Educational Inequalities in Contemporary Brazil: definition, measurement and results

Abstract

 This paper proposes an indicator that describes, for each Brazilian municipality, its learning level and its inequalities. This indicator is necessary because learning inequalities are growing and they are not observed by the country's main educational indicator, the Elementary Education Development Index (IDEB). The paper initially conceptualizes justice in education, situating it in the debate about theories of justice. Then, it presents the methodological aspects of the indicator and the results obtained. The main conclusion is that the subjects and school grades where the largest number of municipalities increased their learning levels are also those where there was a strong increase in inequalities.