Although Brazil has broadened access to the first years of primary education, it still has low education quality indexes<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u201cThis shows that, while it is important, enrollment data is not enough to illustrate all aspects of the education process; student attendance data should also be considered,\u201d argues Professor Jos\u00e9 Gon\u00e7alves Gondra, from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). Gondra says that, in the nineteenth century, many schools would be shut down due to low attendance rates, which caused them to lose government funding. According to Gondra, the first methodologies used to measure learning emerged in the 1920s, when children and young people began to be evaluated by the schools themselves. \u201cAt the turn of the century, science had not yet developed tools to measure the quality of education, so the analysis of education was based on how enrollment and attendance rates evolved,\u201d he notes.<\/p>\n
Gondra points out that, from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, while some measures continued, Brazil\u2019s education system underwent some interventions. One example is the changing of the names of all educational institutions in an effort to distance them from the educational context of the imperial era. \u201cThe Imperial Col\u00e9gio de Pedro II, for example, was renamed Gin\u00e1sio Nacional (National Gymnasium), while other schools were renamed after illustrious historical figures,\u201d he says, pointing out that the most significant changes were legitimized in the first decades of the twentieth century, thanks to science-based pedagogical lines of study.<\/p>\n
By analyzing how enrollment rates evolved in the country and comparing this data with that of other countries, Colistete also found that, in that period, access to primary education for most school-aged Brazilian children was still restricted and unequal. \u201cBrazil still has one of the worst education indexes in the world\u2014just like it did in the mid-nineteenth century,\u201d he says. In 1900, Brazil\u2019s enrollment rate in primary school was 29 children per 1,000 people; in the United States, Canada, and Germany, it was five times higher. \u201cEven in Latin America, Brazil had one of the lowest rates, behind countries like Argentina, Uruguay, and Peru, whose enrollment rates per thousand individuals were 98, 79, and 72, respectively,\u201d he notes.<\/p>\n
\u201cBetween 1850 and 1930, public leaders and members of the elite took part in the international debate about the importance of investing in primary education for the economic and social development of Brazil,\u201d says historian Vinicius M\u00fcller from Insper. In his PhD thesis, published in the book Educa\u00e7\u00e3o b\u00e1sica, financiamento e autonomia regional <\/em>(Primary education, funding, and regional autonomy; Alameda Editorial, 2018), M\u00fcller studies how the government invested in education in the states of S\u00e3o Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul, and Pernambuco from 1850 to 1930, based on primary sources, such as reports from province presidents and public education inspections, treasury books, and Empire balance sheets listing revenues and expenses. The three regions were chosen due to their distinct economic and social traits.<\/p>\n
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