Who said it doesn’t get worse? In the international comparison of basic education, Brazil was worse. And I was already in a bad situation.
The focus of this comparative evaluation this time was mathematics teaching. Our 15-year-olds, the range covered by this international comparative study, present results well below those of several other developing countries.
These numbers on education have a lot to do with other numbers published today, those on the growth of the Brazilian Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which are, basically, those of a stagnant economy.
Two aspects caught attention: a drop in the investment rate and a drop in the savings rate. In other words, a decrease in the country’s ability to get out of the situation it has been in for a long time — a middle-income country. And closing the gap for the richest — it has, essentially, remained the same for decades.
In this sense, the link between the tests that assess the knowledge of 15-year-olds and the economy’s capacity for growth is very eloquent. This connection is called productivity stagnation. It is called deficient human capital formation — investment mainly in people’s training.
Is there anything positive in all of this? Brazil could have fallen even further in educational indices if it weren’t for the actions of states and municipalities at the time of the pandemic. Speaking of the economy, family consumption has increased, inflation has decreased — perhaps interest rates will also fall.
But the overall summary is not good. We are a country with anemic productivity, coexisting with a flabby, wasteful and inefficient state.
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
