‘Don’t close my school’: Brazilian students fight planned shutdowns
Proposal to restructure education system met with opposition from students and teachers.
For the past week, thousands of Brazilian students have been protesting the Sao Paulo government’s plans to shut down hundreds of public schools and relocate many students in the area.
On Thursday, celebrated as Teachers Day in Brazil, teachers and students gathered in squares, in front of government buildings and outside trains. Protesters say Sao Paulo schools suffer from a lack of facilities and overcrowded classrooms.
The new government programme will restructure the state’s education system. Starting in 2016, each school would only offer one of three levels of education, instead of all primary, middle and secondary classes being taught in the same building.
Using #DiaDoProfessor (Teacher’s Day) and #NãoFecheMinhaEscola (Don’t close my school), images and videos of protests spread online. Some even used Periscope to allow people to watch the protests live.