January 25, 2022

11:01

Iury Lima – Cenarium Magazine 

VILHENA (RO) – The Ministry of Education (MEC) reopened, after two years without offering new openings, the registrations for the Permanence Scholarship Program, created in 2013, aiming to encourage indigenous and quilombola students to enter higher education through federal universities across the country. However, the offer of only one third of the demand, which is of 6 thousand people inserted in these two groups, compromises diversity in the institutions, access and dignified inclusion in the labor market.

In 2022, only 2 thousand students will have the right to the R$900 aid, paid through a benefit card, destined to cover expenses such as transportation, food, and housing outside traditional communities.

The MEC began to compute the applications on Monday, 24, and the deadline extends until February 28. The form must be filled out on the page of the Permanence Allowance Management System (SISBP), within the Ministry of Education’s own portal.

Risk to diversity

“Our concern is precisely that not all students who are entering now in this selection process will have the opportunity. And it is very important that this permanence is encouraged, because these students allow us to have diversity in the university. At Unir, in particular, we have students from the Intercultural Education course. And we also have indigenous and quilombola students in Veterinary Medicine, Medicine, Law, Pedagogy (…)”, explained, in an interview to CENARIUM, the pro-rector of Student Affairs at the Federal University of Rondônia (Unir), Neiva Araújo.

“Strengthening student assistance is a way to improve regional development through education, to give better conditions to these populations and insert them in a dignified way. But we always need to ask: ‘what conditions are given for them to enter the job market?”, said Neiva Araújo, who is also a professor at Unir’s Law department.

This is a discussion that, in the view of Neiva Araújo, should be more present among the country’s education authorities, since the Amazon biome – the largest in Brazil – has the largest indigenous population in the Union: there are about 440,000 members of 180 native peoples, in addition to isolated communities, according to the Institute for Society, Population and Nature (ISPN).

“The Amazon region has the largest number of indigenous people in the country, and also has a very significant quilombola population. Besides this, today there is a growing discussion in the universities of the North Region about other traditional populations. We would have the river dwellers and the Babassu Women Breakers, for example”, evaluated Araújo, also mentioning that the Northeast Region, together with the Brazilian North, present the greatest demands for affirmative policies, considering that they are the two territories in Brazil with the worst Human Development Indexes (HDI). 

“And it is important that we think that the access to student assistance, as well as other affirmative policies, such as the quota policy, which will have its anniversary in 2022, allow for diversity in the university environment and also allow these students to have the opportunity to study undergraduate courses they have an affinity for. This policy enables access to degrees that, in a way, have been ‘elitized’ over time”, he added.

In practice: limited access and outdated value

It was through the Permanence Scholarship Program that Rosylene Sakurabiat – a member of the Indigenous People who bears such a name in the surname shared by all her relatives living in Rondônia – entered, in 2015, to graduate Intercultural Basic Education at the Federal University of Rondônia; a specific course for indigenous teachers who intend to work in the villages.

She does not hide her gratitude for the opportunity. However, now, in the final stretch of the training, after having presented the Course Conclusion Paper (TCC), she regrets that not all indigenous and quilombola students in Brazil will have the same opportunity, in face of the reopening of vacancies with such a reduced number, besides the amount paid for the scholarship, which she considers outdated.

“For us, Indigenous Peoples, it is very important, even because those who know the indigenous reality know that we don’t have an economy to keep us out here. It is a very important program, but it is still too little (…) when we arrive in Ji-Paraná to study, everything is expensive. Even worse is this opening with only 2 thousand scholarships, because we know that the government opens, but also closes the doors of inclusion. It already excludes us from these programs”, lamented the teacher-in-training.  

Neiva Araújo follows the same line of reasoning, because, for her, it is necessary to observe the specific reality of each benefited student: “In Rondônia, for example, there are situations of students who moved from Guajará-Mirim to Porto Velho, to study. When we talk about the Ji-Paraná Campus, there are students, even from the North of Mato Grosso, from the South of Amazonas, who came to study Intercultural Education. So, this aid, this Permanent Scholarship, serves exactly so that these students have the minimum conditions to stay”, he said. 

“Both the permanent allowance and the scientific initiation scholarships have not had their values readjusted for years. So, when we analyze the increase in the cost of living, these scholarships are already below the value that they should be. And, even because of the budget cuts, the universities have difficulty in increasing these values. The MEC, instead of reducing this program, should expand and discuss this value that is being paid, because these R$ 900, today, depending on the scenario, do not allow, in fact, a permanence of these students”, he added. 

“Many times a beautiful speech is made alleging that the person is leaving behind his life as a member of a traditional population and his ways of living. But this doesn’t mean that it would be better for them to live on the outskirts of the city, with a low salary, with very bad working conditions, and often with precarious conditions. So, student assistance is extremely important to enable this transformation in a dignified way”, said the pro-rector of Unir.

Lack of priority X aggravation of the pandemic

Access to higher education has become increasingly limited for these students, since the program has suffered more significant dismantling since 2018, when there were 22,000 beneficiaries. However, by 2021 this number has been reduced by more than half, falling to 10 thousand.

“When we analyze the educational policy, education has not been prioritized, and this we have seen in different spheres: in the cuts to the budgets of federal universities, in the ball cuts, so, on this scale, we see decreasing the amount that is invested,” detailed Araújo. “On the other hand, there is a movement that comes from the students, because with the pandemic and the worsening of the situation of vulnerability of these families, many of them ended up dropping their courses to collaborate with the family’s economy. So, there are two movements. You can’t keep these students and end up not having the return, which would be their training to have a better condition to compete in the job market”, pondered the professor, researcher, and pro-rector. 

Rosylene Sakurabiat, in turn, believes that the National Executive does not understand the reality of traditional peoples. “There are many relatives wanting to enter university and they count on this program. I think that the federal government has to give more visibility to indigenous issues, to know the reality, to see how indigenous people have lived and how they live today. We have these affirmative policies, but they need to better meet the demands of traditional peoples in order to be truly affirmative”, the young woman evaluated.

“The indigenous people who are in an urban context are not all there because they want to be, because many were expelled from their territories. Everyone thinks that because they are outside the villages, the indigenous people have the means of survival and conditions to pay for college. It is necessary to know in order to create an inclusive policy”, concluded Rosylene Sakurabiat. 

Questioned by the CENARIUM MAGAZINE about the reason for the reduction in the number of scholarships, the Ministry of Education did not give any answer. 

See more about the Permanence Scholarship Program 2022