Brazil sends its children to school

When Paulo Renato Souza, an economist by trade who was once a Vice President of the Inter-American Development Bank, was named Brazil's Minister for Education in 1994, he was presented with a heady task. He was taking charge of education in one of the most populous countries in the world in a government that was constantly strapped for cash where hundreds of thousands of children did not attend school at all.

In the nearly eight years that Mr. Souza has served in his position, the percentage of children who receive primary education up to eighth grade has increased from 87 per cent to 97 per cent, he says. Many more children than before have access to education regardless of socio-economic status, racial or regional differences.

Mark Malloch Brown, the administrator of the UN Development Programme, describes Souza's work as miraculous. "Brazil has become the great success story, " he says.

Mr. Souza attributes his success both to securing a commitment from the Brazilian government to improve the country's education system (he helped amend Brazil's constitution to ensure that 18 per cent of the Federal budget is earmarked for education), and instituting a number of innovative ways to finance his proposed reforms.

Among the most ingenious was a 0.3 per cent tax on financial transactions in the country, which was then put into a poverty fund. This fund supports an incentive for poor families: parents are given bankcards to accounts on which they can draw funds if they sent their children to school up to a fixed amount for each child.

Mr. Souza also tied municipalities' education money allotments to the number of children in school. "When we created incentives, the mayors starting going after the kids to get them in school," he said.