New high school could become political catastrophe – 03/19/2023 – Camila Rocha

New high school could become political catastrophe – 03/19/2023 – Camila Rocha


In addition to representing a new form of pedagogical precariousness, the new secondary education can become a political catastrophe. Therefore, it is urgent to learn from past mistakes.

More than seven years ago, the government of the state of São Paulo announced a school restructuring. The idea was to separate the school units according to the different study cycles, which would imply the closure of more than 90 state schools.

The research that supported this project was fragile and was heavily criticized at the time. However, worse than that, the subjects who would be directly affected by the reform, the students, were not even consulted.

Overnight, many learned that their schools would be closed. Or that it would be necessary to move to a distant school to continue studying. In addition to displacement problems, sociability ties with colleagues, teachers and staff would be abruptly interrupted without a credible justification.

The students tried to seek solutions through dialogue, but the public authorities remained behind closed doors. With nowhere else to turn, they decided to mobilize, inspired by a manual written by Chilean students on how to occupy a school. Shortly thereafter, more than 200 schools would be occupied by the students themselves at the end of 2015.

The São Paulo government, then led by Geraldo Alckmin, mistakenly understood that the movement was controlled by opposition organizations and refused to speak with the students. As a result, the occupations lasted over time, generating a cascade of damages, including the failure to take the Saresp test (School Performance Assessment System of the State of São Paulo) in 174 schools, and the absurd criminalization of students , family and teachers.

The occupations in São Paulo soon inspired students throughout Brazil. The following year, occupations took place in schools in several states in protest against measures imposed without any opening for democratic participation.

In Mato Grosso and Goiás, almost 30 schools were occupied. In Espírito Santo there were about 60 occupations. In Ceará, almost 70. In Rio de Janeiro, around 80. And the states of Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul totaled approximately 150 occupations each.

The state of Paraná, however, broke the record: almost 850 state schools occupied. According to the organizers of the book “Ocupar e Resistir. Movimentos de Ocupação de Escolas pelo Brasil (2015-2016)”, high school students from Paraná carried out the second largest movement of occupations of schools in the world.

Alongside miners and capixabas, people from Paraná questioned precisely the proposal for a new high school, the “NEM”, which had been imposed in a hurried and authoritarian manner during the Temer government through a provisional measure.

After seven years, complaints about the new model have piled up. Trade unions and scientific associations had already been demonstrating against the reform for reasons widely publicized in scientific articles, books and the media, but now the students have (re)started their own campaign.

On the 15th, the motto #RevogaNEM began to circulate on social networks. Will they finally be heard?



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