Education in Brazil is a sinking ship #006

 I used to be a teacher in Brazil, but I ended up quitting and now I work in the administrative area as a coordinator. Even though I earn less, it was an area that preserved my mental health more in education system.

I'll tell you a little about my journey until I got into education:

I graduated in Economics and, right in the month of my graduation, I was fired from my job. It was a company I had been with for a few years, it was a place I liked to work. But the company's management changed and they made some staff cuts. I believe it was more to instill fear and for those who remained to be more efficient so that they wouldn't be the next to be fired (I had also noticed that the company's turnover was high). The company wanted me to dedicate more time (overtime), but I couldn't do it at that time because I was studying my last college classes. There were three people in my department: my immediate boss, who was a terrible employee. She had alcohol problems, didn't understand anything about management, and was late for work because she had drunk too much. She was a heavy smoker. She had gotten pregnant and, possibly because of her lifestyle, ended up losing the baby. The other employee, my coworker, was hearing impaired. Her hiring was kind of "mandatory." There is a law that requires a company with X employees to hire a disabled person, but the company had not had any disabled employees up until that point, and they had to hire someone. Because of my coworkers' situation, they wanted to fire someone. One was going through a difficult time, and the other couldn't be fired, so I ended up being the one who had to be chosen. 

After being fired, a few weeks later I was looking for a new job. I got a job at a cell phone franchise in a shopping mall, but the owner was taking his time to sign my employment contract. He could see that this company was going to be a headache. After a while, the pandemic started, the malls were closed, and I ended up being laid off. He paid me for the time, but it was an informal agreement.

I ended up going back to the small town where I used to live. I tried to work at a large dairy company in the city, but working in the small town is very difficult. It works like this: you have to know someone influential to be able to recommend you. That's why many people leave to try to make a living in a bigger city, because finding a job is a difficult task for those who don't have influence.

I sent my resume to several companies and was even promised that I would get a job, but then I didn't hear back. I spent a year and a half in this pandemic life. Until an opportunity arose.

Starting my journey in education

I applied for a job in the state of Espírito Santo to try to get a job as a temporary teacher.

I got a job as a math teacher in the Education for Young People and Adults (EJA, the acronym in Portuguese), even though I didn't have any training as a teacher. Sometimes there are vacancies because no one is interested, so those who have a degree in mathematics in the curriculum, such as Engineering and Accounting, for example, can take the job. The available class was the last class on Friday night. Then I managed to complete the hours in a tutoring program to help students catch up on their education after the pandemic. Since I started working in the field, I did a pedagogical supplement in mathematics to become a licensed teacher.

Learning how things work

I learned that in municipal and state public education, the main focus of the school is not to fail students, and the pressure that teachers are under is enormous. The maximum acceptable failure rate is 1%~1.5% (the government actually wanted a failure rate of 0%). Education, like other areas, is a pyramid scheme. The Federal Ministry of Education pressures the States, who pressure the State Secretaries of Education, who pressure the Superintendents, who pressure the Supervisors, who pressure the Principals, who ultimately pressure the teachers to not fail students. The rope always breaks on the weakest side. If a teacher goes against the system, he or she is persecuted. The principal is already tied down by his or her salary. He or she doesn't want to earn less and go back to the classroom, so it's not worth it for this category to be against the system. Students must have 75% attendance to pass the year. Sometimes, in order to avoid failing students at the end of the year, they tell stories of suffering, saying that the student helped his sick grandmother, his alcoholic father, etc., so that the teachers are pressured to pass the student, even if he did not attend classes.

Students are not idiots; they have already realized that they can do whatever they want and that they will hardly fail. This is how you start to teach a society that effort, discipline and dedication are not important. With each passing year, the number of students who reach the sixth grade of elementary school increases and do not know how to read, write, and often do not even know their own name.

Not that failing a grade is a solution to a complex problem, but it is complicated for students to be 10, 11, 12 years old and not know how to write in cursive, or to know simple addition and subtraction. But sometimes having a student repeat a grade is the appropriate solution. The government justifies this by saying that failing a grade can lead to higher school dropout rates, and in a way this is true, so there is a trade-off: whether to improve the quality of education for those who remain or to always lower the level.

