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to everybody as well that the Unesco report used the data from Gini Index, which measure the inequality in the world is outdated, the most of the data is from 2001 and the newest is from 2005, so L.A. has been improving a lot since then, L.A. has been growing on average 5.5% in the last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inequality more reduce from 2002 to 2006 were: 1º Ecuador, 2º Paraguay, 3º Brazil, 4º Bolivia, but again the datas are outdated, if  there were datas from 2010, I sure that many L.A. countries would not been among the 15 most unequals countries of the world anymore.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.