AM: Court orders university to hold child places – 01/11/2024 – Education

The court ordered that the State University of Amazonas hold the place of Luan Gabriel, 11, a child who passed last year’s entrance exam to study mathematics at the institution.

The student became known when he participated in the show Pequenos Gênios, on Domingão com o Hulk. In the program, he did long math calculations without any help and was tested on his geography knowledge.

Luan’s family filed a lawsuit in Amazonas Justice, through the Public Defender’s Office, to ensure that the place he won at the university is protected until it is decided whether or not the boy will be able to take this leap in his education.

The boy would need to skip the rest of elementary school and all of high school. He has already completed the 5th year of elementary school.

In the Court’s decision, judge Marcelo Vieira ordered the State Department of Education to carry out a school advancement exam to assess whether or not Luan is capable of attending university, even though he is only 11 years old.

The judge stated that he understood that the university environment is very different from the elementary school, which Luan attends today, and said that there are situations that may not be conducive to the boy’s level of emotional maturity.

“Thus, in an ideal scenario, with the diagnosis of high abilities already being made, I understand that a multidisciplinary assessment would be necessary to determine whether academic advancement would be capable of producing any significant harm to the student,” said Vieira in the ruling.

The deadline for this exam to be carried out is 45 days and, to date, it has not yet been scheduled by the secretariat. As enrollment at the university took place at the beginning of January, the Court’s decision was to ensure that, until the evaluation is completed, Luan’s place is protected.

In the process, the boy’s family presented a neuropsychological report confirming the criteria for high abilities and academic giftedness.

The judge highlighted that not guaranteeing Luan the place could harm his mental health. He stated as justification that the boy could become frustrated by continuing to study at a level below his intellectual capacity.

“People, especially children, who have high skills, can have very specific nuances when it comes to the emotional aspect, and can even develop anxiety or depression, a fact highlighted in a psychological report.”

In the sentence, the judge also stated that Brazil, “although it is a cradle of highly qualified people, still does not have an educational and psycho-pedagogical structure to support them, who end up finding such a structure in other countries”.