Brazil: Secondary Education Profile. A Summary of "Secondary Education: Time to Move Forward." Secondary Education Series.

Overview & Synopsis

This paper provides a brief profile of the state of secondary education in Brazil. An overview of the organizational structure, objectives, curricular offerings, system size, and governance structure of secondary education is provided. Issues relating to the quality, equity, management, and financing of the system are discussed, and promising innovations in the sector that could help address some of these issues are presented. The profile is drawn from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and World Bank report on secondary education in Brazil, "Secondary Education in Brazil: Time to Move Forward" (Report No. 19409-BR). It is important to note that this report defined secondary education as encompassing lower (grades 5-8) and upper (grades 9-11) secondary grades even though lower secondary is legally joined with primary education as part of "ensino fundamental." It should also be noted that the report does not address technical and vocational education because the Brazilian government separates vo-tech education from secondary. Currently, nearly 90% of children entering school in Brazil are expected to complete the primary cycle (grades 1-4). As primary completion rates have increased, secondary education enrollments are on the rise. This paper contains the eleven sections: (1) "Foreword"; (2) "Introduction"; (3) "Context for Secondary Education; (4) "Description of the Secondary Education System"; (5) "Quality and Learning; Equity; (6) "Management and Institutional Development"; (7) "Costs and Financing"; (8) "Issues Summary"; (9) "Innovations"; (10) "World Bank Support to the Country"; and (11) "Annex: Additional Statistics." Includes six tables and five notes. (BT)