Much more impactful than the official discourse surrounding the ‘National Commitment to Literate Children’ – a program recently launched by the government federal government – the sad reality is that the country is falling behind in educational matters, even compared to nations at similar stages of development or lower.
According to data from the ‘Education at a Glance’ report, released this Tuesday (12), Brazil has spent on basic education, since the 2010s, US$ 3,583 per student/year, less than 1/3 of the average of US$ 10,949, referring to the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The conclusion is that Brazilian spending is the third worst among the 42 member countries of the international organization.
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Despite having tripled the amount invested per student in early childhood, primary and secondary education in the last 13 years, the Brazil ‘bites the dust’ against peers like South Korea, the ‘Asian tiger’, whose contributions jumped from US$3,000 to US$14 thousand; Portugal, which increased its contribution from US$3,500 to US$10,000 and Australia, whose contribution was ‘boosted’ from US$5,000 to US$12,000.
Far above Brazil's meager resources, in Europe, small Luxembourg allocates US$26,000 per student/year, surpassing Switzerland, which invests US$17,000 and the United States, with US$15,000.
Even taking into account the massive contingent of 45 million students present in its public schools and the country's investment in the sector, corresponding to 4% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product), the result is still not enough to reach the performance of OECD countries, whose average is 3.6% of GDP.
Inversion of priorities – The core of the problem can be, at least in part, explained by the inversion of priorities in Tupiniquim public policy, since the national investment in higher education (which covers 2 million students in universities) is not so far from that applied by countries rich. While Brazil invests US$14,735 per student/year in higher education, OECD countries invest US$14,839.
Also going against the global trend, the country's spending on education, after the pandemic crisis, fell, on average, 10.5%, compared to the expansion of 2.1%, between 2019 and 2020, among OECD countries. While admitting that official investment in universities can be considered high, experts emphasize that it is necessary to have more resources dedicated to basic education.
Taking international models as a reference, the central idea is that basic education resources should be allocated to policies that bring results, such as full-time school, literacy, teacher training, early childhood and professional education and technological. Currently, countries such as Finland, the Netherlands, Canada and Denmark invest above the OECD average when it comes to basic education students.
