Homeschooling poses risks to education in Brazil, say organizations

Not less than 350 organizations sign a manifesto against bills that seek to regulate home education in the country

Foto: Igor Santos/Secom

Home education or studying from home;’termed as homeschooling, poses as risk to public education and also the right to education, one of the fundamental guarantees of the human person. This is what 357 organizations state in a manifesto that also points out that investments in public schools is the correct way to solve the educational problem in the country.

“Such regulation can further increase the immense social and educational inequalities and multiply cases of violence and lack of protection to which millions of children and adolescents are subjected”, says the manifesto. 

Organizations are mostly concerned with bills that are being processed by the National Congress that aim to regulate home education. This is a proposal to substitute the PL (Bill of Law) 3.179 / 2012, prepared by deputy Luisa Canziani, which reinforces the PL 2.401 / 2019, as presented by the Bolsonaro government. In addition to the substitute, the statement by the organizations also mentioned concerns with the processing of PL 3,262 / 2019, which aims to decriminalize the absence of school enrollment of children and adolescents between the age of 4 to 17 years, for families who adopt home education.

According to the petition, the texts strongly opposes the purposes of Article 205 of the Federal Constitution, which promotes education as a duty of the State and the family and, thus, expand the State’s release with the guarantee of the human right to quality education for all and sundry. As a counterpoint to home education, the document states that investments in public education are essential for educational progress in the country. 

Read the full letter here (in Portuguese)