1. EDUCATION REQUIRED TO BRAZIL IN XXI CENTURY
Fernando Alcoforado*
Education in Brazil should be supported in the conception of three great thinkers:
Brazilian Anisio Teixeira and Paulo Freire and the French Edgar Morin. Anisio Teixeira
was a lawyer, educator, and Brazilian author and central personage in the history of
education in Brazil in the 1920s and 1930s. Paulo Freire was an educator, a pedagogue
and Brazilian philosopher and is considered one of the greatest thinkers in the history of
world pedagogy. Edgar Morin is an anthropologist, sociologist and philosopher and
emeritus researcher at the French CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)
in France.
The thought of Anisio Teixeira
Anisio Teixeira was the main proponent of the great changes that marked the Brazilian
education in the twentieth century as a pioneer in the implementation of public schools
at all levels that reflected his goal to provide free education for all. Teixeira became
famous not only in the role of manager of the educational reforms, but also as a
philosopher of education. Teixeira had an attitude of permanent restlessness before the
facts considering the truth not as something definite, but that is sought continuously.
For Teixeira, the changing world as we live requires a new kind of conscious and well
groomed man to solve their own problems watching the triple revolution of current life:
intellectual, by the increase of science; industrial, by advancement of technology; and
social by democracy. This concept would require, according Teixeira, "education in
constantly changing, constantly rebuilding".
In the 1920s, with the growing of industrialization and urbanization worldwide, the
need to prepare Brazil for the development took a group of Brazilian intellectuals,
notably including Teixeira, became interested in education - seen as a central element to
reshape Brazil. These intellectuals saw in the state system of free and open education
the only effective means of fighting against social inequality in Brazil. This movement
called New School gained momentum in the 1930s, especially after the release in 1932
of the Manifesto of the New School. The document advocated universal public, secular
and free school. Among the names of the vanguard that signed the Manifesto were
Teixeira.
According to Teixeira, the new responsibilities of school were, therefore, educate rather
than instruct, train free men instead of men and docile to face the uncertainties of the
future. The act of learning itself, said Teixeira has long meant simple memorization,
then your sense now includes the understanding and expression of what was taught and,
finally, something more involved: win a course of action.
The thought of Paulo Freire
Paulo Freire, in turn, advocated education for economic development and democracy
building. Freire defended the thesis that the student should "learn to learn", learn to
solve problems, develop habits of solidarity, participation, research and also create
mental dispositions and critical opportunities to participate in the school's own
command, and self-government as a major concern.

2. Paulo Freire considered inadequate the methods used by the new principles of "active
school", needed the new school building in society. He proposed the establishment of
"culture circles" to establish a true "communication" between educators and learners,
refuting the traditional method, in which the teacher made “communicated” to students.
In Paulo Freire system, culture circles seek to replace classrooms upright and traditional
relationship between teacher and student.
With this approach, the teacher would assume the role of coordinator of discussions, the
student would act as a participant in the circle of culture, the traditional classroom
would be replaced by dialogue and curricula program would consider existential
situations of the community and the country, that for challenging the students in
discussion thereof, would be able to get them to the most critical positions. The "critical
consciousness" is learned as the problems of society are understood by humans and are
subject to reflection and action on his part.
According to Paulo Freire, for some, the man is a being who must adapt to the world. In
this sense, the educational activity, its methods, its goals, must turn to this conception.
For others, however, the man is responsible for transforming the world which requires a
diametrically opposite approach. According to Paulo Freire, the man cannot be reduced
to a mere spectator of reality. Their ontological vocation is the guy who operates and
transforms the world.
Paulo Freire defended the view that it was necessary to overcome the contradiction
between the educator who is always educates and learner who is educated, the educator
who imposes discipline and the student being disciplined, the educator who has spoken
and the student who listens, the educator which prescribes and learner that follows the
prescription, the educator who chooses the content of programs and the student who
receives it in the form of "deposit", which is always the educator and the student who
knows what they do not know, the educator who is subject of the process and educating
its object. This false conception of education that takes educating and adjusting liability,
rests on an equally false conception of man.
The thought of Edgar Morin
Today, the world is inflated of information. We received enough information that
contributes very little to the growth of the individual and the collective. Educational
institutions do little to contribute to the mass of information is available and properly
used for the benefit of humanity. Education is not linked to the formation of critical
individual who is educated to think and be sensitive to their fellow men and to local and
global events. We were faced with the educational background of individuals without a
systemic, overall view, toward the formation of critical, reflective and individual
citizens, as advocated Paulo Freire.
The contemporary education does not allow the company to acquire the necessary
knowledge to be able to think and build a better world. It is general misinformation of
individuals and the community at large around the world about what is happening in the
fields of economy, science and technology, the environment and international relations,
among others. This misinformation affects the overwhelming majority of the world's
population so it is unable to correctly interpret the reality they live in and, much less,
turn it on. Education in the contemporary era contributes to the alienation of human
beings because it is not thought of as cultivation of the spirit, as a condition for the
advancement of humanity. After all what is the meaning of true education?

