Schools with a majority of black students have a worse structure – 04/15/2024 – Education

Public schools in which the majority of students are black have a worse structure than units in which the majority of enrollments are white. This inequality is seen in the existence of libraries, laboratories, sports courts and even sewage systems.

The survey was carried out by the Whiteness Observatory, an organization that studies racial inequalities in Brazil. The study was carried out with data from the 2021 School Census.

For the analysis, the observatory separated the country’s schools into two categories: predominantly white schools, with 60% or more of self-declared white students; and predominantly black schools, with 60% or more of self-declared black or mixed-race students — listed in the survey as black.

12,376 predominantly white schools and 21,992 predominantly black schools were identified. The study detected that the teaching units in the second group have a more precarious structure in all aspects analyzed, in addition to concentrating students with greater socioeconomic vulnerability.

“We usually identify educational inequalities by results, with the poorest and black people having the worst academic performance or among the highest dropout rates. These analyses, however, do not show what the structure of the school they have access to is like,” says the researcher Nayara Melo, doctoral student in sociology at Iesp (Institute of Social and Political Studies) at Uerj and one of those responsible for the study.

In this group, for example, 53.1% of schools do not have a computer laboratory and 51.79% do not have a sports court. On the other hand, in the group of schools with a white majority, only 25.31% and 19.67%, respectively, do not have these structures.

In schools with a black majority, only 43.44% of the units have a sewage system. In those with a white majority, 72.28% have this structure.

“The deficiencies of Brazilian public schools are known, but there are many layers of inequality within it. We have a group of students who are the most vulnerable and still study in units with fewer resources, with less equipment for them to learn and develop”, says Melo.

In schools with a black majority, 75% of students are in socioeconomic groups 3 and 4 of the Inse, a socioeconomic indicator created by the MEC (Ministry of Education). At these levels are students who have a monthly family income between 1 and 1.5 minimum wages, have a bathroom at home, a television and internet access. The father and mother of these students have, at most, completed primary education.

In schools with a white majority, 88% of students are in socioeconomic levels 5 and 6 (the indicator scale goes from 1 to 7). At these levels are those with a family income above five minimum wages, a car, two televisions, and more than two bathrooms at home. The father and mother of these students completed high school or higher education.

“The students who already live in greater vulnerability are those who study in schools with fewer resources. Without correcting these asymmetries, without providing the same conditions, which should be basic and guaranteed to all Brazilian students, we cannot expect the most vulnerable to rise in the school trajectory”, says Carolina Canegal, research coordinator at the observatory.

Several other surveys show how black students are more harmed by the lack of opportunities during school age.

White children aged 0 to 3, for example, have more access to daycare in Brazil — 49.7% are enrolled in early childhood education, while among black children in this age group the rate is 39%.

Other studies also show that black students at the end of the initial years of elementary school (from the 1st to the 5th year) have lower academic performance, equivalent to two years less learning than white students, in the Brazilian public school system.

Furthermore, of the 10 million young Brazilians between 14 and 29 years of age who stopped attending school without having completed basic education, 71.7% are black or mixed race.

“We look at these bad results and they always affect the same students. We also need to look at the factors that led to these results. When we look at the situation in schools, it is possible to see where these inequalities live”, says Canegal, who is also a Ph.D. in social sciences from PUC-Rio.

For her, the country needs focused policies to ensure that the most vulnerable schools, which serve the black and poorest population, have a minimum structure for quality teaching.