1. INTRODUCTION
In 1987 the Cartographic Engineering Course (CECart) of UNESP
(Universidade Estadual Paulista), campus of Presidente
Prudente-SP, has completed ten years of activities. There was
not a significant celebration, but these ten years of work
could not go unnoticed. The lived difficulties have caused an
experience that if it is reflected properly it will contribute
to choose a course to future.
The reading of working group reports of Commission VI reveals
the effort made by the international photogrammetric community
in order to survey and to know the educational reality of many
countries. The sense of this paper is to contribute but
modestly to this knowledgement, presenting and discussing the
lived experience by Department of Cartography (DCart) at
administration of CECart, considering the national and
international frame.
2. BRAZILIAN SITUATION
Brazil is a large country with 8,511,965 km2 of area, that
represents about 47$ of South America. It is the fifth country
of the world in extension. There are approximately 82$ of the
territory mapped at 1:250000 scale; it is estimated about 60$
to the scales of 1:50000 and 1:100000 covering the South,
Southeast and Northeast of Brazil. There are more than 4000
municipalities, the great number without topographic mapping or
if itiülexists needy of revision.
There are about ten great airsurvey companies working mostly to
federal, state or municipal government agencies. There are
about 1200 cartographic engineers undergraduated in the last 25
years. Obviously not all of them working at P&RS. Beside them
there are other types of engineers disputing in this
specialized area. At first glance, it seems that P&RS exist in
Brazil only at the last 25 years, but. that is not true; 'It.is
said that one of the first engineering existing in the country
was the cartographic one and the first surveys date to 1940.
Really the care with surveying and mapping is old (CARVALHO
I41|).
In the whole country there are only five courses of
Cartographic Engineering which meaning is succesfully
explained by FAGUNDES |6|. Every year circa of 150 students
enroll themselves at universities in order to course
Cartographic Engineering. In general, not more than the half
of them get the graduation in five years, the minimum time
required in practice to conclude the course. To continue the
Specialized education is possible at UFPr (Universidade
Federal do Paraná) that offers MSc and PhD degrees. The
formation of technicians in the country is neglected, not only
in P&RS, but also in almost all other areas. In this case, it
functions the informal education (ANDRADE l2l).
Nowadays, in Brazil, the quantity of PhD people in
146