Lula attends congress of National Students’ Union
Brazil’s President Lula attended the 59th Congress of the National Students’ Union in Brasília on Thursday evening (Jul. 13). The last time a president was present at the event was in 2009, when Lula himself visited the assembly in his second term. Former Uruguayan President Pepe Mujica was also in attendance.
The congress is regarded as the largest student meeting in Latin America and should bring together some 10 thousand participants until next Sunday (16) in a sports gymnasium in the Brazilian capital.
At the event, the president pledged to expand the number of educational institutions. “We’re going to make more universities again, more vocational schools, more laboratories. We’re going to meet with deans and students. We’re going to bring the poor back in the federal budget again,” President Lula stated.
Representatives from students’ organizations read a letter with their demands and delivered it to the president. Its main points include the continuation of affirmative action policies, easier access to education for indigenous and transgender people, the creation of the Amazon Integration University, and an assistance program for students countrywide. The leaders also reiterated the government should reject the New High School model, a demand repeated several times by students in the form of slogans and rallying cries.
In his address, Lula praised the movement’s vigor. “What drives human life forward, what keeps us on our journey to become better people, is having a cause to live by,” he said. “The students’ agenda of demands is long, arduous—and spicy. I find it extraordinary.”
Democracy
The president also made an emphatic defense of democracy, citing the threats of rupture in the near past. “Very recently, you became acquainted with what fascism is. Just four years. How can you bring down democracy and the achievements that can take centuries to happen? I hope we have learned a lesson—that democracy might not be the most perfect thing humanity has created, but there’s nothing quite like it. In a democracy, we can we live as a plural society, we can applaud and we can boo, we can shout and we can protest. Only in a democracy can we experience the fullness of human manifestation,” he declared.
In his speech, Mujica, who was a political prisoner for 14 years during the Uruguayan dictatorship, urged students to seek unity and stand for democracy.
“Do not make the mistake of my time. The more disunited we are, the more dominated we will be. So study. Do not waste time. Take care of democracy,” said the former leader, who also called on participants to support the Lula government in the face of administration challenges.
“Lula is great, but he’s no magician. We bring to popular governments not only our demands, but our help. The obstacles lying ahead are not simple. It’s easy to complain, but we must stay committed,” he stated.
New High School
The abolition of the New High School model has been a demand of a number of entities in the fields and experts. The Brazilian government, however, has not considered repealing the measure altogether, but making adjustments based on their demands.
The model was approved in 2017 under Former President Michel Temer with the aim of making High School more appealing and reducing dropout rates. In it, a portion of the classes is common to all students, while another section is selected individually according to their interests.
