Educational activity in Brazil has been most marked in the field of
vocational education. A special commission, appointed by the Director
General of Public Instruction, consisting of five experienced teachers
in subjects of this nature, was instructed to formulate courses for
the State schools which were to be established by law in the Federal
District. They were to serve as models for subsequent schools of the
same character in the several States and Territories. The commission,
of which Senhor Coryntho da Fonseca was the spokesman, after several
months of conference and personal visits of inspection to the
vocational schools already existent in the several centers, especially
in Sao Paulo, and after hearing reports from active teachers in the
subjects, presented its report in March, 1919. It was approved by
the Vice President, serving ad interim for the President, and was
recommended by him to be put into actual operation pending its formal
enactment into law by the Congress.
The report as finally presented rested upon four main considerations:
1. The State, in the field of instruction, has primarily an educational
function and only secondarily a vocational one. Courses in shop
training, designed to awake and develop an aptitude in the pupil for a
particular industry, must of course enter into any well-rounded scheme
of education. This in turn must be designed to promote a general and
not a specialized technical education which will introduce both sexes
to industrial and commercial life. For practical reasons of expense, if
for no other, the State should not be expected to prepare pupils for
specialized vocations.
2. The task of the commission being to deal with the branches of
vocational training best adapted to give the pupil a broad outlook upon
general industrial activities, the commission judged it best to confine
its recommendations to manual work of construction in wood, metal,
and plastic material. In methods as well as content of instruction it
is emphasized that such work must proceed along the lines of teaching
by example. In such teaching much that is old and fundamental must be
stressed by way of throwing light upon the elements of the training
that are common to all branches of manual arts.
3. In its decision to urge a general attitude toward industrial
training rather than specialized methods peculiar to one branch, the
commission was confirmed by the testimony of all except one of the
directors of the vocational institutions in Brazil. Only one advocated
specialized instruction. Written representations of the faculties of
the vocational schools Alvaro Baptista, and Souza Aguiar, in Rio,
further confirmed this view.
4. The results of vocational instruction in Brazil as actually observed
within the last few years convinced the commission--
(_a_) That unspecialized training best provided the foundations for
good citizenship as well as industrial training.
(_b_) That by this training the latent technical aptitudes of the
student were more effectively revealed and developed, as shown by
steady increase in salaries of the graduates, than was the case with
the apprentices who had been trained exclusively in one line.
(_c_) That the superior adaptation of the graduates of the general
vocational school had been shown by tables giving information as to
their progress in skill and value to their employers. These tables were
naturally incomplete, but their general drift was undeniable.
(_d_) That the chief cause of the poor attendance upon the vocational
instruction for boys is the prevalent idea that the vocational school
is an index of lower social standing, enrolling only those boys that
can not obtain any other means of education. Thus the vocational
school is sharply differentiated socially from other types of schools.
It suffers from being regarded as preeminently the school to train
workmen. The commission had in mind the purpose of preparing public
sentiment for the passing of this traditional prejudice when it
attempted to inspire a just estimate of manual work in the public mind
and to organize such courses as would adequately carry out this idea.
(_e_) That the vocational school must be established as a direct
continuation of the primary school, ministering to the innate tendency
in the child to realize things with his own hands; that thus the
traditional and depressing prejudice mentioned would be counteracted,
as time would not be given for it to intervene in the child’s mind. The
workshop, thus articulated with general training, would come to be the
fulfillment of an aspiration, inculcating as well the love of work and
respect for it.
(_f_) That the success of the projected schools depends largely upon
the cooperation of the industrial firms of Brazil, which should be
appealed to for their sympathy and for the encouragement of their
adolescent employees to attend these schools; that the granting of
daylight hours to employees to attend such schools, as has been done in
England and France, with the consequent improvement in the physical
and mental condition of the pupils, is a step to be commended to all
employers as patriotic citizens.
The salient provisions of the report of the commission are as follows:
ARTICLE 1. The technical and vocational instruction maintained by
the prefecture of the Federal District has for its aim to complete
the primary elementary instruction by means of a general technical
education leading the youth of both sexes preferably to industrial and
commercial activities.
ART. 2. Technical and vocational instruction shall be given in the
following types of schools:
(_a_) Primary vocational schools.
(_b_) Secondary vocational institutes.
(_c_) Secondary agricultural schools.
(_d_) Vocational finishing courses.
(_e_) Normal school of arts and crafts.
Types (_a_), (_d_), and (_e_) shall be day schools exclusively; types
(_b_) and (_c_) shall offer boarding accommodations for pupils from
distance.
ART. 3. In schools of types (_a_) and (_d_) instruction shall be
imparted predominantly in the recitation rooms.
ART. 4. The courses of the primary vocational school for boys shall
include the following subjects:
(_a_) The usual subjects of the complementary course of the primary
schools, with fuller development of the studies of physics, chemistry,
natural history, hygiene, and mathematics.
(_b_) Modeling and free-hand and mechanical drawing.
ART. 5. The courses of the primary vocational school for girls shall
include:
(_a_) The usual subjects of the complementary course of the primary
schools, with fuller development of the studies of hygiene and
domestic economy.
(_b_) Modeling and free-hand drawing.
ART. 6. The subjects of the vocational finishing courses shall include:
(_a_) In the commercial course, Portuguese and civic instruction,
commercial geography, French and one other modern language, English
or German, to be chosen by the pupil, commercial correspondence and
accounting, typewriting, stenography, and arithmetic.
(_b_) In the industrial course, Portuguese and civic instruction,
arithmetic, and geography, elements of applied physics, chemistry,
and natural history, accounting as related to the particular vocation
selected by the pupil, free-hand and mechanical drawing.
