Students invade the office to demand a meeting with Feder – 10/17/2023 – Education

Around 30 students invaded this Tuesday (17) the headquarters of the State Department of Education, in Praça da República, in the center of São Paulo, to demand a meeting with the head of the department, Renato Feder.

Opposing the new secondary education and a series of actions adopted for the area under the Tarcísio de Freitas (Republican) government, the students say that for months they have been trying to meet with the secretary to discuss changes in what has been implemented in state schools.

The group of students, linked to Upes (União Paulista dos Estudantes Secundaristas), went to the secretariat’s headquarters late this Tuesday afternoon. According to the students, the idea was to file another request for a meeting with the secretary, when they decided to jump the building’s entrance turnstiles to press for the meeting.

Military police officers who provide security for the building accompanied the action, which ended peacefully. The students left the place after the department’s executive secretary, Vinícius Neiva, agreed to have a meeting with part of the group.

Feder is in Campos do Jordão, in the interior of the state, in a meeting with teaching supervisors. One of the agendas of the event is the presentation of changes to the high school curriculum for next year.

The students’ main demand is the repeal of the new secondary education, which came into force in São Paulo in 2021 during the João Doria government. As shown by the Sheetthe new curricular organization left the final year classes of this stage of education without history, geography, biology, chemistry and physics classes in 2023.

“Since the secretary took office, we filed more than 20 letters asking for a meeting so that the students could be heard and he never received us. That’s why we decided to take this action, so that he can see that he needs to talk to those who are impacted by the policies which it implements”, said Luiza Martins, president of Upes.

Students complain about the absence of regular subjects, which were replaced by subjects from their training itineraries. They also demand better structure for state schools, are against the comprehensive school model implemented in São Paulo and criticize technology measures that have been imposed for use in the classroom.

“The schools are experiencing a series of structural problems, we do not have classes in regular subjects, nor in the content required in the entrance exams. Meanwhile, the secretary is in Campos do Jordão presenting a new curriculum for secondary education, which once again it was not discussed with the students”, said Luiza.

In a statement, the Department of Education said that the requests presented will be “evaluated by the technical area”.