From Dakar to Brasilia: Monitoring Unesco´s Education Goals

Active participation of Brazilian civil society, coupled with the 2007 education development plan, launched by the Brazilian government provides an interesting example of the influences of the Dakar Goals. The two domestic initiatives share the same name, spirit and direction proposed in Dakar 2000. We analyse here changes in the Brazilian policies and indicators related to the Dakar Education Goals since its creation, we note: (i) an increase in enrolment over the relevant period; (ii) access to primary education was nearly universal by 2000; (iii) over-aged youth and adult students fell considerably during the period, but access did not expand; (iv) illiteracy has been falling at a rate which, if sustained, will enable us to meet the goal; (v) gender discrimination did not take place in Brazil; (vi) most pupil proficiency indicators have progressively deteriorated from what was already a low standard. In summary, quantity indicators did improve over the period while most quality indicators worsened.

Co-financing of social policies in the Brazilian federalism context of the 21st century

O arranjo federativo pós-Constituição de 1988 vem indicando a maior responsabilidade das unidades federativas e dos munícipios na execução das políticas sociais, ao mesmo tempo que se conferiu maior autonomia na arrecadação tributária. A partir dos anos 2000, as novas regulamentações das políticas sociais nas áreas de educação, saúde e assistência social vêm exigindo um maior esforço de recursos orçamentários dos estados, do Distrito Federal e dos municípios, sem a criação ou aporte de receitas fiscais adicionais. Nas políticas sociais, importantes mudanças legislativas marcam a primeira década do século XXI no Brasil, com implicações diretas no arranjo federativo e por consequência no cofinanciamento das políticas sociais. O objetivo principal do artigo é analisar o montante de recursos aplicados pela União, estados, DF e municípios nas funções orçamentárias: assistência social, saúde e educação, no período de 2002 a 2012, evidenciando o confinaciamento dessas políticas sociais; assim como o de identificar alguns obstáculos criados pelo ajuste fiscal em curso no país para a expansão do cofinanciamento das políticas sociais. __________________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACTThe federal arrangement post Constitution comes indicating greater accountability of federal units and municipalities in the implementation of social policies at the same time as it gave greater autonomy in tax collection. From the 2000s, the new rules of social policies in education, health and social assistance has required a greater effort of budgetary resources of the states, the Federal District and municipalities, without the creation or injection of additional tax revenue. In social policies, important legislative changes mark the first decade of this century in Brazil with direct implications on federal arrangement and therefore the co-financing of social policies. The main objective of this article is to analyze the amount of funds invested by the federal government, states, Federal District and municipalities in budget functions: social assistance, health and education, from 2002 to 2012, highlighting the co-financing these social policies. As well as to identify some obstacles created by the fiscal adjustment underway in the country to expand the co-financing of social policies

Modelo de distribuição de recursos para o transporte escolar rural a partir dos princípios da igualdade e da equidade

O transporte escolar rural constitui um importante meio de proporcionar educação à população, em idade escolar, residente no campo. As regiões brasileiras são heterogêneas, tanto em aspectos econômicos e sociais quanto geográficos. No caso urbano, é desnecessário mencionar o nível dessa heterogeneidade; já na área rural, apesar da não interferência humana no habitat natural terrestre, existem localidades mais bem atendidas pelos seus gestores do que outras, ou localidades que apresentam uma geografia mais favorável ao atendimento das necessidades dessa população do que outras. Isso demonstra que deve ser dada maior atenção, por parte dos órgãos competentes, às regiões menos favorecidas, quanto à distribuição de recursos públicos. Assim, o objetivo desse artigo é propor um novo critério de distribuição dos recursos do PNATE – Programa Nacional de Apoio ao Transporte Escolar Rural, já incorporando os conceitos de igualdade e equidade, importantes no debate sobre a distribuição de recursos públicos. ________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACTRural school transportation is essential for providing education to the school-age population living in rural areas. The regions of Brazil differ both in social and economics as well as geographical aspects. It is unnecessary to mention the extent of these differences in urban areas. On the other hand, some rural areas have their needs better met by their administrators than others. Furthermore, some locales present a geography that is most favorable for meeting their needs than others. That illustrates the need for public authorities to pay more attention to the distribution of public resources in the regions that are least favored. Accordingly, this paper puts forward a new criterion for allocating resources from PNATE – National Program of Support to the Rural School Transportation. This criterion incorporates the concepts of equality and equity, which are important in the distribution of public resources

Politics and preschool : the political economy of investment in pre-primary education

