Perspective on Distance Learning - Brazil

Prof. Itana GimenesUniversidade Estadual de Maringá

www.uem.brCurrent Visiting Professor at MCT

Brazil

• Population: 190M (2010)• Education is in Portuguese (all

levels)• ~ 12% of the population has

access to higher level education (undergraduate courses).

Education

• MEC – Department of Education and Culture (www.mec.gov.br)

• Higher level education is provided by (public or private):– Universities– University centres– Faculties– Federal Institutes

• Together they offer ~ 29.000 courses (2009)

Evolution of Higher Level Education Institutions from 2000 – 2009 (www.inep.gov.br)

Distance Education

• MEC/CAPES is a sector that originally supported the qualification of University staff. Currently it:– regulates and approves postgraduate programs– has a division that supports distance education

within the UAB system (Open University)

• MEC/SEED – special sector of MEC for Distance Education

UABwww.uab.capes.gov.br

• UAB is the translation of OU, but it is not a physical place or institution. It is an integrated action between MEC/SEED and DED/CAPES (Created in 2005).– It is a system (project) that aggregates the current

distance education courses;– Courses are offered by Federal and State universities;– There are regional centres that support the universities– Courses are mainly: undergraduate and “lato sensu”

postgraduate (diploma);– There are not research programmes.

Evolution of the number of registered students and teaching mode 2001-2009

Distance EducationDistance

Education

Overview of the Courses (2009)Distance Education

Course Registered %

Total 838,125

1 Pedagogy 838,125 34.2

2 Management 228,771 27.3

3 Social service 68,055 8.1

4 Literature 49,749 5,9

5 Accounting 29,944 3,6

6 Mathematics 19,626 2,8

7 Biology 19626 2,3

8 History 16,864 2

9 Social Communication 15,802 1,9

10 Environment 13,091 1,6

Others 85,956 10,3

Current UAB data

–92 Institutions involved; –587 regional centers;–950 courses;– There are courses in Mozambique.

PNPG 2005 – 2010 and 2011 -2020

• National plans for the postgraduate program system– Emphasizes the need to qualify basic education

teachers of the public sector;– Currently there is call for course proposals.

Initiatives

• Recent example - PROFMAT: professional master course on mathematics offered by a pool of Universities (2011)– 20.000 candidates for 1.192– Grants offered for public school teachers by MEC.

Conclusions

• Distance education comes from public and private sectors.

• Brazilian government – has set public basic education as priority;– It has been increasing investment in research;– It has been expanding the number of courses in

public universities (evening courses);– Postgraduate programs are increasing.

• Distance education tends to increase in the same proportion.