3. In 1999, at the initiative of UNESCO, and its then president, Federico Mayor, Edgar
Morin, anthropologist, French philosopher and sociologist, was asked to systematize a
set of reflections that serve as a starting point for rethinking education in the XXI
century. These reflections are contained in the work of Edgar Morin's Os Sete Saberes
Necessários à Educação no Futuro (The seven indispensable knowledge in education
for the future). According to Morin, the education of the future requires a
transdisciplinary effort to be able to rejoin sciences and humanities and break the
opposition between nature and culture. Edgar Morin, in these "seven knowledge "
exposes not a creed to be fulfilled uncritically, but a cognitive challenge to all thinkers
engaged in rethinking the direction that educational institutions will have to take, if they
will not succumb to the inertia of fragmentation and excessive disciplining
characteristics of these last decades.
According to Morin, the great paradigm of the West, breaker of subject and object, of
soul and body, the existence and essence, need to be disobeyed and refuted, that the
thought moose flights freer. He makes the case that we need to relearn how to grout the
part and the whole, the text and context, global and planetary, and confront the
paradoxes that the techno-economic development has brought. If the twentieth century
eventually devote a form of development that, every day, will be demonstrating
unsustainable, it is clear that new forms of solidarity and responsibility manifested by
stimulating the unity of diversity.
The seven indispensable knowledge enunciated by Morin are: 1) Show blindness of
knowledge, 2) Teaching the principles of relevant knowledge, 3) Show the human
condition, 4) Show the earthly identity, 5) addressing uncertainties; 6) Teaching human
understanding, and, 7) Show the ethics of mankind.
To show the blindness of knowledge, Morin argues that contemporary education must
show that knowledge is not a mirror of things or the outside world and he is always
threatened by error and illusion. To teach the principles of relevant knowledge, Morin
states that education should show an overall view of establishing the relationships
between parts and wholes as a whole as opposed to what happens nowadays that
requires knowledge fragmented according to disciplines.
How to show the human condition, Morin said that the complex nature of human beings
is totally fragmented in contemporary education through the disciplines making it
impossible to learn what it means to be human in its totality and their common identity
with other human beings. How to show the earthly identity, Morin says that the
planetary destiny of mankind is another reality until now ignored by contemporary
education that would show that all humans share a common destiny.
As for coping with uncertainty, Morin defends the thesis that education should include
teaching of the uncertainties raised by the various areas of science and strategies that
allow the individual to face the unforeseen, the unexpected. How to teach human
understanding, Morin said that education for understanding among human beings is
absent in the contemporary teaching which applies to human relationships come out of
its current barbaric state.
Finally, showing the ethics of mankind, Morin believes that education should not only
contribute to the awareness of our "Earth-Homeland" that translates into a relationship
of mutual control between society and individuals for democracy and, considering

4. humanity as planetary community. The proposal for an Edgar Morin is the way to
overcome the alienation of human beings in the contemporary era.
The universalization of education with the use of the distance education system
Today, humanity has all the technological conditions for universal education with the
use of the education system in distance learning (ODL) which is modernly, a mode of
education mediated technologies in which students and teachers are separated spatially
and / or temporally, ie, they are not physically present in a classroom environment for
teaching and learning. In ODL, teachers and students are connected, interrelated
technologies called telematics, such as the Internet and hypermedia in particular, but
other communication features , such as letter , radio, television , video , CD- ROM , the
phone can also be used, fax, phone, iPod, iPad, laptop, etc. Therefore ODL is
characterized by the establishment of a multi-way communication. In this type of
education students and teachers need not be present at a specific location during the
training period.
Today, the possibilities are wide of the ODL. You can do a distance course in virtually
the same way the classroom, with students watching, the internet classes for teachers,
with exhibition of audiovisual content. The evaluations can be done in real time, also
the network, with some time for its completion. The teaching methodology, how to
assess student learning and the role of faculty in distance education have undergone a
revolution. Outside, there is a tendency to close the border between distance education
and face. Courses that were once exclusively face already include a piece performed
remotely. And the distance education programs often include classroom activities.
It is common sense that does not build a nation without quality education. And Brazil
needs to universalize education at all levels, from primary education to higher
education. One of the great challenges of Brazilian education at this time is in the
expansion of higher education with the use of ODL. Instead of multiplying structures of
universities and colleges throughout Brazil with high costs, should, instead, multiply the
number of distance education courses through distance education technology. It is in
this sense that ODL can make an important contribution, expanding the potential access
of Brazilian education, especially in states and municipalities with greater difficulty in
mobility for students.
The weaknesses of education in State of Bahia and Brazil
The weaknesses of Brazilian education are evidenced mainly by the Pisa (Programme
for International Student Assessment), which seeks to measure the knowledge and skills
in reading, math and science students 15 years of age both industrialized OECD
member countries (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Economic
Development) and partner countries . Among OECD members are Germany, Greece,
Chile, South Korea, Mexico, Netherlands and Poland. Countries such as Argentina,
Brazil, China, Peru, Qatar and Serbia appear as partners and are also part of the
evaluation.
In 2012, the performance of Brazilian students in reading worsened compared to 2009.
According to data from Pisa, Brazil got the 55th position in the ranking with 65
countries of reading, below countries like Chile, Uruguay, Romania and Thailand. In
sciences, Brazil got the 59 th place ranking with 65 countries. Mathematics was the only
subject in which Brazilian students showed progress in performance, albeit small. The

