Brasília - Immediately after the announcement of the UNESCO (United Nations Education, Science, and Culture Organization) Index of Educational Development, ranking Brazil 72nd among the 127 countries included in the survey, the Minister of Education, Tarso Genro, said that the position of Brazil should not be blamed on either the present or previous Administration. In his opinion, this classification "is the result of the history of successive Administrations that lacked a strategic, republican mentality and failed to regard education as an essential public good."

In the UNESCO study, which refers to 2001 and 2002, Brazil ranks 72nd overall, 32nd in universal primary education, 67th in adult literacy, 66th in gender equality, and 87th in the percentage of students who remain in school through the 5th grade.

According to the Minister, one of the options for improving education in the country would be for developed countries to allow developing countries to discount their investments in education from their debts. Thus, the more a developing country invested in education, the smaller its debt.

"It is useless for more developed countries to tell us to invest more on education. We know that. UNESCO knows and works with us strategically along these lines. It is necessary for the responsibility for this investment to be shared, since countries like ours are countries that have incurred huge government debts," he asserted.

Agência Brasil
Reporter: Bruno Bocchini
Translator: David Silberstein
11/09/2004