My Opinion of Affirmative Action is Changing on a Daily Basis

I am slowly learning Portuguese, but as you can see in the picture to the left, I am constantly using my handy phrasebook...

Our next stop on our Brazilian journey was the Univeridade de Sao Paulo (USP) - the oldest university in Sao Paulo, and the 2nd oldest in all of Brazil, but before I get to that, I'd like to explain a little bit about the elementary and secondary school system in Brazil...

Brazil has one of the worst education systems in the world, and many people of Brazil have only 4 to 8 years of schooling, due to a tremendous dropout rate (see picture to the right.)  As you can see, this has improved over the last 40 years, but it is by no means stellar.  Most of the wealthy Brazilians send their kids to private schools that specialize in preparing them for the Vestibular and university, while students in the public schools of Brazil barely have a single book to read.

Public universities in Brazil are free (paid for by the government), but the competition is fierce.  Kids who went to private high schools have a clear advantage over those who attended public schools.  While the poor people of Brazil are of both the white and non-white races, there are almost no blacks in the middle or upper classes of Brazil, which means there is a very small amount of blacks attending public universities.  Professor Balbachevsky who we met at USP told us that gives about 1/2 of her paycheck to taxes.  I wouldn't mind that so much if it meant I received free healthcare and education too!  But can you imagine these poor Brazilians who are paying taxes, yet they do not receive the benefit of attending public universities because because they cannot afford to send their children to private high schools? 

Enrollment in higher education has grown quite a bit over the last twenty years, but this is due to the many private universities (where you pay tuition) that have been popping up all over the place.  These private institutions are more closely related to the community colleges or trade schools that we have in the United States.  I passed two of these types of schools just within a four block radius of my hotel!  They are everywhere!

Similar to when we visited UNICAMP, at USP we learned about their affirmative action program - also a point system.  Here is how their Vestibular process works (the short version): There are two exams, one in November, and another in January.  If you do not pass the first exam, you are eliminated from the process and cannot continue on to the second exam.  Now their bonus system, which they call INCLUSP: If the student is from a public high school, they receive 3% added to their grade in both the 1st and 2nd exam.  Depending on their performance on the first exam, they can also get up to an additional 6% added to their 2nd exam.  In addition, if they participated in a PASUP program in high school (for you New Yorker's, I kind of relate this to graduating with  a regents vs. a non-regents degree) then you get ANOTHER 3% added on to your grade.

Their affirmative action program does not take race into consideration at all.  Nor do they do any type of outreach to get more non-whites into the university.  They feel that having an affirmative action program for public school students is enough to get more blacks into their school. 

My opinion of affirmative action in Brazil is changing on a daily basis.  When we visited with UNICAMP, I thought they had a very well rounded program that took into consideration many aspects including SES, race, etc. (see 2nd posting).  EducAfro had made a pretty good case for why actual quotas should be in place, but I do not think quotas are the right way to go about this issue.  I would be ok with USP's version of affirmative action if I did not feel that Brazil DOES actually have a race problem.  I know they deny this, but while walking around USP's campus I did not see a single darker person.  I very rarely see them while walking around the city of Sao Paulo either...  29% of the popoulation of Sao Paulo is considered non-white/non-asian.  23% are high school graduates who are eligible to attend university.  But at USP, only 2-3% of their students are non-white.  At least at UNICAMP this number is 15% (I am assuming because of their point system that includes race.)

As I said, I do not think quotas are the answer, but I do think something could be done to reach out to the black communities.  Offer them free classses/workshops to prepare them for the vestibular.  Start a mentor program where other blacks who have gone to university go back to their communities and show them that they can go to college too.  As far as I can tell nothing is being done to try to increase the number of non-whites at this school.