Combating discrimination in schools is the smallest of the decade – 07/24/2023 – Education

Half of the country’s public schools have projects to fight racism and only a quarter of them take action against sexism and homophobia. The numbers, recorded during the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, are the lowest in the last decade.

The data are from a survey by Todos pela Educação, prepared with information provided by school directors for the Prova Brasil 2021, an evaluation carried out by the MEC (Ministry of Education).

In 2021, only 50.1% of schools said they had actions against racism. It is the lowest proportion since 2011, when 66.7% of public network units had programs against racial discrimination.

The peak of policies of this type was registered in 2015, during the administration of Dilma Rousseff (PT), when it reached 75.6% of schools. From that year, the country began to register a drop in the scope of this type of action and recorded in 2021 the lowest level.

The same occurred with the total number of schools with projects to combat sexism and homophobia. In 2011, 34.7% of them reported having shares. The scope of this policy gradually grew and reached 43.5% of the public network units in 2017, when the president was Michel Temer (MDB).

From that year, however, there was a decrease in the extent of this type of action, reaching only 25.5% of schools in 2021.

“The country no longer experienced an adequate scenario, because these actions should have been developed in all schools a long time ago. The ultraconservative agenda, which gained space in Brazilian society in recent years, made this situation even worse”, says Daniela Mendes, educational policy analyst at Todos pela Educação.

When he was still a deputy, Bolsonaro shared criticism and fake news about the so-called “gay kit”. The material, which was part of the School without Homophobia program of the Ministry of Education, was used out of context to attack the PT administration.

“This wave of fake news and the attacks that arose from them inhibited these actions within the school. There was a federal government program to guide and train teachers on how to deal with these issues, but the ultraconservative wave dismantled this policy by creating controversy around the subject”, says Daniela.

For her, in addition to the attacks on previous policies to combat discrimination, the federal government under Bolsonaro has not led any type of action or support for schools on this topic. “The previous management disregarded racial, gender and sexual orientation guidelines. The lack of attention to these guidelines is reflected in the actions of schools.”

She also says that the pandemic may have undermined actions that were previously developed by schools for this theme.

The data show that schools recognize that they experience situations of prejudice on a daily basis. More than 37% of directors said they dealt with cases of bullying and 15.5% said they had already registered cases of discrimination.

The violent and hostile school environment results in a greater chance of dropping out of school and lower academic performance among the target groups of discrimination. The data from Prova Brasil, for example, show that black students have lower scores in the assessment.

“When a young person is disrespected, attacked and offended in the school environment, he will want to move away and drop out of school. In addition, psychological stress interferes with learning”, says Daniela. “The school has an essential role in preparing for the exercise of citizenship, without actions to combat discrimination, it is failing in this training.”