Carolina Pimentel
Reporter Agência Brasil

Brasília – In his first weekly radio broadcast of the new year (Café com o Presidente) president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva declared that one of the highlights of his administration's performance in 2005 was in the area of education where three action plans for higher education were put into place: the university reform project, decentralizing of federal universities and academic centers by setting up more of them outside large urban centers, and, the University for All Program (Prouni).

Lula pointed out that the transformation of five schools into federal universities is underway, as well as the creation of another four. And last week 18 contracts were signed for the construction of centers in 14 states (Amazonas, Bahia, Ceará, Espírito Santo, Goiás, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Piauí, Rio Grande do Sul, São Paulo and Sergipe). "We are setting up a total of 32 university extension centers so that the youth in smaller cities can have a chance to study at the university level near their homes," said the president, adding that last year 112,000 youths from low-income families got into federal universities and that it is estimated that in 2006 the number will rise to 140,000.

Translation: Allen Bennett