Read the text below and answer the questions that follow:
Brazil's universities take affirmative action
By Julia Carneiro
BBC Brasil, Rio de Janeiro
28August 2013
Antonio Oliveira has benefited from the “quotas” in the first semester since the law came into effect. As a teenager he had to balance his time between school and helping his parents harvest vegetables to sell at a farmer's market, and doing other small jobs to scrape by.
Until recently, he says the only prospects for those growing up in his city, Colinas, were to work with crops or to get a post at the city hall - “a mediocre job that people think is heaven,” as he puts it. But Antonio has just finished his first term studying Economic Sciences at Rio de Janeiro's prestigious Federal University (UFRJ), a dream he had nurtured since his days at a rural public school.
His placement represents a radical change in the Brazilian university system.
Competition for places
Anew law approved a year ago reserves 50% of spots in Brazil's federal universities for students coming from public schools, low-income families and who are of African or indigenous descent.
“I think this is a life-changing opportunity.I hope I will get a good job after university and be able to give my parents more comfort as they grow old,” said Antonio Oliveira, student.
The number of posts reserved for black, mixed race and indigenous students will vary according to the racial make-up of each Brazilian state.
Ten years ago affirmative action gradually started being adopted in both state and federally funded Brazilian universities, in an attempt to give underprivileged Brazilians better chances of getting free higher education - and thus access to better jobs. Half of Brazil's population is ofAfrican descent, but the country's public universities tend to reflect the Brazilian upper classes - who are mostly white.
Although these universities are free, those who traditionally made it in usually came from expensive private schools. Students from public education - the majority of whom are black or mixed race - were less likely to secure one of the highly competitive places. Now the “quotas” are mandatory in all of Brazil's 59 federal universities, which have until 2016 to reserve half of their positions for affirmative action.
Controversial issue
Antonio Freitas says the country is moving backwards with the quota policies.
But racial quotas have sparked widespread controversy in Brazil. Many who are against them argue that easing access to higher education denies the principle of merit that brings excellence to universities.
“This is bad for the future of Brazil, because the main objective of universities is research, is to achieve quality,” says Antonio Freitas, provost of the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a prestigious private university.
“Eventually you may not have the most qualified people in engineering, in medical school, in the most challenging areas which Brazil needs to develop.”
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The sentences below provide further information about the studentAntonio Oliveira. Choose the only sentence in which the expression used to refer to his age is correct.
