São Paulo - Next year the government should inaugurate a project to create 500 schools that will grant trade diplomas. According to the Minister of Education, Tarso Genro, the schools will be established in the factories and firms that participate in the project, and the instructors will be workers who already exercise the functions they will teach.

"The teachers will be veteran workers, who are experienced and know how to operate a lathe or assemble and take apart a computer and will transmit their knowledge to the young people who sign up," the Minister explained.

"It is not an isolated project; it directs the question of literacy training to processes of social inclusion through work," Genro affirmed.

According to the Minister, the goal is to transform factories and companies into places of professional qualification with certification. "The Ministry of Education will enter with resources, and the firm with the physical setting and the instructors, who, if need be, will be trained by the Ministry," he explained.

Agência Brasil
Reporter: Liésio Pereira
Translator: David Silberstein
08/12/2004