What drives governments with similar revenues to publicly provide very different amounts of goods for which private substitutes are available? Key examples are education and health care. This paper compares spending by Brazilian municipalities on pre-primary education -- a good that is also provided privately -- with spending on public infrastructure like parks and roads, which lacks private substitutes. Panel data from 1995-2008 reveal how the distribution of income affects public investment. Revenue is endogenous to investment outcomes, and the analysis addresses this problem by exploiting a 1998, nationwide education finance reform and several revisions to the policy. The author constructs a variable that captures exogenous variation in revenue generated by nonlinearities of the law to instrument for observed revenue. Municipalities with higher median income and more inequality are less likely to allocate revenue to education or to expand pre-primary enrollment. They are more likely to allocate revenue to public infrastructure. There is suggestive evidence that this occurs for two reasons, hypothesized in two separate literatures. In rich and unequal municipalities, fewer total people support public education spending (the collective choice channel), and also, any given poor person wanting public education has less influence over policymakers there (the political power channel).Public Sector Management and Reform,Public Sector Economics,Primary Education,Access to Finance,Regional Governance

Avaliação da eficiência na aplicação dos recursos públicos da educação básica : um estudo nos municípios paraibanos

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Programa Multi-Institucional e Inter-Regional de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Contábeis, 2013.A Lei de Responsabilidade Fiscal (LRF), Lei Complementar nº 101/2000, visa fortalecer a transparência e ampliar o controle das contas públicas, através da Accountability. Assim, induz os gestores a administrar seus recursos com mais eficiência. A Emenda Constitucional nº 19/1998 conduziu o setor público à LRF de 2000 e propiciou à sociedade o cumprimento de metas, ou seja, resultados. Esses instrumentos de transparência e prestação de contas da administração pública permitem investigar se os recursos públicos, as transferências do Fundo de Manutenção e Desenvolvimento da Educação Básica e de Valorização dos Profissionais da Educação (Fundeb) e as outras fontes de recursos da educação básica são aplicados de forma eficiente pelos municípios paraibanos. A pesquisa utilizou a metodologia empírica Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), utiliza o modelo DEA-BCC, com Retornos Variáveis de Escala e orientação output/outcome, pois se fundamenta na maximização dos resultados gerados, dado os insumos utilizados. Esse modelo calcula o índice de eficiência para os gastos com educação básica nos municípios paraibanos, deriva as funções da fronteira de produção e seus respectivos escores de eficiência para cada município, além de avaliar o desempenho comparado de uma DMU (Unidade Tomadora de Decisão) a um parceiro de excelência (benchmark). Os resultados apontados pelo modelo DEA são capazes de identificar os municípios mais eficientes, bem como os ineficientes. As variáveis envolvidas no estudo foram: as receitas das transferências do Fundeb dos municípios paraibanos e as outras fontes de recursos da educação básica, que representam os inputs, bem como os resultados dos Índices de Desenvolvimento da Educação Básica (Idebs) dos municípios paraibanos, que representam os outputs/outcomes. Os dados da pesquisa contemplam os anos de 2007 e 2009, tendo em vista que o Ideb é bienal e o período coincide com o de implantação do Fundeb em 2007. Dos resultados dos índices de eficiência para o ano de 2007, dos 149 municípios paraibanos incluídos no estudo, 8,7% são eficientes, os quais podem ser considerados como benchmarks, ou seja, servem de referência para os demais ineficientes. Já para o ano de 2009, 9,4% dos municípios paraibanos encontram-se sobre a fronteira de eficiência, portanto, é possível observar que houve um aumento no percentual, mesmo que pequeno, no número de municípios com índices de eficiência igual a 1 (um) entre os anos analisados, e esse aumento também pode ser considerado reflexo dos instrumentos de transparência e da Accountability, já que permitem à sociedade acompanhar os resultados da aplicação dos recursos públicos destinados à educação básica. Os resultados sugerem que os municípios que se apresentam sobre a fronteira de eficiência são pequenos, com baixa densidade demográfica e baixo desenvolvimento econômico, por isso possuem inputs semelhantes. Apenas aproximadamente 9% dos municípios se apresentam na fronteira de eficiência nos anos analisados, isso significa que todos os outros municípios localizados fora da fronteira de eficiência são ineficientes na aplicação de seus recursos destinados à educação básica. Esses resultados são limitados às variáveis envolvidas no estudo e à amostra avaliada. ______________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACTThe Fiscal Responsibility Law (LRF), Complementary Law 101, of May 4, 2000, aims to strengthen transparency and enhance the control of public accounts through Accountability. Thus, it induces managers to manage their resources more efficiently. The Constitutional Amendment 19 of 1998 led the public sector to the LRF of 2000 and provided the society the fulfillment of goals, ie, outcomes. These instruments of transparency and accountability of public administration allow to investigate whether public resources, transfers from the Fund for the Maintenance and Development of Basic Education and Valuation of Education Professionals (Fundeb) and the other sources of resources of basic education are invested efficiently by municipalities of Paraíba. The research used the empirical methodology Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), uses the DEA-BCC model with variable returns to scale and orientation output/outcome, because it is based on the maximization of the results, due to the inputs used. This model calculates the efficiency index for spending on basic education in the municipalities of Paraíba, derives the functions of the production frontier and their respective efficiency scores for each municipality, and evaluate the performance compared to a DMU (Decision Maker Unit) to a partner of excellence (benchmark). The results presented by the DEA model are able to identify the municipalities more efficient as well as inefficient. The variables involved in the study were: income of transfers from Fundeb of municipalities of Paraíba and other sources of resources of basic education, which represent the inputs, and the results of the Index of Development of Basic Education (Idebs) of municipalities of Paraíba, which represent the outputs/outcomes. The research data include the years 2007 and 2009, since that Ideb is biennial and the period coincides with the implementation of Fundeb in 2007. From the results of the efficiency indexes for the year 2007, from the 149 municipalities of Paraíba included in the study, 8.7% are effective, which can be considered as benchmarks ,ie, they serve as reference for the others inefficient. As for the year 2009, 9.4% of municipalities of Paraíba are on the efficient frontier, so it is possible to observe that there was an increase in the percentage, however small, in the number of municipalities with efficiency indexes equal to 1 (one) between the years analyzed, and this increase can also be considered a reflection of the instruments of transparency and Accountability, as they allow the society to monitor the results of the application of public resources for basic education. The results suggest that the municipalities that appear on the efficient frontier are small, with low population density and low economic development, so have similar inputs. Only about 9% of the municipalities are presented in the efficient frontier in the years analyzed, it means that all other municipalities located outside the efficient frontier are inefficient in their use of resources for basic education. These results are limited to the variables involved in the study and the sample

