Brazilian economy

Brazil’s economy is the largest in South America and the country boasts well developed agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and service sectors. Since 2003, Brazil has improved its macroeconomic stability, built foreign reserves, reduced debt, kept inflation rates under control and committed to fiscal responsibilities. After witnessing unprecedented economic growth in 2007 and 2008, the global financial crisis finally hit Brazil. Brazil’s currency and stock market saw huge fluctuations as foreign investments dwindled, demand for commodity exports dried up and external credit increased.

 

However, Brazil was one of the first emerging markets to begin a recovery. In 2010, consumer and investor confidence revived and GDP growth reached 7.5%, the highest growth rate in the past 25 years. Rising inflation led the authorities to take measures to cool the economy; these actions and the deteriorating international economic situation slowed growth to 2.7% for 2011 as a whole, though forecasts for 2012 growth are somewhat higher. Despite slower growth in 2011, Brazil overtook the United Kingdom as the world's seventh largest economy in terms of GDP. Urban unemployment is at the historic low of 4.7% (December 2011), and Brazil's traditionally high level of income equality has declined for each of the last 12 years. Brazil's high interest rates make it an attractive destination for foreign investors. Large capital inflows over the past several years have contributed to the appreciation of the currency, hurting the competitiveness of Brazilian manufacturing and leading the government to intervene in foreign exchanges markets and raise taxes on some foreign capital inflows. President Dilma ROUSSEFF has retained the previous administration's commitment to inflation targeting by the central bank, a floating exchange rate, and fiscal restraint.

Education system

The standard of education in Brazil remains low. Besides problems of quality and access, it is also extremely unequal. However, in recent times a number of reforms have been put in place to bring about an improvement in the quality of education. New evaluation systems and testing methods such as the provão, the ENEN (Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio), or National Secondary Education Examination and the SAEB (Sistema de Avaliação da Educação Básica), or Evaluation System for Basic Education also aim to enhance the capabilities of students at different levels.

The Brazilian Educational System is divided into five levels: fundamental, intermediate and higher education.

Primary Education

Education is compulsory in Brazil between ages 7 and 14, and free at state schools too. Children under 6 may attend optionaleducação infantil before enrolling for 5 years at elementary school known as ensino fundamental – 1.  Following a year achieving literacy they turn their attention to learning Portuguese, geography, history, maths, science, arts and physical education. This core curriculum may be extended to meet local needs, and abilities of individual students.

Middle Education

The curriculum is similar for ensino fundamental – 2, which lasts for a further 4 years, except that 2 foreign languages (usually English and Spanish) are added. 800 hours of activities are prescribed. Each class is usually still served by a single teacher.

Secondary Education

Completion of ensino fundamental phases 1 and 2 are a necessary condition for entering ensino médio high school. Core subjects include Portuguese, Brazilian and a third language - usually English, plus a wide spread of academic subjects too. In parallel during years 2 and 3 professional training courses such as agriculture may be added.