Creator of Escola sem Partido wants to change proposal in the Chamber

The founder of the movement School without Party, the São Paulo State Attorney Miguel Nagib, went to the Chamber of Deputies to ask that the rapporteur for the bill that received the same name, Deputy Flavinho (PSC-SP), remove from the text the prohibition to address gender issues in schools.

Today there would be another attempt to vote on the substitute presented by Flavinho in the special committee that discusses the matter in the Chamber, but the session ended up being suspended last night (5). Nagib, then, met the parliamentarian in the plenary of the House and had a brief conversation with him in the local cafe. The intention was to have a formal meeting, but the deputy would board a flight to São Paulo.

“The substitute has articles that contradict each other, it's wrong, it can't stay like that. I think that this law cannot prohibit content, nor gender issues, it must establish that whatever the content, it it has to be presented without dogmatism, without proselytism, which are approaches typical of religion”, said Nagib to Agência Brazil.

Time is getting tighter and tighter for the project to be approved in the current legislature, which is the wish of those who are in favor of the text. Those who are against it, however, want the project to be shelved, which will happen if approval by the special commission is not yet this year. Nagib believes that deleting the article dealing with gender will facilitate approval.

Nagib explains that the substitute itself stipulates, in Article 2, that the Government “shall not interfere in the process of sexual maturation of students nor will it allow any form of dogmatism or proselytism in addressing issues of gender".

Then, highlighted the attorney, the text presents a contradiction, in article 6, when it says: “Education will not develop teaching policies, nor will it adopt a curriculum school, obligatory disciplines, not even in a complementary or optional way, that tend to apply gender ideology, the term 'gender' or 'orientation sexual'."

After the conversation, Deputy Flavinho said that he will analyze the possibility of changing the wording, but that he will not waive the ban on schools dealing with sexual orientation. “Sexual orientation issues, gender issues, which are philosophical, ideological issues, are not allowed to be treated in the school environment, if not in a scientific way. As there is no science about it, it [the substitute] imposes a limitation on how to deal with the issue, ”he says.

He adds, however, that there is no prohibition “to deal with questions of sexuality, within the proper environment, of the proper age group. There is no prohibition like that in the substitute.”

heated discussions

Discussions of the bill that has the support of the president-elect, Jair Bolsonaro, have been heated in the Chamber of Deputies. Arguments are frequent both between parliamentarians and between protesters for and against the text that accompany the sessions.

The clashes go beyond the National Congress. In the country, there are several movements on both sides. On the positive side, students have been encouraged to record lectures by teachers and parents to denounce teachers. On the other hand, last month, the Federal Public Ministry issued recommendations to put an end to arbitrary actions against teachers. Educational entities also mobilized, creating the School with Diversity and Freedom movement and launching a Defense Against Censorship Manual in Schools.

The bill appears to prevent teachers from using the classroom space to indoctrinate students. One of the controversial points, however, is that it is not clear what could be framed in this indoctrination.

For Nagib, science has to be a priority in the classroom and subjects must be treated from the most diverse points of view. “Where there is more than one relevant point of view, contemplated by the bibliography, the student has the right to know, it is not fair for the teacher to suppress, omit from the student, a perspective that has weight”.

According to Nagib, teachers have a duty, for example, to teach the theory of evolution to students. “If a student says he believes in creationism, the teacher has to respectfully say that this is not science, it is religion. 'You have every right to believe this and it cannot be ridiculed, but what I have a duty to teach you is the theory of evolution’”, he defends and is adamant: “When a teacher wears a shirt with Lula or Bolsonaro, this is a practice illegal".

Nagib's position, however, is not a consensus among supporters. Some believe that gender should not be addressed in schools at all, as Flavinho defends, or that creationism should be taught.

Contrary to the proposal, the general coordinator of the National Campaign for the Right to Education, which represents several educational movements, Daniel Cara, says that if approved, the project will “seriously harm the quality of education”, he said, adding: “Because a teacher will not be able to teach under an ideological court or morals. He won't be able to teach under fear. It will make the school environment so unstable that even conservative teachers will start acting against Escola sem Partido. This is already happening”. The information is from Agência Brasil.