INNOVA Research Journal, ISSN 2477-9024  
Marzo, 2016). Vol. 1, No.3 pp. 5-12  
(
DOI: https://doi.org/10.33890/innova.v1.n3.2016.12  
URL: http://revistas.uide.edu.ec/index.php/innova/index  
Correo: innova@uide.edu.ec  
Bolsa familia: inequality and education in Brazil  
Familia bolsa: desigualdad y educación en Brasil  
Andrés Chávez  
Universidad Internacional del Ecuador  
Autor para correspondencia: anchavezer@internacional.edu.ec  
Fecha de recepción: 20 de Enero de 2016 - Fecha de aceptación: 17 de Marzo de 2016  
Resumen  
Este estudio se enfoca en las metas establecidas en el programa Education For All Phase II y en el  
trabajo que el Banco Mundial ha realizado para poder alcanzar las metas para Haiti. Esta  
investigación analizara Calidad en la Educación, El fortalecimiento Institucional y de  
Gobierno, y las Nuevas Tendencias en Educación Internacional y Desarrollo.  
Palabras claves: banco mundial; education for all; haití; reformas educativas  
Abstract  
This study focuses on the established goals of Phase II of Education for All and the work that  
World Bank has done in order to reach these goals in Haiti. This research will analyze  
Quality of Education, Institutional Strengthening and Governance, and New Trends in  
International Development Education.  
Key words: world bank; education for all; haiti; education reforms  
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Introduction  
Despite having the fifth largest economy in the world, a significant percentage of the  
population of Brazil is considered to be poor or indigent. In 2004, 41.4% of the population fell  
into these classes and had access to less than half the minimum wage (Reiter, 2009). This is  
indicative of the high rate of inequality experienced by the people in the country. In Brazil, the  
most prosperous quintile of the population earns almost two-thirds of the country’s personal  
income, while the poorest quintile earns a mere 2.3 percent; this makes Brazil the country with  
the seventh most inequitable distribution of income in the world (Hall, 2008).  
These financial inequalities correlate to inequalities in education; for example, only  
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9.5% of the country’s population has completed secondary education (Human  
Development Report, 2013). Inequalities such as this are important to note because, especially in  
South America, “disparities in educational attainment continue to be sharp at those levels that  
currently matter most to employers for access to the better-paid jobs” (Reimers, 2000, p. 433).  
Such disparities need to be addressed in order to break the cycle of poverty in the poorest sectors  
of  
Brazil. One program that has attempted to lessen inequalities in the country is the Bolsa  
Familia conditional transfer program, which started in 2003. Over 13 million people have  
enrolled in this program, which provides financial aid to Brazilian families in poverty under the  
condition that they send their children to school. The purpose of this paper is to describe the  
characteristics of the program, evaluate its achievements in order to understand its effects with  
regard to education inequality, examine the criticism that the program has received, and finally  
explore some ways in which the program can be improved.  
Description of Bolsa Familia  
Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs, such as Bolsa Familia, have become widely  
employed by governments in Latin America because they are easy to target at families that meet  
certain geographical and household level criteria, and it is more cost-effective to provide cash  
directly to families than to use a benefit system such as food stamps or vouchers (Hall, 2006).  
Additionally, these programs focus on the intersecting components of health, education,  
and nutrition, which all work together to strengthen human capital (Hall, 2008). CCT programs  
are also more flexible than other social welfare programs, and have been found to be “efficient  
and transparent in their implementations, focused on the future with a clear set of goals  
(Rawlings &Rubio, 2005, p. 6). Bolsa Familia is now the largest CCT program in the world, and  
it is divided into four smaller programs, which are educational stipends to boost school  
attendance, maternal nutrition, food supplements, and a domestic gas subsidy (Hall, 2006). As  
shown in Figure 1, the number of families served by the program nearly doubled between the  
years of 2004 and 2010, and the amount of money (shown in Brazilian Real) donated to these  
families more than quadrupled over the same time period.  
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Figure 1 Bolsa Familia Enrollment and Resources Spent  
Source: MDS, 2013  
Bolsa Familia works by giving conditional cash payments to families that declare  
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themselves to be either ‘very poor’ with a monthly income equal to or less than R$ 60 (US$  
6) or ‘poor’ with a monthly income between R$ 60.01 and R$ 120 (US$ 73) a month. Families  
that are ‘very poor’ receive a monthly payment of R$ 58 (U$ 35) regardless of their household  
composition. These funds act as a safety net to help those with the most extreme needs.  
