Word: brazilianizing
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Certainly, something has held Brazil back. Brazil grew an average of 2.6% from 2000 to 2005--less than half the rate of Russia, South Korea and India and less than a third that of China. Such disparities have convinced many Brazilian business leaders that if their government does not invest in education, then they must assume the responsibility themselves. By offering lessons in everything from basic literacy to aeronautics, "companies are taking on the role of the state," says Fernando Guimarães, director of SESI, an industrial organization that coordinates adult-education programs at big companies...
...Mangili. "They have finished secondary school, but they can't add without a calculator." The most recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that exactly half the country's 15-year-olds failed even the most basic level of math proficiency. In reading, 74% of Brazilian students could not demonstrate detailed understanding of texts, and a quarter to a third could not read even simple sentences...
...result of its educational failings, Brazilian companies are struggling to find qualified workers, and even those they do hire often lack the necessary savvy to contribute to the companies' long-term success. "There are two conceptual frameworks to understand innovation," says Alberto Rodriguez, author of a soon-to-be-released World Bank study on how better education spurs growth. "You have the high-tech, frontier innovation, and you have the adaptation and improvement of technology that happen day to day in firms." Economists call that everyday improvement total factor productivity. It is the x factor that allows an economy...
...companies alone will not be able to provide it. Improving education will take a commitment from Brazil's leaders. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva recently admitted that Brazil was "the worst in the world" when it comes to education. A former union leader who quit school to sell peanuts and shine shoes, Lula told teachers in a speech March 15 that the old methods had clearly failed. "I don't think Brazil will be able resolve the problem of the stock of people who were left on the margins of the educational process using the normal traditional...
Just what that new strategy might be, he didn't say. Lula's vague promises are frustrating to Brazilian businesses, but his move to put education on the agenda gives them reason for optimism. "We still lack a clear program, but that seems to be changing," says Guimarães. "I am hopeful...