Traduzido em Português ~ veja abaixo
Life in Campo Grande is just as good, if not better, as São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo. Although both cities share the ending "the field" I would have to argue that Campo Grande fits the description best. The best way to describe the vast difference in the locations (in a United States comparison) is, New York to Texas. Campo Grande being Texas, as I'm sure most would assume granted "...grande." There is an abundance of land here as well as cattle. I believe there are more cows here than people and the city alone has a little under 800,000 inhabitants. I have been provided many statistics of such however, I will wait until I can research the data myself to share the specifics. This brings me to another interesting topic, the slight differences in the "same" information we have been provided here. Are there 26 states or 27? Well according to my astute host-sister, there are only 26 states that make up Brazil. The 27th was a district that was voted and not passed to become a state, and therefore there is only 26. I did some "google" work and discovered why there may be some inconsistencies with this number:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Brazilian_states_by_population_density
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Brazilian_states_by_area
Clearly, I'm being OCD regarding this, but I think it is really important to consider any information you are provided, especially in an educational setting. I have had nothing but extremely interesting conversations with the people I have been able to chat with one on one here. However I have been surprised at the attitude that many of the young people here have towards some of the educational establishments.
I have been conversing with some of the students from both Universities and they have told me some very interesting information regarding the education system in Brazil. There are three categories of public universities in Brazil, Federal, State and Municipal, each is free to Brazilians as long as they can pass the entrance exam. There are private universities also, however they charge for enrollment. Sounds easy enough however, I have some to understand that usually the only the students who pass the exam are those who attend private high schools. Gabriela, my host-sister told me there is a private school that costs as much as R$1000 per month. She also mentioned that this is not the average cost of a private high school although it's significance is, that it cost more than enrollment to some private universities.
Free public universities sound very appealing coming from a country where the state schools are quite costly and the private universities are abundantly expensive. However, it is clear that a large population of Brazilians do not enjoy this avenue of free education. What population is left out, the middle class, the lower class, both? I believe in some regions the middle class may be able to afford private high schools and or universities. Education is very important for Brazil's public policy, however the benchmarks for the national plan for education have not been met according to Professora Mariluce Bittar of UCDB. How are those who can not afford private high schools or private universities suppose to better themselves when they cannot pass the entry exam for the public universities? Why are the public schools not teaching the students the tools needed to pass the exam? I don't know the answers to these questions but I will keep asking so I can at least grasp the barriers of such.
School @ the Furnas of Dionizio |
To give a better idea of the geographical differences to the two cities I have been meandering around the IBGE (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia Estatistica) website. I found that the population of Campo Grande is 796,252 and Sao Bernardo do Campo is 770,253. The two cities are quite similar in population however the geography is quite different. In Campo Grande the area (in square Kilometers) 8,096,051 and Sao Bernardo do Campo (in square Kilometers) 40,618.
Photo taken @ Universidade Católica Dom Bosco (UCDB) |
Referência:
IBGE: Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística. (n.d.). IBGE: Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística. Retrieved August 22, 2012, from www.ibge.gov.br/english/geociencias/areaterritorial/