Perspective on Distance Learning
- Brazil
Prof. Itana Gimenes
Universidade Estadual de Maringá
www.uem.br
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
(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
UAB
www.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
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.