The naturalization of injustice in educational opportunities – 04/09/2024 – Policies and Justice

Inequalities in educational opportunities are enormous in Brazil. We know that the place where we were born and the family’s economic condition are very important in determining which type of school and which teachers we will access throughout our lives.

In practice, however, we do not know the exact size of this gap, that is, how far the different groups of students are from each other, whether between boys and girls, between the richest and the poorest, or between those who live in rural area and urban area.

To contribute to this debate, I analyzed the difference in the probability of students with different characteristics (gender, race and income) and contexts (urban and rural) accessing teachers with a higher level of education, over 15 years.

The results are impressive in their magnitude. In 2001, a black, low-income student in the 5th year of elementary school, for example, had a 25% chance of having a teacher with higher education, while a white, high-income student had an 83% chance of accessing a teacher with the same characteristics.

Over the years, the disparity has reduced. We realized that public policies aimed at teacher training had an effect when we observed that, in 2011, a low-income black student had a 70% chance of accessing a teacher with higher education.

Despite the significant growth, it is notable to note that this student, even ten years later, does not reach the probability that a white, high-income student already had in 2001. The situation only became more equitable in 2017. It therefore took approximately 15 years so that students with different profiles would have the same probability of accessing a teacher with higher education.

Looking at the issue of location, the difference between urban and rural is also impressive. Students who enroll in schools in urban areas have, over the course of 15 years, a 100% greater probability of accessing a teacher with higher education than students in rural areas.

This inequality, however, has not changed over time, which illustrates the lack of focused public policies, aimed at the specific needs of schools in rural areas, that could reverse this scenario.

Research like this points to the importance of investing in teacher training and development and planning with a focus on educational equity. They show, on the one hand, that change is often very slow. They also show that, without a focused public policy, many inequalities will persist.

In this sense, it is essential that some interventions are made to shorten this path, implementing policies with a focus on equity. In the case of teachers, programs that offer monetary incentives for teachers who work in very vulnerable schools and/or located in rural areas, for example, are central and must be accompanied by adequate working conditions, administrative support, differentiated professional development opportunities, among others. A recently approved bill (Law nº 14,817/2024) goes in this direction and establishes guidelines linked to the appreciation of education professionals.

Ensuring that all students have the same opportunities to learn should be a focus for all of us as a country. To achieve this, we need to denaturalize these differences between students and invest in educational planning that has equity as a central dimension, translated into the adoption of effective and focused public policies to combat inequalities.

These were some data from a much broader discussion, the result of more than ten years of research. For anyone interested in delving deeper, I suggest reading two articles about this study: in Portuguese (available here), with data from 2001 to 2011, and in English (available here) with more up-to-date data.

The editor, Michael França, asks each participant in Folha de S. Paulo’s “Politics and Justice” space to suggest a song to readers. In this text, the one chosen by Lara Simielli was “Las transeúntes”, by Jorge Drexler.

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