Rural Schools in Brazil Affected by Wave of Closures

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Social movements in Brazil have complained of an increased number of school closures in rural areas in 2019. One of the main reasons for this seems to be the austerity policy of Jair Bolsonaro’s government in the education sector.

Exactly 145,233 fewer students were enrolled in rural schools in Brazil in 2019 than in 2018. The reason for this is the high number of school closures in rural areas.

“We need to bring the debate about this into society so that school closures in rural areas stop,” said Marisa de Fátima da Luz, teacher and member of the National Collective, Sector Education, of the Landless Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, MST).

The official statistics on student figures, presented by the Brazilian Ministry of Education on December 30th, 2019, will be used by the government as a basis for assessing the required financial resources for schools and educators.

According to teacher Marisa de Fátima, these figures evidence the undermining of a structural policy that should actually be aimed at building more schools in Brazil’s rural areas. The figures further show the weakening of the social rights of the rural population.

A year ago, Brazil’s President Bolsonaro launched a campaign against educational institutions of the landless movement. At that time, he declared that he wanted to close more than 1,000 schools in the settlements of the movement’s members, most of which were organized in cooperatives.

The government also announced that it would place them on the list of terrorist organizations. Concurrently, the use of firearms against the occupation of fallow land was legalized.

The Landless Rural Workers’ Movement, MST, has existed in Brazil for several decades and is fighting for a democratic land reform that aims to transfer fallow land to those who cultivate it. This is a principle enshrined in the Brazilian constitution. Even today, one percent of Brazil’s landowners still own approximately 50 percent of the country’s agricultural land.

Today, the members of 1,900 associations in 96 large agricultural enterprises work on previously unproductive land and produce tons of organic food. They are able to achieve growing sales in the Brazilian and international markets, earning an average monthly income of approximately US$778.40. They supply public schools where children are given a warm meal every day.