Brasília, November 21, 2002 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Opening the seminar "Textbook Policy: The Challenge of Quality," minister Paulo Renato Souza affirmed today that the Ministry of Education (MEC) will conclude the entire process of textbook evaluation and leave it, together with a guide prepared and installed on the Internet, for the government-elect.

Souza emphasized that the bidding process to select textbooks is already in place to be carried out next year, so that all the new administration will need to do is authorize the publisher and the textbooks for 2004 can arrive in Brazilian public schools on time. "In 2002 the MEC spent around R$ 500 million (approximately US$ 142 million) to acquire and distribute textbooks. 110.5 million books and 10.14 million dictionaries were delivered to the 31,942,076 basic education students(grades 1 to 8) in the nearly 200 thousand public schools in Brazil," the minister declared. (DAS)