RJ: First public bilingual school opens.

Cristina Indio do Brasil - Reporter for Agência Brasil
The João Cabral de Melo Neto Hispano-Brazilian State School was inaugurated yesterday (31) in Méier, north of Rio. There, the 106 enrolled students will do the three years of high school in a bilingual public school where classes are taught in Portuguese and Spanish. The schedule is full-time and runs from 7 am to 17 pm.

“We wanted to revive that concept of the CIEP [Integrated Center for Public Education, an educational project developed by anthropologist Darcy Ribeiro and inaugurated in Rio de Janeiro during the Leonel Brizola administration in 1983] of full-time schooling,” explained the Secretary of State for Education, Wilson Risolia.

Since places are limited, students had to take a test, which the secretary described as a kind of "entrance exam." First, a notice was published, and then the students registered. In the selection process, 95% of the places are reserved for students already in the public school system. "It's not a quota, it's justice," he said, also informing that next year there will be another group of 106 students to make up the second generation of the school, which cost R$ 1,6 million, including the construction and the purchase, in December 2013, of the building that belonged to a private school.

During the morning shift, students study with 90% of the curriculum in Portuguese and the remainder in Spanish, and in the afternoon shift, the situation is reversed. The secretary explained that the model was created to meet the curriculum matrix defined by the Law of Guidelines and Bases of Education (LDB) and so that students can also participate in the National High School Exam (Enem).

According to Álvaro Laseca, Education Counselor at the Spanish Embassy in Brazil, the important thing is that the student will complete an integrated curriculum with the support of a Spanish advisor and, in the end, will receive two diplomas, one Brazilian and one Spanish. "The idea is that they will have two diplomas and, since their Spanish level will be very good, they can study at a university in Spain," he explained.

The vice-governor, Luiz Fernando Pezão, who represented Governor Sérgio Cabral at the ceremony, said that there is no other way for the country to move forward except through education. "The war is not won; we still have to do more to advance," he said.

Luiz, son of the poet João Cabral de Melo Neto, was present at the inauguration. For him, it is fascinating to see a school of this size named after his father. "I guarantee that, wherever he is, he will be happy to have been remembered at a moment like this, and for me, it's very moving," he said.

For Christovam de Chevalier, son of journalist Scarlet Moon de Chevalier, who died last June, the ceremony was also an emotional one. He and his sisters Gabriela and Theodora donated a thousand books from the journalist's collection to the school library. With the donation, the school paid tribute to the journalist by naming the room after her. “Knowledge is meant to be shared. It wouldn't be any fun for me to keep some of the books and my sisters to keep others,” he said, adding that some copies are rare and autographed by authors such as Rubem Fonseca, Nélida Piñon, and Lígia Fagundes Teles. “They are great names in contemporary Brazilian literature.”

The João Cabral de Melo Neto Hispano-Brazilian State College is part of the state government's Double School program which includes, in addition to bilingual schools, schools with specialization. On Wednesday (29) the school that will have classes in Portuguese and French was inaugurated at Ciep Governador Leonel de Moura Brizola, in Niterói, and yesterday it was the turn of Ciep Carlos Drumond de Andrade, in Nova Iguaçu, where classes will be taught in English and Portuguese.

Also planned for 2015 is the inauguration of a bilingual Portuguese and Mandarin school. Discussions with the Chinese government are well advanced. Risolia reported that the basic premise of these schools is the exchange between teachers and students, and this is already yielding results abroad. "Our school, in partnership with the French government, will inaugurate [in France], in September, a school in French and Brazilian Portuguese," she said.