Argentine filmmaker and director living in Brazil for over 30 years Carlos Pronzato has just released the documentary New High School: an announced failure. The film gives voice to students, student leaders, teachers and researchers about the tragedy of the new high school. It also features an interview with professor and researcher Daniel Cara, who leads the negotiating committee with the Ministry of Education, and Nita Freire, widow of Paulo Freire.
The New Secondary School was instituted by federal law 13,415 of 2017 during the Temer government and implemented in the Bolsonaro government, without discussion with society. The model establishes a new curricular organization. Advertised as a system that increases students’ freedom of choice, the so-called “training itineraries” have been the target of criticism for, in practice, doing exactly the opposite and imposing odd subjects in place of basic ones.
:: Carlos Pronzato, a filmmaker of social struggles in Latin America ::
“Taking advantage of the two-month temporary suspension of the Secondary Education Reform Project decreed by the government in April, I decided to go to São Paulo – where I had already made two other documentaries on the subject of Education in previous years about the occupations of schools and about the project of law School without Party – to start the production of NEM (New Secondary School), an announced failure”, exposes Pronzato.
At the end of the film, there is a beautiful statement by educator Nita Freire about how Paulo Freire, her partner, would see NEM / Photo: Disclosure
For the filmmaker, the current government’s proposal to reform high school, which arises from a law by the Temer government, and which began to be implemented in the Bolsonaro government, is lethal for students and teachers.
“It is not possible for a Frente Ampla government that defeated an ultra neoliberal project at the polls to admit the permanence of a project that destroys the already convalescing structure of Secondary Education. And worse, bringing into the schools, privatist postulates of billionaire foundations like Lemann. All this amazed me and so I decided to address the topic. It made it easier to already know the educational terrain of São Paulo, faculty and students, researchers and Unions”, he says.
Professor and researcher Daniel Cara leads the negotiation commission with the Ministry of Education / Photo: Disclosure
According to him, the main objective was twofold: to interview professor and researcher Daniel Cara, who leads the negotiation commission with the Ministry of Education, and to interview Nita Freire, Paulo Freire’s widow, again. “Both objectives were successful. From there, we developed the main reasons for rejecting the NEM through interviews with student leaders, trade unionists and teachers.”
:: Article | From the accounting fraud of Lojas Americanas to the educational fraud of Lemann and partners ::
Pronzato believes that the result was positive, with a resounding reception on social networks since Saturday (20), when it was released on his YouTube channel. “It will be a powerful tool to fight against this Reform. As of this Monday (22nd), it will begin to be shown in classrooms across the country.”
The film about New High School is available on the filmmaker’s YouTube channel.
Source: BdF Rio Grande do Sul
Editing: Katia Marko
