President Jair Bolsonaro defended dismissing educator Paulo Freire as the patron of education in Brazil.
Without citing Paulo Freire’s name, he said that the current patron “will be changed.” The title was conferred to Freire in 2012, after being approved by a bill. Any change must be approved by Congress. Freire died in 1997.
“Who even knows that we have a patron of education, but it’s a horrible patron. We don’t need to say who it is, but it will be changed. We are expecting someone different,” Bolsonaro said.
Since his campaign last year, Bolsonaro has positioned himself to be against Paulo Freire’s influence on educational methods in public schools. At the end of 2017, the Senate Commission on Human Rights rejected a request, presented by popular action, to revoke the patron title.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon