Circa 82% of Brazilian youth get their education from a public institution. 38% of 15 to 17 year olds are not in high school, or any school for that matter, and are not working a job either. On the 2018 PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment), Brazilian students scored below the OECD average on every one of the three subjects, with only 2% reaching a level above proficiency. Brazil’s notoriously awful public schooling system is at fault for these factors – and for a country which must urgently address income inequality and still has significant space to develop, this is more than just a small scale threat that can be placed on the back burner. “Nunca me sonharam”, or “Not Even in a Wildest Dream”, is a 2017 documentary packed with expert opinions which showcases this very thing flawlessly.

Brazil has faced this issue – along with all other complications it walks hand in hand with – for decades, yet those in power have repeatedly failed at annihilating it nationwide. This is largely due to the government’s very generalized approach and its application of widespread policies when in actuality, according to economist Ricardo Paes de Barros, every school is rooted in its own problems differing greatly from one another and requiring individual and personalized help to see any progression. The country’s societal culture has also played a major role in the seemingly uphill battle that is its education, and a major part of those students who attend public schools are forced to choose money and survival over learning. 

Drug trafficking, for instance, one of the main livelihoods Brazilian public schools are losing their students to, is a source for fast money, solid protection for loved ones, and significant respect – all things which can eventually be attained through education but take time that a lot of these students don’t have. Felipe de Lima, a 17 year old student from Nova Olinda in the state of Ceará, says to an interviewer: “School? I don’t even know if I’ll be alive tomorrow”. And it’s not solely about supporting oneself anymore; students are dropping out due to teenage pregnancies, regardless of their gender and parental relation to the child. A student’s home life also has an impact on how they approach school. Teacher Aurilene Vieira de Brito points out that in many regions, such as the small village in the countryside of Piauí where she teaches, a great majority of students’ parents are illiterate and don’t see the value in education because they never had the chance to receive it. These parents end up not encouraging, or even discouraging, their child to pursue an education and fight for their right to go to school every day – often pushing the idea that labor is more valuable onto their kids and subconsciously causing them to consider dropping out. As teacher and MSc in education Macaé Evaristo puts it, “there is no such thing as a perfect, emancipatory school in an oppressive society”, and these cultural factors are important to consider with this in mind.

The documentary touches on the stigma surrounding teenagers, and how society often treats them as “the other”, as if “they weren’t present in the same reality”; unmanageable, lazy, rebellious, and unwilling to learn. The students interviewed, however, prove the complete opposite; they dread the idea of being “bystanders to the change” instead of “taking part in it”, and express their disappointment in the system that has shaped them to be the way they are. 

A particular story told by a math teacher stands out in this fact. He tells the story of one student in his class whose homework notebook was almost too dirty to touch. It was always filthy, with dirt and coffee smudged all over its pages, and the teacher believed this was the result of a deviant student who had no regard for his own education. When he got around to visiting the student’s home, which was notably very small and lined with dirt floors, he was greeted by his mother. She instantly recognized him, expressing her son’s love for math and pointing to the little corner in the home where he would do his homework. She told him her son would sit on the floor everyday, coffee in hand, and would work through every math problem on the worksheets with pure grit. The teacher realized how terribly wrong he was in his categorization of this student, having mistaken every sign of dedication for one of disregard.

Most Brazilian public schools are lacking in diverse experiences and resourceful classes, and this further contributes to the absence of motivation in their students, regardless of that student’s potential. The documentary highlights, still, a lot of the teachers’ and local staff’s desire to see each and every student succeed, wanting nothing more than to provide them with everything they can’t. These people recognize their limitations, pedagogue Bernadete Gatti adds – “they’re not equipped to change the system, nor to easily make classes more interesting and relevant”, for they learn to be teachers in classrooms that are not so different from the very ones they teach in. And this flawed training bleeds into more than just the classes; it promotes the idea that authoritarianism must be used to keep students in line, causing teachers to often disrespect students believing they will get respect in return – in reality, “authoritarianism is a flaw among teachers”, and the only way to truly receive respect is to give respect.

Very few students are able to eventually break out of the vicious cycle set out for them – but it seems as if there could be a light at the end of the tunnel. In particular, a handful of different organizations in the private sector have taken some kind of initiative, and among these is Instituto Unibanco. Not only was “Nunca Me Sonharam” funded by them, but their Jovem de Futuro project has impacted more than 4 million Brazilian students and over 4,000 public schools nationwide. According to executive superintendent Ricardo Henriques, the project has as its primary and direct objective “ensuring the right of education to all students”, working to “organize” the management and day to day routine of each individual school and formulating strategies to prevent rooted problems from happening. Each strategy is catered to each specific school, allowing it to better the education offered in all areas and shaping students into well informed and conscious citizens of the world.

Double Click acknowledges the utter importance of this topic and the discussions that surround it. In the ever changing world we call home, it is crucial that all schools are able to keep up regardless of their origin, and that more personalized initiatives such as Jovem de Futuro pave the way for this. The will to revolutionize is more than present in teenagers – and it can easily be harnessed towards changing a community, a country, the world – that is, of course, if their education provides them with all the proper tools to do so.