Brazil to Erase LGBTQ, Feminist Movements From School Textbooks
Brazil is preparing for an alarming revision to the textbooks in its public schools.
President Jair Bolsonaro announced that information related to LGBTQ and feminist movements, which the recently elected far-right official called "Marxist rubbish," will be excised from the South American nation's curriculum, reports the Associated Press. Bolsonaro and top officials also plan to have more schools run by the military.
Bolsonaro announced his intentions in a tweet prior to his inauguration on January 1. He and officials have framed the erasure as a necessary move to improve education. “One of the goals to get Brazil out of the worst positions in international education rankings is to combat the Marxist rubbish that has spread in educational institutions,” Bolsonaro stated
Brazil has a dismal ranking in the Program for International Student Assessment — a measure of students' reading, mathematics, and science literacy — placing 63 out of 72 countries and regions in 2015. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which runs this assessment, Brazil also has one of the highest percentages of adults who lack a high school education.
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