Additionally, families are eligible to receive monthly payments per child for up to five children  
through seventeen years of age, with payments being conditional upon “proof of regular school  
attendance, children’s vaccination, visits to health clinics and other activities such as  
participation in nutrition and vocational training courses” (Hall, 2008, p. 806). These families  
also receive monthly payments for food, gas, and other necessities, and additional money is  
given to families with a pregnant or lactating woman who is receiving the proper health care.  
These payments are made through a bank card and are almost always given to the head female of  
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Figures are based on an exchange rate of US$ 1 = R$ 1.65 at the time of writing in May  
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008.the family, owing to the research that has shown that “women tend to use additional  
income to raise their families’ wellbeing” (Glewwe & Kassouf, 2012, p. 508).  
The monitoring of families’ compliance with specific conditions is the responsibility of  
the Ministries of Education, Health, and Social Development. These ministries are to identify  
families that are failing to comply and make plans to support them through the obstacles that are  
impeding their cooperation with the program (MDS, 2013). The program has become more  
closely supervised in recent years; in the beginning, it was rare for a family to lose benefits for  
not complying with the conditions. In February 2010, approximately 709,900 families lost their  
benefits for not updating their children’s enrollment information (Fried, 2012). The oversight of  
this program is important because it is attempting to address the multidimensional aspect of  
poverty by integrating different facets of life, such as education and health. If families do not  
comply with the conditions of the program, they will not benefit from increased levels of  
education or improved health and nutrition, and the program will be unable to help them in the  
way that is intended.  
Effects of Bolsa Familia  
Since the start of Bolsa Familia, there has been a 3.6 percent increase in school  
attendance among the families participating in the program, as well as an increase of 2.6 percent  
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Figures are based on an exchange rate of US$ 1 = R$ 1.65 at the time of writing in May 2008.  
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in labor market participation. There have been increased enrollment rates in both early childhood  
and primary education for children between the ages of three and six, though these rates are still  
below the OECD averages (OECD, 2012). Enrollment in early childhood education is a concern  
because in 2008, only 50% of children between the ages of three and five were in school. This is  
an issue that merits some attention due to the fact that “pre-primary education has proven to have  
a positive impact on future students’ school career” (UNESCO, 2011, p. 1).  
In 2010, 92% of six-year olds in Brazil were enrolled in primary education, which  
represents a significant improvement over the 83% of children that age that were enrolled in  
school in 2005 (OECD, 2012). The gross enrollment rate for primary education in Brazil was  
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5% in 2008, with a completion rate of nearly 95%; however, the country has one of the highest  
repetition rates in Latin America, with 24.5% of students repeating the first grade of primary  
education (UNESCO, 2011). This high rate of repetition is a cause for concern because it  
indicates poor performance in school and may lead to higher dropout rates in the future.  
Therefore, notwithstanding the improvements made to enrollment rates, more changes need to be  
made to target the students who are still not enrolled in school in order to achieve the nation’s  
goal of universal primary education, and the education system should be adjusted to help  
students be more successful and thereby decrease repetition rates.  
Enrollment in secondary schools has increased since the implementation of Bolsa Familia  
as well. In 2008, 81% of high school age children were enrolled in school, with a completion rate  
of 55% (UNESCO, 2011). This demonstrates improvement over previous years in the country, as  
well as higher averages than other countries in the region. School level estimates indicate that  
Bolsa Familia has contributed to reduce dropout rates and helped to equalize student enrollment  
in terms of race (Glewwe & Kassouf, 2012).  
There has also been a decrease in the number of people living in absolute poverty; from  
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003, when the program started, to 2005, there was a decrease in absolute poverty of over 19  
percent (Hall, 2008). As shown in Figure 2, the poverty gap began a sharp decline following the  
institution of Bolsa Familia. The unconditional monthly payment given to families in extreme  
poverty has helped to boost many of Brazil’s poorest people to a higher standard of living. This  
decrease in inequality since 2003 has been accompanied by a decrease in crime rates in Brazil as  
well (Chioda & Soares, 2012). It is likely that fewer people feel the need to break the law in  
order to provide for their families now that a small amount of funding is readily available to  
them.  
Figure 2 Brazilian Poverty Gap and Gini Index  
Source: United Nations, 2013; World Bank, 2013  
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Criticism of Bolsa Familia  
Despite the positive effects that Bolsa Familia has had on school enrollment and more  
equitable distribution of income, the program has been criticized for failing to address issues of  
quality in education. The current program design does not make any provisions that address  
education quality, and the concern is that children who are now attending school because of  
Bolsa Familia will not benefit as much from the education they receive as is anticipated by the  
government. Some researchers propose that a portion of the billions of dollars that are invested in  
Bolsa Familia “should be allocated instead to improve the quality of the Brazilian public  
educational system, making schools more capable of dealing with children from deprived  
families” (Haddad, 2008). Education truly helps children when it is relevant to their  
circumstances and prepares them to take advantage of the opportunities that await them upon  
graduation. If the schools in Brazil are not equipped to do this, the students will not become  
empowered to change and improve the future of their country, no matter how much money is  
provided for increasing access to these schools. Critics point out that cash transfers such as Bolsa  
Familia are limited in their ability to alleviate poverty because “they are channeled into basic  
consumption and do not boost income-earning capacity or household assets” (Hall, 2008, p.812).  
