text: Education A number of educational initiatives were launched during Lula's first presidency. A free school meals program was extended to 37 million pupils while a programme was launched which aimed to provide "whole or partial remission of student fees for low-income students". In 2006, primary education was extended from 8 to 9 years. A Fund for the Maintenance and Development of Basic Education was set up to improve the quality of education. The PED (an education development plan) conditioned the disbursement of public funds to state schools on the schools' performance.
  Still, in 2006 many Brazilians and commentators felt that Lula had not done enough to improve the quality of public education. And in 2010, while education was compulsory for all children in Brazil aged 7 to 14, in practice that requirement was only loosely enforced; 90% of children in rural areas attended school for less than four years, and only 25% of children living in favelas attended school.
  Social programs
  Lula's top social program sought to eradicate hunger. It was financed by an increase in tax revenues, coupled with a decrease in government expenditures on both wages and on benefits paid to public employees, as well as a decrease in government expenditures on infrastructure. The program followed the lead of a project that had already been put into practice in 1995 by the Fernando Henrique Cardoso administration, which was named Bolsa Escola (School Stipend). It expanded that initiative with the new Fome Zero ("Zero Hunger") program, which was part of the Bolsa Família (Family Allowance) plan.