Teachers not being able to demand results from their students is having and will continue to have increasingly dire consequences. Brazil's population is aging, the retired elderly population will have to depend on the generation of wealth by the active population in the labor market, there will be fewer young people working for a growing elderly population. Brazilian productivity is not increasing and the intelligence quotient (IQ) of the new generations is decreasing. How will this system be sustained? One day the bomb will explode...

Teachers have to deal with students' lack of discipline, and on the other hand, the category is under pressure to get good grades on diagnostic tests and assessments of indicators. And if students get bad grades, it's all the teacher's fault, it's as if the students and their families have no responsibility. But how are students going to make an effort if they know they don't need to make an effort to advance in their studies? It's a hypocrisy of the system that's very difficult to understand.

Right is wrong and wrong is right

Schools focus a lot on the worst students, explaining why they didn't do well. They call their families, give them educational support, talk to the teacher, principal, etc. Not that this is wrong, but I believe that schools need to change their focus: they need to pay attention to the good students. They need to have funding, cash prizes, and advantages for the best students in the class. This would generate a healthy competition to reach the top, to be the best. But Brazil hates winners. We have a culture of mediocrity. It is implicit in Brazilian culture that it is wrong to stand out, to be the best at something. The successful are envied and punished (we see this when the businessman is always the "bad guy" and the government is the "good guy"). Especially in the outskirts of the city, the good students are seen as "stupid", as "idiots", and the terrible students are seen as examples by the other students (the ones who are popular and desired). This is a complete inversion of values. It should be the other way around, encouraging the good ones so that society can reap better results. Students with special abilities, the gifted, should receive incentives, participate in awards, and have specialized care so that they can achieve success in the area in which they are very good. But I don't see much incentive, it's sad, because many talents are lost.

If there were financial incentives for the best, everyone would want to receive them. This would be a way to avoid dropping out.

Failure to provide assistance to students with disabilities and mental disorders

This is a controversial subject, but it needs to be thought about. It involves a lot of family decision-making. Schools have specialized teachers, but what I have noticed is that most professionals in this area have very poor qualifications. Let's suppose that a math teacher assigns an activity, and the activities for students with mental disorders end up being simplified, but this is not the best way to ensure education. The integration of these students is very forced, it's like the law that requires companies to hire people with disabilities. Then the company gives the employee a simple task, but the person may be capable of much more, but has no opportunity, because human resources/employers are prejudiced and do not give the person opportunities to advance. The same thing happens in schools.

I believe that schools should have excellent psychology professionals, conduct tests to assess the capacity of the student who needs specialized care. Create a teaching plan to develop the student's capacity to the maximum, together with the specialized teacher to implement this plan. In addition, a social worker is needed to act as a bridge between the school and the family.

I feel that many talents are lost here too, especially deaf students, because many teachers trained in Brazilian Sign Language are unable to teach subjects such as Science and Math in that language. The person can develop their intellect, but the school is inefficient in ensuring learning.

A controversial opinion: the school is obliged to accept all students, but if the family identifies that the student has a disorder that leads to violence, the student hits other classmates and teachers. I believe that the most appropriate thing, if possible, is for this student to be monitored in a specialized unit for students with disorders, such as APAE, because it ends up causing a lot of suffering for many students and teachers if this person attends a regular school, but then it is up to the family to reflect.

Hunger

This is a problem that many people deny, pretending not to see. Those who go through this situation are ashamed, but the fact is that hunger exists. And this greatly impairs learning. Many times, children do not concentrate or are violent because of this factor. Sometimes even school staff are not sensitive to this, because they cannot put themselves in the other person's shoes.

In state schools in Espírito Santo, the meals are outsourced. The company obviously wants to make the most profit and often buys the worst quality food to offer to students. Many students, because of the poor quality, do not eat at school and end up not being well fed. Many of the people who do eat are those who are in need at home.

This is an area that, in my opinion, should not be outsourced. Given the high taxes we pay, the government should provide high quality food.

In municipal schools, the city itself provides meals, but due to corruption and misappropriation of school lunch funds, some political mandates also require students to receive meals of poor nutritional quality (one of the reasons why voting well is important). Corruption is killing the country's future and fueling the hunger of millions.

