Brazil education standards contribute to learning crisis: Brazil's dismal education standards are too low for the world's No. 6 economy and threaten to stunt the nation's development.

Vincent Bevins:

JUAZEIRO, Brazil -- As 6-year-old Ana Jamil skips up to the school gates, she has a simple question for the principal: "Is there class today?"

Children here are in the habit of asking, because their teachers often don't show up, as hers didn't the day before.

When Jose Pereira da Silva Municipal School does hold class, students spend just a little more than three hours a day with teachers who are woefully unprepared.

"Around here, there are teachers who can't even read and write," principal Maria Olivia Andrade says. "We're waiting for the government to install air conditioning. We need a library. That's essential. But by far the thing we need most desperately is training for the teachers."

With salaries starting at just $350 a month and their jobs as state workers secure, teachers regularly stay at home. Although more kids are showing up for class, partly because of free lunches and government programs, they still have little chance of leaving with a decent education.

At Andrade's school, the annual goal is that 70% will learn to read and write before they leave at age 14.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at November 22, 2012 2:02 AM
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