Education
As the largest Catholic country in the world, Catholic education has a great tradition in Brazil. The Society of Jesus founded the first schools in the country, with the aim of evangelizing Native-Brazilians. In the late 18th century, Portuguese minister Marquis of Pombal attacked and expelled the Jesuits from Portugal and its overseas possessions. He seized the Jesuit schools and introduced educational reforms all over the Empire. Since then, public schools have been secular, but private Catholic schools are among the best in the country.
According to the Ministry of Education, there are currently over 30 Catholic universities in Brazil. The first of them was the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, founded by Marist Brothers on 1931. According to the Ministry of Education, the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro is the best private university in the country, and behind only the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in the State of Rio de Janeiro. The Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais had been chosen by the Ministry as the best private university in the country, and the best in Minas Gerais, the previous year. In 1969, the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo became the first higher education institute in Brazil to offer a post-graduation course.
Read more about this topic: Roman Catholicism In Brazil
Famous quotes containing the word education:
“From infancy, almost, the average girl is told that marriage is her ultimate goal; therefore her training and education must be directed toward that end. Like the mute beast fattened for slaughter, she is prepared for that.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“One of the greatest faults of the women of the present time is a silly fear of things, and one object of the education of girls should be to give them knowledge of what things are really dangerous.”
—Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (1842–1911)