To mitigate the effects, schools should have social assistance. Many families are poor and have illiterate relatives. They do not know how to exercise their rights to receive assistance programs such as Bolsa Família, social tariffs on water and energy bills, etc. Some cities provide basic food baskets to low-income families. This type of work is necessary. When I started working at the department, I saw the reality better. Many of the students' guardians are illiterate and have little education. They need help to reduce the suffering of poverty.

Lack of commitment and qualification of professionals

I see many professionals who want to make a difference, who want students to learn, to be conscientious citizens and to develop intellectually. But most of them are disappointed by the system and end up giving up and working more out of obligation.

It is frightening to see the number of professionals who graduate but receive terrible education. Many colleges, especially the cheaper private ones, make it too easy to get a diploma and end up producing professionals who know nothing. I have seen teachers who write everything wrong. Imagine these teachers teaching a child to read and write if they themselves do not even know Portuguese?

The government should pressure institutions to improve the quality of education (but I know that this will not happen). Colleges are companies, and they also know that if they pressure too much, they will have a high dropout rate and students will look for another, easier college. It's a snowball effect. There are teachers who don't know anything, and then there are students who are not responsible and don't have good incentives (in their minds, school is useless and many parents only want their children in school so they don't have to be a burden at home). This creates a negative spiral, and the situation gets worse and worse.

Many teachers are in schools just for the money. In my opinion, I don't see a problem with that, because not everyone will love their job, but it's necessary to do a good job. But many don't care about public service (something that is a negative cultural trait in Brazil), and they end up writing in sick notes, even if they're not sick, just to get paid without having to work. This ends up overloading the teachers who are in the school, who have to cover for those who are absent and end up having less time to plan (because in the state of Espírito Santo, teachers can't hire a substitute; the teachers who are in the school have to cover for those who are absent).

Slavery and services considered "less important"

I passed the civil service exam to become a teacher and a school support agent (basically a school secretary). I decided to go into administration because after I learned how the system works, I was very discouraged about teaching and was already preparing to go to the United States.

One thing I noticed while working in the secretariat is that in Brazil, people despise more manual services and those that they consider less important. It is a consequence of slavery, where people think they are forced to be served by those people they consider "inferior".

I noticed how the kitchen staff, cleaning staff and secretaries are despised, as if it were only the teachers who made the school run. Teachers receive gifts on Teachers' Day, but other professionals are treated as invisible, they don't get congratulations on their professional day or a hug on their birthday. The management is terrible, I really miss this more human contact from the human resources department that thinks about all employees.

They often think that these employees are forced to perform tasks that are not their responsibility or that they abuse the goodwill of others.

The devaluation comes from the top down. I reported the low quality of the food served, and it doesn't stop there. The quality of the cleaning products used by the general service assistants is also low. People dirty the environments because they know that someone will clean them (lack of empathy).

If you are in the secretariat, you have to build a strong personality. You are not someone's cell phone and computer technician, nor an Excel and Word editor who prints tests and agendas. You have to make it very clear what your role is and be prepared for devaluation.

Is there hope?

I don't see any hope for Brazil. Education is a reflection of the future. I have seen that the future of the country is frightening. Those who have a better salary in education are told to "shut up" to follow orders. The changes should come from the base of the pyramid, but the base is just accepting what comes from above, even though this is obviously worsening the situation in education.

Students don't know how to write, read, type text on the computer, do an Excel math calculation, and they can't understand simple words because their vocabulary is increasingly limited.

It ends up being a big show, teachers have a huge amount of work to no avail, many pretend to teach, many pretend to learn. The indicators are improving, but the reality is cruel and shows the truth.

Education financed by the federal government in elementary education is a different reality, there is a selection test to enter high school and teachers can fail; if the student doesn't keep up with the class, it's goodbye. Often, those who benefit from this education by becoming teachers and students are people from families with higher incomes and a more structured family nucleus. The poorest end up in the weakest education system managed by city halls and states.

I see that with each generation the intellectual gap between the rich and the poor in Brazil will increase a lot, while public schools (except federal schools) are not educating students adequately, students of rich parents who study at elite schools are able to develop their children's intellectual abilities. The next generations of rich people are increasingly intelligent and have more opportunities in this world of great transformations, and the generations of poor people are increasingly hopeless and trapped in this cycle of poverty.