Education and economic growth in Brazil of 2000s

Resumo

Brazilian economy was appointed, at the middle 2000s, as a bright promising economy in a global scale. Following the prognostic, Brazil was confirmed as an emergent nation along the years, and even on the harsh period of the international financial crisis of 2008, Brazil still follows his own positive growth path. Among others, some statistics were considerably important to demonstrate Brazil success, such as: GDP, trade balance, consumption, investments and further, launching Brazilian economy on the top 10 largest economies in the world. Despite these positive aspects, the Brazilian education did not follow the same path. While there were improvements in economic-social aspects, such as: reduction of poverty, income equality, social inclusion, housing, sanitation and others, the quality of primarily education did remained in a lower level than world average, according to PISA tests and specialized educational works. These two distinct features contribute to the existence of a paradox between: education and economic growth. The aims of this article is to present the positive and negative aspects of Brazilian economic growth path, pointing out achievements and fails. For then presents a critical view on education system using PISA and others reports. Paradoxically the level of Brazilian education has not become a barrier preventing economic growth, however the gap between education and economic progress would indicate an obstacle ahead. Indeed this will be a necessary challenge to the future of Brazilian government and society.