Participants in the 19th edition of Acampamento Terra Livre – a kind of assembly that the indigenous movement has held annually since 2004 in Brasília – today (26th) approved the drafting of a document in which they demand more attention from the Public Power to indigenous school education. Written based on the contributions of educators and leaders from different ethnic groups and different locations, the letter should be presented to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, probably on Friday (26th), when Lula should attend the closing of the event organized by the Articulation of the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (Apib). The expectation of the indigenous movement is that, on that occasion, the president will announce the ratification of new indigenous lands. Copies of the document with the movement’s main claims regarding the public offer of formal instruction for indigenous peoples will also be forwarded to the Minister of Education, Camilo Santana, and other members of the federal government, as well as to governors and mayors of cities where there is presence of indigenous communities. Among the main demands of the indigenous movement for the segment is the creation, within the scope of the Ministry of Education, of a secretariat fully dedicated to indigenous school education. “Isn’t it interesting to have indigenous teachers and administrators [atuando em] indigenous territories according to an anti-indigenous education model that continues to colonize education and that does not reinforce the project of each people”, argued the pedagogue and member of the Organization of Indigenous Teachers of Ceará, Thiago Anacé. For the participants of the plenary session on indigenous education held this morning at Acampamento Terra Livre, the creation of a special secretariat could institutionally contribute to streamlining the actions of the Public Power in response to a series of problems listed in the document, such as “the precariousness of indigenous school education and the infrastructure of indigenous schools”; “the devaluation of indigenous teachers” and the “weak execution of public policies for indigenous school education in states and municipalities”. “In recent years, we have suffered many setbacks. Precariousness in indigenous schools has increased a lot; the selection processes for hiring indigenous teachers and paying these professionals are chaotic. That is why we are asking for a real return to the indigenous school education policy. We are asking for help, that indigenous school education be seen as a priority”, commented Alva Rosa Tukano, from the Forum for Indigenous School Education, an entity that has been proposing the creation of a special secretariat since the transition between the Jair Bolsonaro government and the inauguration of Squid. Indigenous university In the document approved this morning, the participants of Camp Terra Livre and members of entities that work with indigenous school education also demand the creation of a federal institution of higher education. In 2014, the theme motivated the then Minister of Education, Aloizio Mercadante, to set up a working group to “carry out studies on the creation of an indigenous intercultural higher education institution that promotes, through teaching, research and extension, activities aimed at valuing the epistemological, cultural and linguistic heritage of indigenous peoples, considering their demands and needs”. The indigenous movement also asks that it be guaranteed a seat on the National Council of Education; the resumption of the implementation of the so-called Ethnoeducational Territories; the discussion or consolidation of a specific fund for indigenous school education – a kind of Maintenance and Development Fund (Fundeb) specific to the educational subsystem; the resumption of affirmative action policies for indigenous students; a policy for the promotion and research of indigenous languages and dialects spoken in the country and the guarantee that children and adolescents from disputed areas have access to indigenous education. “We who live in [áreas] resumed, we have great difficulties in the implementation of indigenous school education. In Mato Grosso do Sul alone there are more than 150 areas in dispute, not demarcated, and many of these communities do not even receive what is already guaranteed by the Federal Constitution. For this reason, we demand that the retaken areas be ensured the same treatment as approved schools in indigenous villages. And that the same treatment be ensured to schools in urban villages that have not yet been homologated”, proposed Gilmar Veron, from the Education Forum of Mato Grosso do Sul.
Agência Brasil
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