| Summary: | Brazilian education is marked by a strong academic drift, which has been a major obstacle to its differentiation, accessibility and improvement. Differentiation in education is important to provide educational opportunities for people with varying backgrounds and motivations, but is strongly opposed by stakeholders within the education communities. Brazilian education institutions are formally very similar at each level, in spite of the large social and geographical differences throughout the country. There are very few students in vocational courses at secondary schools, and not many in short-term post-secondary course programs. Graduate education is highly academic, leaving little space for professional master programs and applied research. Part of the problem is related to the 1996 National Education Law, which requires a very extensive academic curriculum for all students in secondary education. This situation is further aggravated by the National High School Exam, a comprehensive test which is being adopted as an entrance examination for many universities and does not give students the option to choose the type of education or subject area in which they will be examined. Consequently, a large number of students are unable to complete secondary education and tend to drop out, while at the same time, the country faces a serious lack of skilled workers of middle education level. This paper argues for the need to reverse this trend.
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