always doing this in my email, this is a good way that  I found to practice English, to learn more about those subjects and to advertise my private English classes. Usually I send these reports to few persons that I know have some interest  to improve their English and would like to know more about these issues. But I do not know how and neither why, but I felt that these reports and my commentaries turn out in some way publics and become famous, how if it were in a blog, so I thought why not to have my own blog to publicize the reports that have something to teach, something to inspire educators, students and all society to this important issues of this blog. It is a good way to democratize and spread the information and to strengthen the own democracy and citizenship. I will begin with a series of reports and after a series of commentaries or reports written by me.I hope you enjoy.