[Experience of the National School of Public Health of Rio de Janeiro with decentralization of the public health course].

This work describes the process of decentralizing the course in public health at the National School of Public Health (ENSP) in Rio de Janeiro. The authors examine different stages of the organization and administration of parallel courses which, from 1975 to 1980, expanded from three to 15 States in order to meet the need for educating public health professionals in different geographic areas. They also describe the system of evaluating and financing the courses, and conclude that the training of 1,643 professionals in six years and the growing interest and participation of the States, fully justify the decentralization effort.