{"id":36378,"date":"2017-05-17T07:34:04","date_gmt":"2017-05-17T10:34:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=36378"},"modified":"2017-05-27T10:05:05","modified_gmt":"2017-05-27T13:05:05","slug":"school-closings-take-a-toll-on-students-teachers-and-families-across-rio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=36378","title":{"rendered":"School Closings Take a Toll on Students, Teachers, and Families Across Rio"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

As Rio de Janeiro becomes further\u00a0engulfed in its financial crisis, the state\u2019s education sector has been suffering major setbacks. To combat the possibility of bankruptcy, the state announced that as many as 1,000 public schools<\/a> would be closed over\u00a0the upcoming year. While teachers, students, and advocacy groups have fought hard<\/a> against mass school closings, Rio\u2019s public education system seems to be spiraling out of control<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The state of Rio is never random in choosing which schools to close. According to Luiza,* a schoolteacher from a state school in the South Zone<\/a>, the government thinks twice before closing a school in a wealthy area, whereas closing a school in a favela or low-income neighborhood has become a no-brainer. \u201cYou close a school much more calmly where rich people won\u2019t see it. Politics is about criminalizing poverty<\/a>.\u201d When a school closes, students are then mandated to another public school that has room, but not necessarily in the same region. Often, these students have to travel more than an hour to get to school. \u201cWe have students coming from many different places. When they close schools in peripheral neighborhoods<\/a>, students come to the South Zone.\u201d The shuffling of students then creates an issue of overcrowding<\/a>. \u201cMany places operate as two schools in one,\u201d said Luiza.<\/p>\n

\"Door<\/a><\/p>\n

Back in November 2016<\/a>, students and teachers held a hearing with the Secretary of Education at the Education Commission of Rio de Janeiro’s State Legislative Assembly (Alerj<\/a>) to discuss the state of public schools, especially closings. Elaine Melchiades, a 16-year old student from a recently closed high school in Novo Friburgo, expressed concern<\/a> for the rights of her fellow classmates and teachers. \u201cWe are people, we are ideas! If democracy has to be created, let it be created correctly. Especially with people who are not going to make use of that which they are offering us,\u201d said Melchiades.<\/p>\n

History teacher Simone Duarte, who was also at the meeting, described some of the realities that community members face when a neighborhood school is closed. Last year, the school that Duarte taught at in Niteroi<\/a> was closed indeterminately, and he saw the effects firsthand. The repercussions from this decision, she explained, were enormous. \u201cThe problem is the idea of belonging. The school has been serving the community for 102 years. We have been in this building alone for 48. The community has the school as a reference. The students are left out. The parents, who were also students, are left out. There was no communication, nor was there discussion with the community. The government also wants to ignore the idea of differences between communities. What is offered to the students is a school in another community. This brings up feelings of insecurity and fear for students and families,\u201d Duarte said.<\/p>\n

\"Meeting<\/a><\/p>\n

School closings are only one aspect of the many problems facing the public school system in Rio<\/a> today. While it is very unlikely that the government will close Luiza\u2019s school in the South Zone, working conditions there have become practically unbearable. She mentioned that her salary at one school is not enough to pay rent, so she works at more than one. One of the schools she is working at now does not have enough money to hire basic administrative staff–not even a doorman or cleaning staff. The quality of teaching is also extremely worrisome. \u201cThere are practically no Physics or Chemistry teachers left in the public school system, everyone who is qualified has found other better\u00a0paying jobs\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Strike<\/a><\/p>\n

While the current financial crisis has affected the vast majority of people across the state of Rio de Janeiro, those in low-income communities have been hit hardest. Luiza expressed her frustration with the city\u2019s decision to hold recent mega-events<\/a> yet its inability to provide basic services for citizens. \u201cFrom my understanding, we had the World Cup<\/a> that showed that we were not broke. Now it is time for the government to pay for it. But they are taking money from those who need it. It is a moral crisis, more moral than economic. They are taking money away from education. We are dealing with some very serious problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

*Some names in this article have been changed to protect interviewees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas As Rio de Janeiro becomes further\u00a0engulfed in its financial crisis, the state\u2019s education sector has been suffering major setbacks. To combat the possibility of bankruptcy, the state announced that as many […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":36385,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1288,2242,335,336,1329],"tags":[1396,397,2319,203,262,2049,551,18,301,2350,156,2422],"writer":[2349],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-36378","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-highlight","8":"category-democracy","9":"category-policies","10":"category-violations","11":"category-by-international-observers","12":"tag-criminalization-of-poverty","13":"tag-education","14":"tag-fiscal-crisis","15":"tag-inequality","16":"tag-interview","17":"tag-long-commutes","18":"tag-niteroi","19":"tag-protest","20":"tag-public-policy","21":"tag-school-occupation","22":"tag-south-zone","23":"tag-school-closings","24":"writer-emilia-sens"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36378"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=36378"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=36378"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=36378"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=36378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}