One evidence of the limitations of the program is that in spite of decreases to the poverty  
gap, incidences of poverty are still significantly higher in certain regions of Brazil than others.  
There has been an overall decrease in poverty across all regions of the country, which is a  
positive result that can at least partially be attributed to Bolsa Familia, but the fact that families  
in one region are much more likely to live in poverty than the families of another represents a  
persisting inequality. Figures 3 and 4 show the numbers of people living in extreme poverty and  
poverty, respectively. As evidenced by the figures, there are significantly more poor people in  
the Northeast and Southeast regions of Brazil than in the rest of the country. It will require more  
than giving families monetary handouts to equalize the opportunities of the children living in the  
poorest regions of Brazil. Just as poverty affects the level of education that students are able to  
achieve, the quality of education that a student is able to access affects his or her future  
likelihood of living in poverty. In order to truly break the cycle of poverty, Bolsa Familia needs  
to focus on providing a high quality education to children in all regions of the country. This  
education, in conjunction with the improved standards of health and nutrition provided by the  
program, will empower students to rise above difficult circumstances and make a better life for  
themselves and their posterity.  
Figure 3 Number of people living in extreme poverty by region (thousands)  
Source: Araujo a, Alves & Besarriac, 2013  
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Figure 4 Number of people living in poverty by region (thousands)  
Recommendations for Improving Bolsa Familia  
One country in Latin America that has been successful in equalizing students through  
education is Cuba. Cuban schools do not reproduce inequalities as they are seen to do in Brazil  
for a variety of reasons, among them the fact that children from all socioeconomic backgrounds  
have access to the same quality of schools and the same compulsion to attend. A valid question,  
then, is how a country like Brazil “can approach the degree of social safety, moral imperative,  
and educational quality control achieved by Cuba, and do so in the context of political  
democracy” (Carnoy, 2007, p. 43). One important aspect of this is ensuring that students in all  
regions have access to favorable educational circumstances, such as properly trained teachers,  
manageable student-class ratios, and adequate infrastructure. These components of education are  
currently not part of the scope of Bolsa Familia, but they should be considered if education is to  
be used as an equalizing and empowering tool for Brazilian children.  
It will also be important to focus particularly on the most marginalized people in society.  
In Brazil, the poorest people live in shantytown outskirts of bigger cities that are called favelas.  
These people are exploited by the society that surrounds them, and it is nearly impossible for  
them to move upward socially. A study done in the favelas of Brazil revealed that, among these  
people, having a job was considered to be the most important thing; more important than  
education, health, housing, and security (Perlman, 2010). With this perspective in mind, it is  
understandable that these people may not see the benefit of complying with the conditions of  
Bolsa Familia. The program is not geared towards helping people get jobs, which is their top  
priority, and if the education provided in Brazil is insufficient to prepare students for obtaining  
better jobs, they will have little motivation to participate in the program. In order to achieve  
universal education and help these marginalized people to experience social mobility, Bolsa  
Familia will need to be adapted to the unique needs and opportunities of the people who most  
need help. As Paulo Freire said, “Many political and educational plans have failed because their  
authors designed them according to their own personal views of reality, never once taking into  
account to whom their program was ostensibly directed” (Freire, 2000, p. 153). In addressing the  
problem of inequality, the reality that matters most is that of the people who are being  
inequitably treated. That reality must be taken into consideration in order for programs like Bolsa  
Familia to have their intended effect and produce a real change in Brazilian society.  
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Conclusion  
Bolsa Familia has had positive effects in Brazil. Most notably, school enrollment has  
increased across preprimary, primary, and secondary levels, and the number of people living in  
poverty and absolute poverty has decreased. However, there are still considerable problems with  
inequality in Brazil that the program has not been able to resolve. One main oversight of Bolsa  
Familia is the lack of attention given to quality of education, which is crucial to increasing social  
mobility. Another potential problem is the lack of relevancy that the most marginalized people of  
Brazil perceive in the program. In order to have a greater effect, Bolsa Familia needs to address  
the roots of inequality in Brazil rather than merely treat the symptoms. All children in Brazil  
must be granted access to high quality education that will empower and enable them to create the  
social changes in their communities that will lead to greater equity and prosperity for the future  
generations.  
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