“I’d Rather Lose a Year than a Child”: The Debate on Returning to School in São Paulo

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – “If my son loses a year in school, it won’t make a difference to him in the future. But if I lose a child, it will. I’d rather lose a year than lose a son.” Researcher Érika Andreassy, 47, has been working from home for almost five months with her two children, João Pedro Andreassy Castro, 15, and Camilo Augusto Andreassy Castro, 10, both students at public schools in São Paulo.

“It’s pretty tight,” she says, about the routine of working with her children at home. “The demand for things to do at home has greatly increased.” On her own, she doesn’t have anyone else to share the care and support of her children in the online classes. Still, she says she prefers to remain as she is at the moment. “I think it’s risky. And if classes return this year, I won’t send my children to school.”

Érika’s opinion is shared by 79 percent of Brazilians who, according to the Datafolha Institute, say that the reopening of schools will worsen the novel coronavirus pandemic and that this is why schools should remain closed for the next two months. The discussion about the return of in-person classes amid still high levels of contamination is occurring worldwide. It involves overburdened parents, bankrupt private schools, apprehensive teachers, anxious students, and governments uncertain of what to do in this delicate debate.

Considering that much of the school year has been spent at home, experts and authorities are considering solutions to mitigate the damage of distance education, often with very little or no structure in place. The implementation of a fourth year in high school and even fail all students are options on the table.

Repeating the year is even an idea discussed by the very students, particularly those in the public network, who found it more difficult to follow the online lessons. “I struggle with learning at a distance and I eventually gave up. And I learned that it wasn’t only me who had this problem,” says Jessica Matias Pereira Lúcio, 17, a sophomore at Martin Egídio Damy State School in Brasilândia, on the outskirts of São Paulo.

Given the challenges, the student says she is “determined” not to return to school, neither online nor in person, this year. “I gave up this year a long time ago,” she says. She says that even when the school reopens, she doesn’t intend to go. “My mother is in the risk group because she had cancer. I’d rather stay at home than to bring in any danger for her”. Fernando Angelis de Souza, 14, a ninth-grade student at Firmino Tiburcio da Costa Municipal Elementary School in the eastern part of São Paulo, also says he does not want to go back to the classroom.

“It’s still strange to have online lessons, my connection is unstable, and I don’t see the teacher,” he says. “But as much as I want to, I don’t think it’s right to go back to school now. I don’t feel safe”. Apprehensive, the teenager says he even prefers to repeat the year than to go back to school now. “Maybe it’s better than going back to school now”.

From the educational perspective, the way each group was affected by the pandemic was very different, says Ivan Gontijo, project coordinator at the NGO ‘Todos pela Educação’ (All for Education). “Therefore, a generalized solution, of failing everyone, for instance, will ignore those specific groups that managed to follow online lessons,” he says. “Failing a third-year student in a public school who depends on the diploma to enter the labor market and who has fulfilled the activities remotely, may turn into a punishment that will affect the whole family.”

However, Gontijo acknowledges that remote education is no substitute for in-person education. “Remote education is a solution to mitigate the impact of the pandemic and to maintain some link between schools and students,” he says. “The fact that we don’t fail everyone doesn’t mean that there hasn’t been a great loss. It will leave learning gaps.”

In São Paulo, the government decided to implement a fourth year in high school. According to Henrique Pimentel Filho, Undersecretary of Regional Articulation of the Secretariat of Education, the plan is for students to review subjects that were unclear, but will not be mandatory. Gontijo believes this could be a positive step. “It would be an optional possibility. Whoever wants to, can do it. And it can serve as preparation for university admission exams,” he says.

“Extending the school day next year and including more tutoring and recovery programs also seem appropriate measures so that no one is left behind,” he says. In addition, Gontijo alerts to issues that transcend the curriculum: emotional support and psychological care for students and teachers. “It will not be a common return to classes. The students will come back deeply affected,” he says. “Welcoming these students and teachers will be a pre-condition to structure all educational issues later.”

