Schoolbooks and markers aren’t the only things science teacher Roberto Brandão, 54, takes with him every morning when he goes to work at a school in one of the Rio de Janeiro‘s largest favelas. He also carries a first aid kit in case he or one of his students gets hit by a bullet.
“I always carry it in my backpack because I could be shot at any moment,” he said, showing off the red waterproof bag after attending a seminar on how police actions affect children’s learning outcomes in Maré.
A complex of 15 favelas with 125,000 inhabitants in Rio’s Maré district reached its 11th consecutive day of police operations on Thursday, demolishing buildings reportedly built by drug traffickers.
This time, there were no shootings – which are common in these types of operations and often result in the deaths of innocent residents – but there was a less visible result: schools had to remain closed for more than a week.
About 20,000 students attend the 49 schools in Maré, located between Rio’s city centre and the international airport.
Schools only reopened on Wednesday, but many parents were still fearful and decided to keep their children at home, leaving many classrooms empty. This brings the total number of school days lost to security force raids this year to 29.
“It is unthinkable to imagine 30 days of police operations in Leblon, Ipanema and Copacabana,” said Eblin Farage, a professor of social work at the Federal Fluminense University, referring to wealthy neighborhoods in Rio’s southern zone. “So why is it possible in Maré? Don’t the people here count as part of the city?”
Farage coordinated a new investigation with the NGO Redes da Maré in which 84 children and teenagers aged 10 to 15 were interviewed. Two-thirds (66.7%) indicated that when their school closes due to a police action, the material that was supposed to be taught during the closure is never taught again.
For 92%, ‘violence’ – in a general context, which also includes the actions of criminal groups – disrupts lessons and the learning process; for 78%, it leads to a loss of concentration during school activities.
“But the losses are not just educational,” said Alessandra Pinheiro, education coordinator at Redes da Maré. “For many of these children, the food provided by the school is the only meal they get in a day,” she said, adding: “It is also about the right to a future.”
A book published this year, I have to go to school (I should be at school), reproduces drawings that children from Maré made at the request of the NGO. Someone asks: “How are we supposed to make our dreams come true if we miss so many classes?”
Maria dos Prazeres, 39, who left the northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte to live in Maré with her husband and their two children, has spent the past week looking for ways to entertain her youngest, Isaías. “He’s five, has autism and loves studying. He gets very agitated at home if he misses classes, so I have to concentrate completely on him,” she said.
Staying home for so many days caused her to lose her job as a shrimp peeler at a small fish shop in Maré. Now her husband is the sole breadwinner of her family. “I liked having my own money, but I’m afraid to go back to work. What if there’s another operation tomorrow?” she asked during the seminar organized by Redes da Maré.
Science teacher Brandão wore a yellow shirt to the seminar with a logo of two raised black hands and the text “Education, don’t shoot.”
He says carrying a first aid kit should never be normal. “I can’t feel comfortable carrying this… We have to fight to make sure that people in Maré have all their rights, like coming and going and going to education,” he said.
During the seminar, a speaker said that when some teachers had to work in Maré, they quit after the first day out of fear. Brandão asked for the microphone: “I’m not afraid to work here. What I’m afraid of is being shot during a police operation. I’m tired of losing former students this way.”
On Tuesday, a federal prosecutor gave Rio de Janeiro City Hall a 48-hour deadline to explain why the buildings are being demolished and to present a plan to make up for lost lessons.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Education said students will be offered remedial activities such as video lessons or thematic lessons.
Farage believes that police operations in Maré should stop, as they “have no significant impact on the drug trade”. But advocating this, she says, is not condoning organised crime, which does indeed control parts of the favelas.
Last Sunday the police discovered a ton of marijuana hidden in air ducts outside a school. According to the Ministry of Education, criminals invaded the school grounds, “a space that should be sacred,” to hide the drug.
“We know that the police are not the only problem in the favelas, but there should be other forms of public security that actually provide security, rather than the oppression that exists now,” Farage said. “The state cannot be a rights violator.”