ART. 7. The vocational finishing courses are designed primarily for
young men already employed in industry and commerce, who seek to
improve their vocational knowledge.
ART. 8. The two types of vocational finishing schools may be taught
conjointly in the same building.
ART. 9. Teachers and assistants imparting instruction shall be
appointed as follows:
(_a_) There shall be a teacher and so many assistants for each branch
as shall be made necessary by the attendance.
(_b_) For the instruction in technical accounting related to each
vocation there shall be employed special teachers only where 15 or
more students are enrolled for each course, and they shall receive
salaries only when actually teaching. The same teachers shall be in
charge of the various related branches of technical instruction in the
shops.
ART. 10. The courses in the secondary vocational institutes for boys
shall include--
(_a_) The elementary and middle instruction for pupils who have not
had them.
(_b_) Physical exercises and military drill.
(_c_) Vocal and instrumental music.
ART. 11. The courses in the vocational institutes for girls shall
include--
(_a_) Primary instruction for such pupils as have not had it.
(_b_) Vocational drawing and modeling.
In the vocational institutes the elementary primary instruction shall
be followed by an intensive course in manual arts, such as sloyd, wood
carving, and weaving in straw, vine, and bamboo.
ART. 12. The primary vocational schools shall also offer a commercial
course consisting of the following subjects:
(_a_) Commercial correspondence and accounting.
(_b_) Typewriting and stenography.
(_c_) French and one other modern language, English or German.
ART. 13. Instruction in the workshops of vocational schools for boys
shall be given first in a general compulsory course of three years,
during which the pupil shall in turn be trained in the workshops
in cold and molten metals, including foundry work and wrought-iron
work. The pupil shall then be allowed to specialize in any workshop
or section at his choice. The pupils of the vocational institutes
for boys shall likewise take a compulsory course in horticulture and
kindred subjects.
ART. 14. The agricultural schools and the vocational institutes shall
require attendance on the courses of civil training and agronomy, with
optional specialization in any line selected when the general course
is completed.
ART. 15. In the vocational schools and institutes for girls there
shall be a compulsory general course upon the following practical
subjects: Cooking, laundering, ironing and starching, housekeeping,
sewing and dressmaking. Along with this general course the pupils
shall attend certain vocational courses chosen by themselves from
sewing, lace making, and embroidery, artificial-flower work, etc.
ART. 16. For admission to the schools of vocational instruction the
following shall be the legal requirements as to age:
(_a_) For vocational and agricultural schools, minimum age 13, maximum
21.
(_b_) For the vocational institutes for boys, minimum age 10, maximum
13.
(_c_) For the vocational institutes for girls, minimum age 7, maximum
13.
(_d_) For the normal school of arts and trades, minimum age 14,
maximum 25.
(_e_) For the vocational finishing courses, minimum age 13.
ART. 17. For matriculation in the vocational and agricultural
schools and the finishing courses the candidates shall submit to an
examination upon the subjects taught in the middle course of the
primary school. In the commercial courses of the finishing schools,
in the girls’ schools, and in the normal school of arts and trades,
the entrance examination shall be upon the subjects of the final
examination of the primary schools.
ART. 18. The school year in the entire system of vocational
instruction, with the exception of agricultural schools, shall begin
March 1 and close November 30. The period from December 1 to December
24 shall be devoted to examinations and to school exhibitions. In the
agricultural schools, because of their nature, the pupils shall have
60 days of annual vacation granted to them in groups by the director
in accordance with the demands of the agricultural seasons and labors.
ART. 19. The courses of the primary vocational schools, of the
institutes, and of the finishing courses shall be divided into periods
of 4 to 5 years; the finishing courses into periods of three years;
and the commercial course of the schools for girls into a period of
two years.
ART. 24. The officials of inspection of technical and vocational
instruction shall draw up annual statistics of attendance and of the
results of the vocational instruction upon the bases of data furnished
by the directors of the several schools and, so far as possible,
by employers and by the former pupils who have themselves left the
schools. These statistics shall relate to the following topics:
(_a_) Number of pupils placed, with indication of the establishments
where they are employed.
(_b_) Initial salary obtained by them as related to the period of
schooling.
(_c_) Technical aptitude revealed by former pupils and their capacity
of adaptation to the various industrial works.
(_d_) Progress of increase in salary of former pupils.
(_e_) All available information as to individual former pupils with
regard to the advantages or disadvantages of their schooling in the
decision of economic life, and their success in it.
ART. 25. All posts of assistants and substitutes in the vocational
system shall be filled by competitive examinations.
(_a_) For the assistant in drawing in the vocational schools in
institutes for boys, the examination shall be tests in drawing, in
artistic training, and in pedagogical fitness.
(_b_) For the filling of the same post in the vocational schools and
institutes for girls the examination shall be tests in writing at
dictation, in decorative composition, in embroidery and lacework, and
in pedagogical fitness.
(_c_) The competitive test for filling the post of substitutes in
shopwork shall be upon vocational design of an assigned theme for
shopwork and the execution of the same.
ART. 26. The teachers in vocational instruction shall be named by
means of promotion of the assistants and substitutes.
ART. 27. There shall be a substitute for every group of 20 pupils in
shopwork, and an assistant for every class of 30 pupils.
ART. 28. When any primary school is transformed into a vocational
school there shall be annexed the elementary primary course in which
shall be taught intensively the manual arts prescribed for the
elementary instruction of the institutes, but the pupils shall attend
the shopwork of the vocational courses only when they have completed
the work of the middle course and attained the age of 13 years.