Perspective on Distance Learning - Brazil Prof. Itana Gimenes Universidade Estadual de Maringá Current 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 ( Higher level education is provided by (public or private): – Universities – University centres – Faculties – Federal Institutes Together they offer ~ courses (2009)

Evolution of Higher Level Education Institutions from 2000 – 2009 (

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

UAB 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 Distance Education

Overview of the Courses (2009) Distance Education CourseRegistered% Total838,125 1Pedagogy838, Management228, Social service68, Literature49,7495,9 5Accounting29,9443,6 6Mathematics19,6262,8 7Biology196262,3 8History16,8642 9Social Communication15,8021,9 10Environment13,0911,6 Others85,95610,3

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

PNPG 2005 – 2010 and 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) – candidates for – 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.