The Sao Paulo state authorities has made the choice this week to considerably exchange typical textbooks with e-books in excessive faculties, a transfer that has sparked controversy in Brazil. Schooling consultants and publishers have expressed issues concerning the potential detrimental penalties of this determination.

Ranging from the subsequent tutorial 12 months, college students aged 14 and above at 5,300 faculties throughout Brazil’s most populous state shall be learning utilizing digital media, apart from literature courses, in keeping with officers from the state’s schooling division.

This transfer is a part of the schooling reforms carried out by Governor Tarcisio de Freitas’ administration, who can be a distinguished presidential candidate and an ally of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022).

Elevating issues concerning the declining high quality of conventional textbooks, State Schooling Secretary Renato Feder said in an interview with Folha de Sao Paulo, a significant newspaper, that they’ve “misplaced high quality.”

Nonetheless, schooling consultants have raised questions concerning the feasibility of transitioning to a digital format in an unlimited state of 44 million folks with vital inequalities, the place many college students do not need entry to the web.

“The shortage of technological infrastructure was clearly demonstrated throughout the COVID-19 pandemic by the insufficient entry to on-line studying,” stated Olavo Nogueira Filho, the manager director of the advocacy group Todos pela Educacao (All for Schooling), in an interview with AFP.

UNESCO has suggested towards extreme use of expertise in faculties, as it could possibly have a detrimental influence on studying.

Guide publishers have additionally expressed their “deep concern” about this measure, warning that it might trigger irreparable harm to the textbook trade.

State officers have assured that college students who require it’ll nonetheless have the ability to entry paper texts, though Nogueira Filho believes that this can “not be the exception, however the rule.”

© 2023 AFP