Receiving foreign students can be a challenge for Brazilian teachers, due to the cultural and language barrier. So that they know how to deal more welcomingly with these students, the MEC (Ministry of Education) launched this month the “Training of Teachers for the Reception of Immigrants and Refugees”.
The objective, according to the ministry, is to prepare basic education teachers to take a closer look at this universe, by presenting them with historical, social and educational aspects associated with refugees.
The classes, free of charge, are optional and will be made available on a virtual teaching platform of the MEC, with a workload of 80 hours. The Ministry’s Secretariat of Basic Education also informs that it indicates training for teachers who work with students in migration situation in Brazil.
“The course will deal with pedagogical practices capable of helping the educator in the process of reducing psychological damage, in addition to the inclusion of immigrants and refugees in Brazilian society”, says Renato Brito, head of the Directorate of Teacher Training and Valorization of Education Professionals, from the MEC
Director of the Guilherme Rudge municipal school for early childhood education, in Belenzinho, east of São Paulo, Solange Cordeiro dos Santos, 54, will encourage the 11 teachers she works with to take the course. Most of the school’s students are foreigners, 60% from Bolivia, Paraguay and African countries. “We have this consolidated experience with students from other countries. But this tool comes to add up.”
A teacher at the school in Belenzinho, Edneia LetÃcia Marguti, 40, says the initiative will help her work in the classroom. “It will also show other students [brasileiros] a little more of the migrant culture.”
Teachers will have classes introducing migratory concepts, migratory policies, legislation and the history of migration in Brazil. They will also learn about welcoming actions, cultural differences and specific pedagogical practices for refugees and migrants. Through this training, the ministry states that it intends to contribute to teachers in the preparation of their classes by offering didactic, pedagogical and literary materials to “promote learning and the integral development of students”.
According to the UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees), in May 2022, when the Ukrainian War completed three months, the number of forcibly displaced people in the world exceeded 100 million. The reasons range from persecution, conflict and violence to human rights violations.
In Brazil, there are currently 57,000 people recognized as refugees, says Brito, when exposing data from the Ministry of Justice’s Conare (National Committee for Refugees) at a press conference.
Brito reports that school-aged youth in this group are 53% less likely to be in school compared to Brazilian children in the same age group. “This training has the character of guaranteeing the right to education for all.” He recalled some of the barriers that children and adolescents face in the country: bureaucratic, social, economic, cultural and, above all, linguistic issues.
For Paulo Sérgio de Almeida, from UNHCR, training for teachers is a “great advance” in Brazil. “The perspective is that it will help to keep foreign students in the school environment. One way to achieve the objective is to prepare the teacher to know how to deal with this profile that escapes everyday life. This professional seeks to provide support, but for that he needs tools. “
crisis in venezuela
The MEC says that the training of teachers to receive students from other countries is in line with Operação Acolhida, a program for humanitarian assistance to Venezuelans in Roraima, the main gateway for migrants from the neighboring country. UNHCR data show that 92,100 Venezuelans suffered from recent displacement in Latin America and the Caribbean in the first half of 2021.
Mauro Rabelo, secretary of basic education at MEC, says that with the course he intends to create expertise to help schools, managers and teachers “in this task, which is not easy, of working on multiculturalism.”