5. improvement was not enough for the country to move forward and ranking Brazil
slipped to 58th in math. Brazilian students finished in 38th place among young people
from 44 countries on a test of mathematical problem solving done recently by the
OECD.
Final report of the study Bahia: for a quality public school prepared by the Secretariat
of Planning of Bahia in 2006, presents historical data on the number of students enrolled
in primary Bahia which shows that, from 2000, began to show its evolution declines of
8.1% in 2003 and 7.6 % in 2004 abruptly reversing a trend of higher average annual
growth in the number of high school students in Bahia, seen between 1997 and 2003
(15.9 % average growth). The fact that access to school does not mean that students
remain in it, what is perceived by the high dropout rate in public schools. For schooling
materializes at a level of quality, it is necessary that students have access to school,
remains there and learn during this stay. This view is shared by many scholars and by
many policy-makers.
The students remaining in school needs to be linked to learning, which has not occurred
satisfactorily in Bahia and Brazil. Data from external, national and state assessments
show a wide gap between the skills and abilities that students should have and those
who demonstrate they have acquired. The results of the Evaluation of Educational
Achievement from the public in Bahia with the testing with contents of Portuguese
Language and Mathematics indicate very poor percentage of students in the subjects
tested. The situation is serious in Portuguese, but it is especially worrying in
Mathematics, echoing national trends. In a simple analysis, public education network in
Bahia is not guaranteeing minimum levels of proficiency in those disciplines.
The low quality of education, which contributes to the insufficient level of learning of
elementary students, negatively impacts on higher education in Brazil. Taking as an
example the teaching of Engineering in Brazil, found that, while each year enroll
150,000 students in engineering colleges, only 48 000 are graduates, ie, only 32 % of
those entering university entrance exams. This resulted from the poor quality of
secondary education, especially in Portuguese, mathematics and science because
students are unable to follow the courses of Engineering. This is one of the causes of
having insufficient engineers in Brazil today.
Based on data from Pisa and considering the state of education in Bahia is striking the
fragility of the educational system in Bahia and Brazil that would require the adoption
of profound changes in Brazil's Bahia and educational policy. These changes are
fundamental not only to prepare people for work in quantity and qualification, but
fundamentally, to life as a full citizen. For this to happen, we must inspire us in the
teachings of Anisio Teixeira, Paulo Freire and Edgar Morin to reverse the grave
situation in the educational system in Brazil in the contemporary era.
Conclusions
Urge the outbreak of a revolution in the methods of teaching or pedagogy in Bahia and
Brazil along the lines recommended by Anisio Teixeira, Paulo Freire and Edgar Morin.
It should be noted that, besides agreeing with the thought Anisio Teixeira, Paulo Freire
and Edgar Morin, it is also important to consider the thought of the great educator Olga
Mettig who always considered education as a system, a product of evolution of society
and that needs to be adapted to the environment. Olga Mettig believed that the role of

6. the school was to educate the whole human being able to develop their physical, mental
and moral levels.
The pedagogical thought of Olga Mettig was that the person can rise up and become a
member of a better society. These people contribute to the development of a just and
caring society. For this, the formation of these people would be grounded in moral,
spiritual and civic values. Society should be composed of ethical people in search of
peace and happiness.
Urge the universalization of education with the use of the distance education system. To
revolutionize teaching methods will be created the conditions to multiply the number of
students in Brazil with the universalization of distance education and what the student
can change the world we live in. To achieve these goals, the Brazilian government
should raise investment in education, which today corresponds to 4.5 % of GDP to 7 %
of GDP as do developed countries worldwide.
In addition, Brazil needs to combat illiteracy that today corresponds to 10 % of its
population, and that those who read more than 30 % did not know how to interpret what
they read in a single newspaper article. They are functionally illiterate. While in
developed countries this ratio is zero. Brazil must therefore equate and definitively
resolve the question of education at all levels of education, the foundation of all public
policies, the main one, the one that can produce qualified citizens to participate as actors
in the policy development process, economic social and the Brazilian nation.
* Fernando Alcoforado , member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor of Territorial
Planning and Regional Development from the University of Barcelona, a university professor and
consultant in strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is
the author of Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova
(Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São
Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado.
Universidade de Barcelona, http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e
Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX
e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of
the Economic and Social Development-The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Muller
Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe
Planetária (P&A Gráfica e Editora, Salvador, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e
combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011)
and Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012),
among others.