By Nicole Comforto, EFA Global Monitoring Report

Brazil has made great progress in improving its education system in recent years, but the current street protests provide a dramatic reminder that wide inequalities in education and society still need to be tackled. Protesters across the nation are calling for the government to prioritize better services including education, health care and transportation over building football stadiums for the World Cup.

As with recent protests in Turkey, the Occupy movement in the United States and student demonstrations in Chile, the protests in Brazil are largely driven by students and better-educated youth who are angry over government policies that benefit the rich. Education is often cited by protesters as a key issue, and for good reason: the quality of one’s education profoundly influences employment, income and opportunities throughout life.

Brazil’s education system is a complex case: as we highlighted in the 2012 EFA Global…