City of São Paulo resists reopening in September

In São Paulo, the epicenter of the pandemic, the City Hall has not yet established a date for restarting in-person classes. This week, a serological survey conducted by the Bruno Covas management showed that 16 percent of students in the municipal network has had coronavirus, 66 percent of whom were asymptomatic. Among these students, one-fourth live with people over 60, which can represent a risk of contracting the disease at school and taking it home, according to the mayor.

As a result, Covas says he will not follow Governor João Doria’s decision, which established that some cities in São Paulo could restart partial school operations on September 8th, with activities such as tutoring. And he marked October 7th as the most likely date for the full return to school. To do so, municipalities need to have been at least 28 days with rates established by the government, which include low ICU occupancy and disease contagion rates. Should it continue at the current rate, the capital would be able to reopen its schools’ gates in September.

“The restart of schools at this time would lead to an increase in the number of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths,” said Mayor Covas, when reporting the serological survey results and announcing that schools in São Paulo will not be able to reopen in September. The decision applies to the whole network, including private schools.

The Union of Educational Establishments in the State of São Paulo (SIEEEP) applied for an injunction against the City’s decision. “The economy is back. Where will people leave their children?” said the organization’s president, Benjamin Ribeiro da Silva. “How does the mayor ban families from sending their children to school? It’s the families’ decision.”

According to Silva, private schools are ready to reopen. In São Paulo, some of the most expensive schools have hired consultants from renowned hospitals to establish security protocols. They have installed sensor-activated drinking fountains, bought temperature measuring guns, facial recognition cameras to check if students are wearing masks, and even established the use of UV rays to sanitize library books.

But on the other hand, a rather disparate reality cries out in public institutions. “Which school has soap, toilet paper? Not even the basic one has it,” says Flavia Bischain, licensed director of the São Paulo public school teachers union, APEOESP, and a teacher at the Martin Egídio Damy State School, in São Paulo.

“Here in Brasilândia many schools have broken floors, cement floors. Many even had to interdict rooms because of infiltration problems,” she says. According to her, not even the water supply is guaranteed. “It happens a lot to have to dismiss the students sooner because there is no more water.”

According to a UNICEF report published this month, the reality of Brazilian schools is much closer to Brasilândia than to the UV rays for sanitizing books. Less than 40 percent of schools have access to basic sanitation, about 61 percent have access to drinking water and about five percent of municipal and five percent of state schools do not even have a bathroom for students.

Consequently, Italo Dutra, head of education at UNICEF, says that returning to school implies minimal planning and resources to ensure hygienic conditions. “We won’t be able to guarantee access to drinking water quickly, but it is possible to create palliative measures at least for now,” he says.

The schools’ conditions to welcome students back raise concerns among mothers. “I see people making jokes on Facebook, saying they don’t even have toilet paper at school and they want to put a glass partition on their desks,” says saleswoman Dayse Barbosa da Silva, 32, mother of two children, an eight and a three-year-old, enrolled in the public network in São Paulo.

“Schools lack the necessary structure to accommodate the children now. Even at home, it’s hard to cope, we need to keep watching them all the time.” Erika Andreassy agrees. “Imagine a child four and a half hours inside a room, wearing a mask? I think it’s risky.”

Ítalo Dutra says it makes sense to consider a return to school only when it is safe to do so. “Schools also have an important role in social security,” he says. “We must protect children and teachers’ lives, thereby establishing proper care and considering what epidemiological data are required for schools to reopen.”

In Manaus, a capital that reported shortages of hospital and even cemetery spaces for Covid-19 victims in May and June, schools reopened on August 10th. But the debate is still ongoing in the Amazonas capital, which may be a laboratory for what the rest of the country could face in coming months.

Public school teachers have started to strike, although one of the main labor unions ruled out joining the strike on Wednesday. Its leaders denounce that the Government of Amazonas has not complied with the protocol to remove professionals diagnosed with Covid-19 and pledge to remain engaged. “We will strike all over the country if they insist on going back to school now.” says APEOSESP’s Flavia Bischain.

Source: El País