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Priscila Cruz, who has become the largest educational leader in the third sector in recent years, sees a sad future for a country for almost six months with schools closed and no prognoses for their upcoming opening.
“Brazil will pay a very high price for choosing to open a bar before school,” says Todos pela Educação’s executive president. “It can be said with certainty, inequality and evasion will increase, learning will fall. And the consequence in the medium and long term for the country is brutal.”
A Harvard Master of Public Administration, Priscila would like to see governors and mayors obsessed with education. “I wish they were losing sleep because the schools are closed.”
Instead, fearing a poor result in the November elections, many have been guided by polls in which the majority of the population say they oppose the resumption. “The decision to leave the inauguration for next year is the worst that can exist. The mayor thinks: it is very complex, he has a lot of opinion. And he pushes the problem with the belly.”
Is the back-to-school debate polarized and tainted?
It is a complex debate, it has several components and they all have a lot of truth. Parents and teachers are not sure. Education and learning are being brutally affected, a great problem for every student, which defines the opportunities they will have in life, and a drag on the country. A third component is that schools should not reopen until the pandemic has passed. reviewed. And the fourth is that remote classes are very limiting and with insufficient results. What is the difficulty of public debate? In general, people take only one of these statements, a flag. Any position that does not include the complexity of the system will be biased and reductionist.
So what is the solution?
The public administrator who aims at the collective good looks at all the arguments, sees their truth. But it is up to a public leadership to make the decision and clarify the criteria. You cannot change the flag, such as “return only after vaccination”. The result we want is clear: reduce the impact on education and not make openness have a great impact on the pandemic because we are talking about an increase in deaths. What should have been done if Brazil prioritized education – and that does not mean not worrying about life – was to open schools before trade, like other countries. At the expense of education, states and municipalities reopened commerce. We could, at the expense of commerce, have reopened the schools.
Children were seen as great transmitters of the covid.
They also circulate in shopping centers. Public spaces are now full of children. There are parents who are in the square, but they don’t want to go back to school.
But can they open schools now?
Since the trade has reopened, we no longer have this card up our sleeve, we need to have a clear indicator of when the school can open. What does it mean to have the pandemic under control? In São Paulo, it is a basket of indicators that generates colors. It is a reasonable system, it solves for the administrator, but not for the population. Because there is insecurity regarding the manager. We have a cacophony, the president says one thing, governors another, specialists, another, there is fake news. The colors do not reassure the population, nobody knows what is in the black box of yellow, orange. If you don’t reassure, parents won’t send their children, teachers won’t teach, and openness won’t work. There should be an indicator that everyone understands, it can be number of cases, moving average, that indicates the moment when it is reasonable to open. Communication is a determining factor when there are so many components to the debate.
Some mayors are putting 2021 as that indicator.
This is not an indicator, it is a reductionist, lazy decision, it does not consider complexity. He says: despite everything, he will only be back next year. If it is controlled in October, will the decision stand? And if the pandemic is not controlled in 2021, will classes return? The decision to leave for 2021 is the worst that can exist. The mayor thinks: he is complex, he has a lot of opinion and pushes the problem with his belly. It is an election year, eliminate the problem. Decisions made in 2020 will shape the country for decades. Leaders must understand that difficult and unpopular decisions must be made.
Does all this show a devaluation of education in the country?
The Brazilian population values education by word of mouth. When a population pushes for the opening of bars and shopping centers, then the real priority is revealed. The damage to education during these six months will be very profound. History books will be displayed. Brazil will regret opting for an out-of-order reopening. If the country makes more wrong decisions, we may never recover. We can accelerate to a resounding failure and we will not recover from the effects of the economy, it will deepen inequalities. I’d like to have governors and mayors obsessed with education, losing sleep because schools are closed. And who will pay is the covid generation in today’s schools. Brazil will pay a high price for choosing to open a bar before school.
Is it already possible to see the losses?
Brazilian inequality is increasing due to the conditions in which education is offered. Around 30% did not have access to remote study and another 70% are in a very varied situation, there are those who accessed once, saw on television, who have classes every day. The boy is taking classes at the kitchen table, with his brother playing with a cart, in very small houses, not to mention the situations that make me sleepy, toxic stress, domestic violence, abuse. It is safe to say, inequality and avoidance will increase, learning will fall. The medium and long-term consequences for the country are brutal. By reducing evasion, the homicide rate is reduced and there is a relationship between learning and future wages, economic growth, health conditions. If you can go back to school one day, that day is worth it.
Many people think it is not worth it.
The link with the school, with the teachers, is a premise for learning. Distance learning is less efficient because the link is more fragile. The fact that the child goes to school one day maintains the bond that has already been built or helps to rebuild what has been weakened.
If it opens in October, will you send your daughters to school?
Sim.
The information is from the newspaper The State of S. Paulo.
