Brasília, February 26, 2004 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The Ministry of Education's (MEC) National Educational Development Fund (FNDE) has already programmed the number of textbooks that will be offered to public school students in fundamental education grades 1-8 in 2005. 124.8 million books and 4 million dictionaries will be purchased for distribution to 32.5 million students in 153 thousand schools. These numbers are based on data from the School Census conducted by the Anísio Teixeira National Institute of Educational Studies and Research (Inep/MEC).

The process of choosing and acquiring the textbooks (Portuguese Language/Literacy, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies or History and Geography) begins far in advance, so that the books are available to schools and students right at the start of the school year. This year, through a partnership with the Brazilian Post Office and Telegraph Company , the FNDE once again guaranteed delivery on time. 115,260,963 textbooks and 4,026,920 Portugese dictionaries are being distributed, together with ancillary readings contained in 1,506,159 collections of the National School Library Program (PNBE)

The National Textbook Program (PNLD) is based on the principles of open participation by private publishers and free choice on the part of teachers. By the end of this month, the FNDE will approve the National Textbook Guide, with summaries and indications of the books that each school will choose to work with in 2005. This year's Guide, prepared with the help of the Secretariat of Infantile and Fundamental Education (SEIF/MEC), will cover books for grades 5-8 and will be valid for three years. Last year's Guide was for books for grades 1-4.

According to Andréia Couto Ribeiro from the PNLD/FNDE, the timetable gives schools until May to choose the books they will adopt next year. They can send this information by filling out the questionnaire included in the Guide or using the FNDE's web site. The next step is for the FNDE to assemble the requests for each publisher and start the purchasing process. In September the publishers will begin to produce the books and deliver them to the Post Office, which will initiate a parallel logistic operation to deliver them. By December 31, most will have already arrived at the schools.

This information was proved by the MEC site. (DAS)