São Paulo – The Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff ensured this Monday (19th), at a ceremony in São Bernardo do Campo, that the funds arising from oil production in Brazil will be allocated to education and healthcare. According to Rousseff, 75% of royalties will go into education, and the remainder will go to healthcare. “We will only be a developed country if we use our finite wealth, like oil royalties and money from the Pre-Salt Social Fund, for education. A country the size of Brazil will only turn into a developed country if it invests in education,” said Dilma.
She said investment in nursery schools must come first, to make sure mothers have a safe place to leave their children in while they work, and to ensure equal access to basic educational, with age-specific stimuli, so that all children have learned to read by age 8. She also said investment is required in order to improve teachers’ wages, for literacy to be attained at the right age, and for the dissemination of full-time secondary schools.
Rousseff explained that pre-salt funds for education will amount to R$ 112 billion (US$ 46 billion) over a ten-year period. "We will begin with R$ 1.4 billion in 2014, then we should see a hike to R$ 3 billion in 2015 and R$ 6 billion in 2016, and finally R$ 13 billion come 2018," she said.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
