Primary education in Brazil is free and compulsory for children between the ages of 7 and 14. Approximately 80 percent of the population aged 15 or more years is literate.
Brazil (Portuguese Brasil), federal republic, the largest country in South America, occupying nearly one-half of the entire area of the continent. It is bounded on the north by Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and the Atlantic Ocean; on the east by the Atlantic Ocean; on the south by Uruguay; on the west by Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Peru; and on the northwest by Colombia. The republic has a common frontier with every country of South America except Chile and Ecuador. Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world (after Russia, China, Canada, and the United States).
The total area of Brazil is 8,511,966 sq km (3,286,500 sq mi); its maximum north-south distance is about 4345 km (about 2700 mi), and its maximum east-west distance is about 4330 km (about 2690 mi). Most of the people of Brazil live near the Atlantic Ocean, notably in the great cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, but the capital is inland, at Brasilia (1991 estimate 1,841,028). The country, which was once a Portuguese dependency, is the world's leading producer of coffee, and it also contains great mineral resources; exploitation of many of these resources intensified during the 1980s.
Elementary and Secondary Schools
More than 26.8 million pupils attended Brazilian primary schools each year in the late 1980s, and some 3.3 million students were enrolled in secondary schools. Primary and secondary schools are maintained primarily by states and municipalities, but many Roman Catholic-run high schools are also here.
Universities and Colleges
The central government of Brazil shares with the states and private associations the responsibility for institutions of higher learning. In the late 1980s Brazil contained more than 850 such institutions (including 73 universities), which had a combined annual enrollment of about 1.4 million students. Among the leading universities were the University of Brasília (1961) in Brasília; the University of São Paulo (1934); the Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas (1941); the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (1920); and the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (1948), in Porto Alegre. Other institutions include schools of medicine, public health, law, social sciences, engineering, and mining.
Economy
Once a predominantly agricultural nation, Brazil experienced rapid industrial growth in the 1960s and 1970s, so that by the 1980s it had a diversified modern economy. Great quantities of iron ore and coal were mined, and the output of steel, chemicals, and motor vehicles increased substantially. At the same time, however, chronic inflation and a foreign debt of more than $100 billion—the highest of any developing nation—posed severe economic problems. In the late 1980s the annual national budget included about $15.7 billion in revenue and $25.1 billion in expenditure. The country's debt was restructured and reduced in April 1994 in an agreement with debtor banks.
List of universities in Bazil
North America
North America
GRE
