> -Yes, but Jesuit schools in Brazil are for upper classes. If you compare
> -Australian public schools with Brazilian public schools, maybe they are
> -quite similar. Maybe the points you mention are common to working class
> -eduction in western countries?
>
> Alexandre Fenelon
Absolutely, though I also went to an elite public school in Australia, a bilingual french-english one which was superior to most private schools in my state. It was full of diplomats' kids, most of whom shared my view that Australian schools were terrible.
On the other hand I am told that universities in Brazil are far more hardcore than in Australia. Recently I visited the PPGAS, a very famous anthropology centre in the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro. I was thinking of doing a PhD there, having just finished my masters at the U. Sydney. I was shocked. Their academic requirements are tougher than Oxford's. Nobody gets in without a solid knowledge of french, spanish, english and portuguese, they test you several times over (that's unheard of here in Australia), they interview you personally, and demand extremely solid grades and references. And that's before we talk about getting a grant.
Thiago Oppermann