Brazil’s New Education Minister Has Traditional Evangelical Background

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The newly appointed Minister of Education, Carlos Alberto Decotelli, is an evangelical protestant who believes in traditional biblical precepts. When asked whether he subscribed to the Bolsonarist views about “gender ideology” he replied that the president had not questioned him about this.

Linked to the Baptist Church, Decotelli is a Navy reserve officer and holds a bachelor’s degree in Economic Sciences from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), a master’s degree from the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, an (incomplete) doctorate from the University of Rosario (Argentina) and a post-doctoral studies certificate from the University of Wuppertal, Germany.

Abraham Weintraub’s replacement as head of the ministry, Decotelli pointed out that his education has been aligned with biblical precepts. His first duty is to work with the educational community in combatting the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

“I am an official. I grew up within the First Baptist Church of Rio and I am focused on the New Testament belief issues of the traditional evangelical core, such as the Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian churches. I attended Sunday school since I was two years old and today I am a member of the First Baptist Church of Curitiba. I believe in the Bible, in the New Testament’s convictions. It is a matter of faith. That’s how I live my life,” he said.

The new Minister of Education said he considers “the quota system as one of the positive public policies,” but demanded “self-criticism as a Brazilian” about what the country wants for the future.

“I see a teaching-educational need for us to reach the 21st century and say: ‘Look, no matter your ethnicity, no matter the origin of race or color, you must have dreams to pursue your reality. When you build a pre-concept, you are blocking dreams, destroying lives. My motivation today is that there is an inspiration in Brazil to reflect the self-criticism of what we want as a society. The less prejudice there is, the better the opportunity will be built for the human being to be fulfilled, regardless of whether they are male, female, black or Asian”, he said, pointing to a merit-based perspective.

For the Minister, the “big question” on the subject is: “How will people feel well and equal and how will they change human beings who were ethnically born different, but with equal opportunities in social coexistence? And this question goes through several items, including the reality of quotas, but also a symbol, support, dialogue”.

According to him, Bolsonaro wants quality-focused work in education: “The President called for maximum dedication to strengthening the management and communication of the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC) in order to promote dialogue. Another request is to update the indicators for assessing our educational performance. We currently have problems with the IDEB (Basic Education Development Index), which measures the quality of basic education, working with goals that were built in 2005. It is very outdated and therefore it needs to be revised so that we have a proven reality of what we want to assess”.

Media outlets have pointed out that Carlos Alberto Decotelli is yet another appointment from the government’s military wing, and that he is the first black man to hold a top-level position in the government of President Jair Bolsonaro, who has men and women, whites and mixed-race, civilians and military personnel on the Ministries Esplanade team.