DearUNSecretaryGeneral,

Brazilseducationsystemiswaybehindinmanyaspectscomparedtoothercountries.
TherehavebeenseverallegislationlawspassedinordertoimproveBrazilseducationsystem.
In1996alawwaspassedthatrequiredacommonnationalbasisforthecurriculumusedin
primaryandsecondaryeducation,aswellasincreasingthenumberofschooldaysandthe
length.TheNationalSystemofHigherEducationEvaluationwascreatedwhichestablisheda
nineyearprimaryeducationsystem.Educationissupervisedbygovernmentofficesthatwork
togetheratthemunicipality,state,andfederallevel.Municipalitiesareprimaryresponsiblefor
arrangingandcontrollingearlychildhoodeducation,whilethestatesandfederalgovernmentare
responsibleforplanningandcontrollingprimaryandsecondaryeducation.Also,thefederal
governmentisinchargeofregulationofprivateinstitutions(Stanek, C. (2013).

There are three priorities set by the United Nations which include expanding access to
education for every child, improve the quality of learning, and foster global citizenship. The first
priority, putting every child in school is facing difficulties due to the fact that millions of children
who start primary school are unable to finish. This is due to many factors such as coming from a
low-income country (Global Education First Initiative). Many Brazilian children are dropping
out in high school, and only about one-third of children get to sixth grade. This is very shocking
to me, although the government is taking steps to improve schooling in Brazil (BRAZIL). This
image below is showing the poverty rates throughout the world. Brazils poverty rate is around
30-40% which is pretty high compared to the United States, but nowhere near as bad as some
countries in Africa (Poverty Statistics and Graph).

Poverty Level in Brazil

The second priority, improving the quality of education, is judged based on what the
children learn. There needs to be highly motivated teachers rather than poorly trained teachers, to
help with students learning. This graph below displays a study done on the quality of preschools
in Brazil. As shown by the graph, most preschools are inadequate or basic while there are very
few good preschools and no excellent ranked ones (Wogan, J. B.).
Quality of Preschools in Brazil

And finally, fostering global citizenship in order to give people the understanding, skills, and
values needed to cooperate and connect with the challenges that our century faces. The lack of
teacher capacity is a big issue that Brazil is facing (Global Education First Initiative). If Brazil
wants to fix their education system and the way that students learn, teachers need to be able to be
comfortable with the content they are teaching along with modeling it. Also, the number of
teachers in Brazil is drastically smaller than those of other countries. This could be an issue as to
why Brazils education system is not that great. They do not have enough skilled teachers to
promote growth in the students. As you can see from the chart below, Brazil is at the bottom of
teacher status index.

Teacher Status Index

Retrieved from http://www.edudemic.com/global-teacher-status-index/

References
BRAZIL. (n.d.). Retrieved April 07, 2016, from http://www.brazil.org.za/brazil-education.html
Global Education First Initiative. (n.d.). Retrieved April 07, 2016, from
http://www.globaleducationfirst.org/priorities.html
Poverty Statistics and Graph - Beyond the Numbers. (n.d.). Retrieved April 07, 2016, from
http://www.poverties.org/poverty-statistics.html
Stanek, C. (2013). The Educational System of Brazil. IEM Spotlight, 10(1), 1-6. Retrieved April
7, 2016, from
http://www.nafsa.org/uploadedFiles/Chez_NAFSA/Resource_Library_Assets/Networks/
ACE/EDU Systems Brazil.pdf
Wogan, J. B. (n.d.). What the U.S. Can Learn from Brazil's Less-Than-Universal Preschool.
Retrieved April 07, 2016, from http://www.governing.com/topics/education/gov-brazilless-than-universal-preschool.html