{"id":30135,"date":"2017-01-22T21:40:15","date_gmt":"2017-01-23T00:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=30135"},"modified":"2017-02-17T09:51:49","modified_gmt":"2017-02-17T12:51:49","slug":"public-education-in-rio-de-janeiro-a-primer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=30135","title":{"rendered":"A Primer on Public Education in Rio de Janeiro"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Rio de Janeiro state has one of the largest public school networks in the world, with more than 1,000 municipal schools<\/a>\u00a0alone. Across Brazil, public schools\u00a0absorb\u00a0approximately 80% of students<\/a>. Places in public schools are allocated based on location by a committee of city and state secretariats, and unlike in the United States,\u00a0analyses suggest that<\/a> \u201cthere is no evidence that public schooling is an important dimension in neighborhood choice\u201d for cariocas.<\/p>\n

Education<\/a>\u00a0follows the same schooling stages in Rio as elsewhere in Brazil, beginning with daycare\u00a0for infants aged 2-4. Preschool is for children between 4 and 6 years old, followed by Ensino Fundamental I and II (Fundamental Instruction), attended by students aged\u00a06-14. Ensino M\u00e9dio (high school), is aimed at those between 15 and 17, but in reality has a student body composed of pupils mostly aged between 15 and 19. At all stages, school days typically last between 3 and 4 hours, primarily due to a lack of space<\/a>. While daycare is optional, every stage from preschool onwards is mandatory by federal law as of 2016.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

There is no strict national curriculum in Brazil<\/a>; states are instead given national guidelines for what students should learn at each stage but are expected to incorporate “regional and local characteristics.” At all stages of learning, the primary subjects are Portuguese language, mathematics and science, as well as “knowledge of the country\u2019s social and political reality,” arts and physical education. The absence of a national syllabus has occasionally caused problems in testing: in one national exam<\/a> students were asked to describe a jackfruit, which proved problematic for those outside of Rio de Janeiro, the main\u00a0Brazilian state where jackfruit grows.<\/p>\n

The federal safety net income subsidy program Bolsa Fam\u00edlia<\/a>\u00a0has significantly boosted school attendance rates across Brazil<\/a>, but the quality of education means that the country still lags far behind others in overall global rankings; Brazil ranked in the\u00a054th position of 65 countries measured<\/a> by the OECD in 2011. Despite quality of education being one of the main points<\/a> in Brazil\u2019s 2014 National Educational Plan (PNE) and a <\/span>121% increase<\/span><\/a> in investment in public education between 2000 and 2008 alone<\/span>, as of yet there have been\u00a0no signs of improvement<\/a>. The Institute for Research and Administration in Education (IPAE<\/a>) recommended reforms, which include lengthening the school day, investing in technology, providing job stability for teachers, increasing efficiency in school management, and proper policy implementation from federal to municipal to individual school levels.<\/p>\n

What are the main difficulties facing public education in Rio de Janeiro?<\/h3>\n

Quality of education in Rio was a significant factor in the student protests<\/a> that began in March 2016, and which saw students occupying public high schools to demand higher standards of education, access to school resources and facilities, and better learning conditions, among other factors<\/a>. Serious investment is needed to maintain Rio\u2019s public schools, many of which are housed in crumbling, state-owned buildings: a 2011 survey carried out by Rio\u2019s Municipal Education Secretariat<\/a> found that 62% of municipal school infrastructure was “satisfactory, poor or very poor.” No investments have been made despite the 2011 research, and <\/span>between 2014 and 2015 <\/span>Rio state <\/span>also<\/span>\u00a0saw\u00a0a 72% fall in investment<\/a> in infrastructure and maintenance. Nor were<\/a> any new state school units built by Rio’s state government during this period<\/span>, despite a promise made before the 2014 World Cup<\/a> for 177 new public schools by 2015<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The shortcomings of the public school system\u00a0are most obvious among students aged 15 and over, who should be beginning high school. By the time students in Rio de Janeiro finish Ensino Fundamental II, 23.5% are two years or more behind. Rio de Janeiro state has the highest rate of delayed graduation in Brazil: 27.4% of private high school students and 51.6% of public high school students graduate late, implying repeated school years. In research commissioned in 2010, low high school\u00a0attendance rates\u00a0were attributed to\u00a0a stronger economy attracting young people to join the workforce, a lack of interest by\u00a0students, poor organization of disciplines in school, urban violence<\/a>, teenage pregnancy, and a lack of opportunity to pursue higher education.<\/p>\n

How do\u00a0different areas of the city compare?<\/h3>\n

Socioeconomic differences between\u00a0various areas of the city primarily present themselves through literacy rates. Approximately 2.8% of citizens aged 15 or older in the city of Rio are illiterate, and in Tijuca<\/a>, M\u00e9ier and across the South Zone<\/a>, adult illiteracy is as low as 2%. However, in\u00a0Santa Cruz<\/a>\u00a0(West Zone),\u00a0Ramos<\/a> and Inha\u00fama (North Zone)\u00a0this number is almost double, with adult illiteracy reaching 4.9%, 4.2% and 4.1% respectively.<\/p>\n

Attendance rates are another area that demonstrate disparities within Rio. According to the city\u2019s Regional Planning\u00a0department, high school attendance drops \u201cin areas of lower income,\u201d such as Penha<\/a>\u00a0where only 80.4% of those aged 15-17 were studying in 2010. Meanwhile in Tijuca and Madureira<\/a>\u2014where the average income is significantly higher than in some other areas in the city\u201491% of high school age students were attending school.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Black and mixed race students had\u00a0disproportionately low pre- and high school attendance rates as well as high functional illiteracy and grade repetition rates across Rio state. Daycare attendance rates were lower among <\/span>black and mixed race children,\u00a0as were preschool and high school attendance rates prior to the introduction of current legislation. Literacy rates reflect this: 4% of black preschoolers were illiterate compared to 1.8% of white preschoolers.<\/span>\u00a0Among\u00a08 and 9 year-olds, 8%\u00a0of black pupils and 4% of white pupils were illiterate. And among\u00a0high school students this was 2.2% of blacks and 1.4% of whites. The city of Rio\u2019s data also\u00a0show\u00a0\u201cblacks consistently registering higher distortion<\/a>\u00a0rates than white students,\u201d referring to rates at which\u00a0students are studying at a lower level than intended for their age, usually due to grade repetition.<\/p>\n

Maps published in late 2015<\/a> show that Rio\u2019s black and mixed race citizens live predominantly in lower-income, more marginalized areas such as Ramos and Santa Cruz, while the South Zone and Tijuca are largely populated by whites. Education across the city maps out the socioeconomic and racial inequalities present in Rio de Janeiro today.<\/p>\n

The most up-to-date information available on literacy rates, spatial and socioeconomic disparities in Rio de Janeiro come from a study conducted by Rio’s city\u00a0government, which can be found here<\/a>. This is partially based on information from the 2010 National Census, in addition to more recent research.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas Rio de Janeiro state has one of the largest public school networks in the world, with more than 1,000 municipal schools\u00a0alone. Across Brazil, public schools\u00a0absorb\u00a0approximately 80% of students. Places in public […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":30141,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1282,328,1329],"tags":[697,880,397,203,124,1616,1019],"writer":[1956],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-30135","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-research-analysis","8":"category-understanding-rio","9":"category-by-international-observers","10":"tag-bolsa-familia","11":"tag-census","12":"tag-education","13":"tag-inequality","14":"tag-race","15":"tag-reference","16":"tag-right-to-education","17":"writer-ciara-long"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30135"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=30135"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=30135"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=30135"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=30135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}