Achieving goal 02 of the United Nations' millennium development goals : problems and prospects for Brazil : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Education at Massey University

To help fight inequalities and other factors that negatively affect its education system, the Brazilian government has signed many agreements with international agencies, among which are the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) established by the United Nations (UN). Through analysis of the world scenario and the global initiatives towards education, this study aims to draw a correlation between the completion of Goal 2 of the MDGs, i.e., achieve universal primary education, and the problems and prospects for Brazil. Indeed, the importance of education to society is unquestionable as it influences many different aspects of life, by helping combat poverty, aiding in development and assisting in health issues, among others. Furthermore, it is crucial not only to the personal development of individuals, but it also provides greater understanding of social rules, which increases understanding of diversity. In a country as big and diverse as Brazil, it is fundamental to take into consideration the cultural, geographic and socio-economic differences in order to find solutions that can be used towards the development of the country. Although the Brazilian government has taken effective measures to ensure that all children have access to primary education, the same cannot be said about its quality, as the numbers in educational exclusion in the country are staggering, with more than 16 million illiterates. The major issues relating to education in the country have to do with the poor quality of what is being provided to the students, and the present study points to many factors that help explain this situation. High repetition and dropout rates mark the country's education system, making it crucial to develop strategies and measures that will assure that students learn effectively. Nevertheless, Brazil's decentralised education system makes it hard to put in practice national changes and implement policies that could help improve the quality of education. Drawn widely from analysis of figures from the Brazilian 2005 school census, the findings revealed that there are many issues that still need to be addressed in order to guarantee that Brazilian students have an equal and just opportunity to learn

Desafios Do Financiamento Das Universidades Estaduais Paulistas

O presente artigo trata dos desafios do financiamento das Universidades Estaduais Paulistas frente ao aumento da demanda por vagas nos seus cursos de graduação e ao crescimento das pressões sobre o orçamento do setor educacional do Estado, em decorrência da recente eleveção do percentual mínimo de aplicação de recursos na educação básica definido pelo FUNDEB. Desde o final dos anos 80, as Universidades Estaduais Paulistas possuem suas receitas vinculadas à arrecadação do ICMS. Entretanto, ao contrário da educação básica, cuja vinculação decorre de dispositivo constitucional, a vinculação das universidades apresenta uma maior fragilidade, uma vez que é definida a cada ano por meio da Lei de Diretrizes Orçamentárias do Estado. Possíveis pressões por aumento de recursos poderão ser mais facilmente acomodadas diante de um cenário de crescimento econômico mais robusto. Caso contrário, as Universidades Estaduais precisarão encontrar alternativas para o financiamento de sua expansão