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A12 WORLD NEWS
Friday 8 February 2019

Brazil education overhaul aims at ousting ‘Marxist ideology’

By DIANE JEANTET tion minster appear to be ten by the previous admin- religions but has also been focus on improving training
Associated Press looking for inspiration in istration and published by adopted by the Brazilian and salaries for teachers,
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — philosophers like Olavo de mistake. Even so, Educa- LGBT community. making the entrance exam
President Jair Bolsonaro Carvalho, a Brazilian who tion Minister Ricardo Velez “Don’t worry, there won’t for teachers tougher and
is taking his anti-leftist building a common sylla-
ideological war to Brazil’s bus for schools across the
classrooms and universi- country.
ties, causing angst among Brazil ranked 63rd out of the
teachers and education 72 countries and regions in
officials who say the gov- the 2015 Program for Inter-
ernment wants to fight an national Student Assess-
enemy that doesn’t exist. ment, conducted by the
Bolsonaro and top officials Organization for Economic
have announced plans to Cooperation and Develop-
revise textbooks to excise ment.
references to feminism, ho- According to the group,
mosexuality and violence Brazil has as one of the larg-
against women, say the est shares of adults with-
military will take over some out secondary education.
public schools and fre- Schools are overcrowded,
quently bash Paulo Freire, teacher salaries and low
one of Brazil’s most famous and school buildings are
educators, whose ideas often crumbling.
had worldwide influence. More than 5.800 schools
“One of the goals to get had no water supply in
Brazil out of the worst posi- 2017, nearly 5.000 had no
tions in international edu- electricity and 8.400 had
cation rankings is to com- no sewage, according to
bat the Marxist rubbish that In this Oct. 26, 2018 file photo, university students hold signs with messages that read in Portuguese: government figures.
has spread in educational “Not Him” and “My faith and torture don’t mix” during a protest against an electoral court order Many Brazilians don’t ap-
institutions,” Bolsonaro for universities to remove banners containing ‘negative propaganda’ against then presidential pear convinced by Bolson-
tweeted on the eve of his frontrunner Jair Bolsonaro, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Associated Press aro’s plans.
inauguration. In a poll published Jan. 8, 71
While students may not yet lives in the U.S. and is known Rodriguez vowed in his in- be any more questions like percent of those surveyed
find many differences as for his anti-globalism and augural speech to end the this,” Bolsonaro said. said politics should be dis-
they return to school this anti-socialist views. “aggressive promotion of After his inauguration, Velez cussed at school and 54
month, changes are afoot. While Freire believed in the the gender ideology.” told the newspaper Folha percent thought it was fine
“We are still waiting to see state’s mission to educate Velez instead defended de S. Paulo that his office to discuss sexual education
how, in practice, all this the Brazilian people, includ- what he called tradition- will encourage municipali- inside the classroom.
is going to turn out,” said ing poor rural farmers and al values, such as family, ties interested in letting their The poll, however, indicat-
Nilton Brandao, president the illiterate, de Carvalho church, school and the na- schools be run by the mili- ed that the new adminis-
of one of Brazil’s largest advocates reducing the tion, which he said were tary or the police. tration’s conservative views
teachers’ unions, PROIFES state’s role in education, threatened by a “crazy Brazil has 13 military-run played well with evangeli-
Federacao. “Right now, it favoring private or religious globalist wave.” schools, which are aimed cals, a powerful voter base
does not make any sense.” schools. “The Brazilian who travels is at educating children of for Bolsonaro during the
For the government, the “The government does not a cannibal. He steals things soldiers but also accept campaign. Fifty-nine per-
ideological battle begins have to educate anyone; from the hotel, steals the life some students based on cent of evangelicals said
with the removal of Freire’s it is the society that has to jacket from the plane,” said merit. The military is the they did not approve of
legacy in schools, which educate itself,” de Carv- Velez in an interview with most respected institution in sexual education being dis-
Bolsonaro and other con- alho said last year during a Veja magazine this week. the country and its schools cussed at school.
servatives say turns students talk about education on his “Our kids and teenagers have a better reputation The Datafolha poll was
into “political militants.” YouTube channel. He add- must receive citizenship than many public schools. based on 2,077 interviews
Freire, who died in 1997, ed that proposals “based education, which teaches The military is also some- carried out Dec. 18 and
was one of the founders of on the idea that the feder- how to act according to times called in to co-run Dec. 19, with a margin of
critical pedagogy. Con- al government is the great the law and morality.” public schools and bring error of two percentage
servatives contend Freire’s educator I am going to Bolsonaro has said he back order. points.
method encourages stu- fight to the death.” would review the content Last year, 39.5 million stu- Caua dos Santos Borges, a
dents to challenge tradi- After Bolsonaro took office of Brazil’s national high dents attended a public 15-year-old public school
tional values such as family Jan. 1, the Education Min- school exam to rid it of any school, while private in- student in Rio de Janeiro,
and the church. A social- istry dismantled its diversity questions on gender or stitutions, which can cost said that in her experi-
ist, Freire was briefly impris- department and published LGBT movements. He made several thousand dollars a ence teachers rarely spoke
oned during the 1964-1985 a new set of guidelines for the announcement in a month, served 9 million. about politics in the class-
military dictatorship that textbook publishers that YouTube video after seeing In general, critics say the room and gender had
Bolsonaro has repeatedly eliminated references to a question from last year’s administration is focused never felt like a core area
praised. topics such as violence exam on a “secret dialect on the wrong things. of the curriculum.
On the campaign trail, Bol- against women and sexism. used by gays and transves- Claudia Costin, director “Once, a student asked
sonaro said he wanted to Receiving an outpour- tites,” called Pajuba. of Brazil’s Center for Excel- the teacher if he supported
“enter the Education Min- ing of criticism, officials The Pajuba dialect mixes lence and Innovation in Bolsonaro, but the teach-
istry with a flamethrower to backtracked on the re- Portuguese and West Af- Education Policies, a think er didn’t respond and
remove Paulo Freire.” vised texts, saying the new rican languages and is tank based in Rio de Ja- changed the subject,” dos
Bolsonaro and his educa- guidelines had been writ- mostly used in Afro-Brazilian neiro, said efforts should Santos Borges said.q