Bruna Vieira
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - The Secretariat of Ongoing Education, Literacy Training, and Diversity (Secad) of the Ministry of Education (MEC) informed yesterday (18) that this year's budget for indigenous school education will be 233% greater than last year's: US$ 4.2 million (R$ 11 million), as against US$ 1.2 million (R$ 3.3 million).

Of this total, US$ 1.9 million (R$ 5 million) will be spent on the construction of 140 indigenous schools; US$ 387 thousand (R$ 1 million), on the acquisition of teaching degrees; US$ 657 thousand (R$ 1.7 million), on the production of instructional materials, such as books and CDs; US$ 231 thousand (R$ 600 thousand), on secondary education; and the rest, on teacher training.

There are 148 thousand Indian students in 24 states in all regions of Brazil: 14,152 in pre-school; 99,632 in the first four years of fundamental education; 19,371 in the fifth to eighth grades; 2,025 in high school; and 12,369 in youth and adult education.

Indian school enrollment has grown. According to last year's School Census, the number of students in indigenous schools rose 7% between 2003 and 2004. The number of schools that function in Indian territories also increased, from 2,228 to 2,368, a growth of 6.28%.

Data from the National Health Foundation (Funasa) indicate that 34% of the indigenous population (which totals 440,000) attends school.

Translation: David Silberstein