Carolina Pimentel
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - This morning, president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, speaking during his weekly radio program "Breakfast with the President" (Café com o Presidente), declared that the objective of his administration is to make it possible for 34 million youths between the ages of 15 and 24 to go to university and get jobs. Calling education the most important investment a government can make, Lula said that his objective was to ensure that Brazil will be able to compete with more developed nations on an equal footing.

"We are concerned with these young people. We must do something for them so that we can be sure that Brazil's future will be better.... I always tell mothers and fathers how my own life was changed after I learned a trade.... The best inheritance a parent can leave a child is an education," said the president.

Participating in the program was the minister of Education, Fernando Haddad, who announced the creation of the Brazilian Open University which will be specifically aimed at teachers in remote locations who will be able to use it to obtain degrees or participate in continuous learning programs. The minister said that by next year the Open University will be available in 300 municipalities.

Haddad also mentioned other programs over the last three years that expanded school lunches to day-care, greater availability of universities outside urban centers, the distribution of free textbooks for high school students and scholarships for low-income family students to attend university.

President Lula concluded by saying that with education comes the knowledge and professional competence that will make Brazil a superpower one day. "The more skilled and knowledgeable our population is the better our products, the more competitive our goods, and the better our quality of life will be."

Translation: Allen Bennett