As Brazil prepares to host the COP30 climate summit in 2025, young people from quilombola communities, Afro-Brazilian descendants of enslaved peoples, are being denied access to basic education in the state of Pará, where the event will take place.
In the city of Santarém, only 9 out of 69 teachers approved to work in quilombola territories have been appointed so far. As a result, students in these rural communities have been left without classes for at least seven months, a critical loss for high school seniors preparing for university entrance exams, including the special admission programs designed for quilombola students.
The situation is similar in Óbidos, another municipality in western Pará, where education in traditional communities has been deteriorating for years.
“Our students are supposed to be finishing their final year of high school, but without classes they won’t even be able to participate in the university entrance exams designed specifically for quilombola students,” said Douglas Sena, a quilombola activist and adviser at Malungu, the Pará State Coordination of Quilombola Communities. “We were promised teacher hires by the end of July or early August. Now, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office had to intervene due to the state’s negligence. This is clearly a case of institutional racism.”
‘Is this because we’re quilombola?’
On Monday, September 16, Brazil’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) formally recommended that the Pará state government and its Department of Education (Seduc) immediately restore high school classes in quilombola communities.
The recommendation follows mounting pressure from civil society and families impacted by what students describe as a systematic denial of their right to education.
“Why do other students have classes and we don’t? Is it racism? Is it because of our background?” asked Geovana Costa, a high school senior from the Murumuru quilombo in Santarém. “Are we going to lose this entire year? Will we have to start over next year? That would be a huge setback.”
With more than seven months of school lost, Geovana has already given up hope of applying to college this year. “This delay affects all of us who dream of starting university, joining the workforce. We could be in college next year, but now we’ll have to repeat the grade because of the state’s neglect,” she said.
Teachers, Indigenous leaders, and quilombolas occupied Education Secretariat in protest
In January 2025, teachers, Indigenous activists, and quilombola leaders staged a historic occupation of the Pará State Education Secretariat, forcing the revocation of the controversial Law No. 10,820, approved in December 2024 by Governor Hélder Barbalho (MDB). The law proposed replacing in-person classes with online instruction in rural and remote areas, including Indigenous lands and quilombola communities, many of which lack consistent access to electricity or internet service.
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office now considers the ongoing disruption a violation of public education policy and a possible case of ethnic discrimination, especially given that it affects a historically marginalized ethnic-social group.
In its recommendation, the MPF outlines three key demands for the Pará government and Seduc:
- Immediate reinstatement of high school classes, including the option to directly and urgently hire quilombola teachers to resume instruction.
- Development, within 30 days, of a school recovery plan to compensate for the missed semester and prevent further setbacks for affected students.
- Assurance of active participation of quilombola communities in the planning and approval of the class recovery process.
BdF reached out to the Pará State Department of Education for comment, but as of the time of publication, no response had been received. The space remains open for future updates.
