A educação superior no desenvolvimento da Guiné- Bissau: contribuições, limites e desafios

Abstract

This paper aims to present the design of an exploratory field research linked to the Graduate Program in Regional Development, of UTFPR Pato Branco Campus, near its conclusion. The research has as analysis focus the higher education in the development of Guinea-Bissau - its contributions, limitations and challenges. Formal education in Guinea-Bissau began during the Portuguese colonization, 1446 -1974, however, a very tiny number of Guineans had access to school because of the policy adopted by the colonizer which was "asleep" as possible the natives not to make them realize the exploration that the country was suffering. The colonial situation did not create opportunities for the country to be able to develop a qualified education for everybody, because for most of Guineans were denied the access to what is regarded as a fundamental value in human society. The colonizer Country invested just a little in the education for the population, in relation to other countries like England, France in its colonies as Gambia and Senegal, respectively. It is a qualitative study, since these studies reveal a dynamic relationship between the real world and the subject, that is, an indissoluble link between the objective world and the subjectivity of the subject that cannot be translated into numbers. For this, we conducted a field research, exploratory one, involving twelve institutions of Guinea-Bissau, as follows: eight from the Higher Education, two ministries and two survey national institution. The sampling involved leaders and ministers from the nominated institutions. Data collection occurred through: semi structured interview guide with leaders and ministers from the nominated institutions, official documents of the universities: pedagogical project, courses, research, extension, human resources, administrative structure, among others; official documents of the ministries: National Plan of Education for Everybody, Second Document of National Strategy of Poverty Reduction (DENARP II), Support Project for Higher Education in the Countries of the West African Economic Monetary Union (UEMOA), among others; database of the Research National Institute. The results show that the main contributions of higher education to Guinea-Bissau consist of, greater number of citizens with higher education, higher number of trained staff for good work performance, effective and efficient public administration, higher economic national productivity and poverty decrease. However, there are many limits to the higher education’s and country's development, among them: the late and incipient beginning of the higher education in Guinea-Bissau, the lack of qualified teachers and infrastructure, necessary for that, the meager General Budget of the State for education, since the country has been considered one of which invest just a little in education compared with countries in our African region. The current global situation makes all the countries adopt public policies for the development. And higher education should be a pressing challenge of the countries to achieve the development pursued by all. Among the opportunities for Guinea-Bissau in relation to the mobility of students and teachers, there are the educational agreements with countries such as Portugal, Cuba, Russia, Senegal, China, Brazil.