Thousands of Brazilians have taken to the streets to protest a decision by the government of President Jair Bolsonaro to slash education funds.

Students and teachers marched Thursday in the cities of Brasilia, Salvador, Recife and Teresina and were planning additional rallies in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo later.

Education Minister Abraham Weintraub said in a video posted on Twitter that the government received complaints that some professors had pressured students to participate in demonstrations.

He said that's "illegal, it can't happen. The school environment can't be harmed by an ideological war that affects students' learning," he said.

University officials have said cuts would likely affect scholarships, utility services and maintenance. </s> RIO DE JANEIRO — Tens of thousands joined in demonstrations across Brazil on Wednesday to protest big cuts in federal funding for public education, the first nationwide rallies organized against far-right President Jair Bolsonaro since he took office Jan. 1.

Avenues and public squares in Sao Paulo, Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and Recife were jammed as students and teachers marched against the decision to pare $1.85 billion from funds for the public education network, from elementary schools to universities.

Speaking during a visit to Dallas, Texas, Bolsonaro dismissed the protests, calling student demonstrators "useful idiots" who have "nothing in their heads" and are being manipulated by "a sly minority" in federal universities.

Education experts, professors and students say they are particularly worried about the government freezing 30% of the discretionary budgets at all federal universities, money that goes to pay such things as utility bills, security, cleaning and maintenance work.

Nilton Brandao, president of one of Brazil's largest teacher unions in higher education, said the second semester at universities, which in Brazil run August-September, will be compromised due to the lack of financing. Brandao said that if the decision is not reversed, universities may not be able to open.

Brandao said the new government should be following the previous administration's 10-year education roadmap that was implemented in 2014.

"We (in Brazil) approved a national education plan, with clear objectives to meet. It's a project that has been approved and that is still in vigor," he told The Associated Press. "The government is ignoring this plan. They don't want to discuss education."

Since the early stages of his presidential campaign, Bolsonaro has repeatedly vowed to improve Brazil's underperforming education system, mostly by ousting what he considers a deeply engrained "Marxist ideology" and by increasing security in violent schools. After assuming the presidency, Once in the presidential office, Bolsonaro spoke of plans to revise school textbooks to excise references to feminism, homosexuality and violence against women.

On Wednesday, Bolsonaro said he wished he didn't have to implement the cuts but that he was legally obligated to do so as they are part of a wider effort to slash all government spending.

"There is no way around it, we need the (cuts)," he said.

In Brazil's biggest city, thousands of protesters chanted "Bolsonaro, the youth are not afraid!" as they overflowed Paulista Avenue by the Sao Paulo Museum of Art.

Carolina Ponce, a 20-year architecture student, said Brazilians are feeling "anger and frustration" over Bolsonaro's "attack" on education.

"Many smart and prepared people are out of work because of the cuts. This government reduces investment because it wants to end the critical thinking of the population," she said.

There were confrontations in Rio de Janeiro toward the end of the protest there, but violent activists were quickly driven off by police using tear gas. A bus was set on fire in the city center but it was not immediately clear who was responsible.

In Brasilia, the capital, thousands of protesters carried banners down the Esplanade of Ministers past the lower house of congress, where Education minister Abraham Weintraub had been summoned to testify about the budget cuts.

Weintraub told lawmakers during a heated, nearly four-hour debate that the government is not responsible for the "disaster" in education, which it inherited from previous administrations. He added that the Education Ministry had been affected to a lesser extent than other government areas such as defense and infrastructure.

"Management is why I am here; it is my specialty," said Weintraub, an economist.

He reiterated his and Bolsonaro's previous criticisms of Brazil's academic research, especially in social and human sciences and linguistics, which he said did not have any significant impact in international academia.

Last month, Bolsonaro tweeted that funding for sociology and philosophy studies could be eliminated. In the latest budget cuts, scholarships for master's and doctorate research were suspended.

The scholarships "are precisely in the areas that do not generate enough scientific production," Weintraub said. "Who does not produce does not receive."

Lawmaker Alessandro Molon, from the Brazilian Socialist Party, said that if the government is not stopped, it will cause "great evil" in the Brazilian education system.

"The last governments, several, of various different ideological positions, had a clear consensus: education is the way out Brazil. This government seems to want to destroy everything, including this consensus," Molon said. </s> Tens of thousands of students and teachers have protested across Brazil against sharp cuts to education enacted by Jair Bolsonaro’s administration – the first mass protests since the far-right president took office in January.

Brazil’s National Student Union called for demonstrations after the education ministry said it was freezing up to 30% of discretionary spending due to the government’s precarious fiscal situation.

The rally in Rio de Janeiro turned violent when police fired tear gas and percussion grenades and protestors set a bus on fire.

Protestors chanted “education is not a commodity” and “there will be no cuts, there will be fight” and referenced Bolsonaro’s connections to militia groups.

“The government makes mayhem. Public universities make science,” read one sign, referencing a recent interview given by the education minister, Abraham Weintraub, in which he said: “Universities that instead of trying to achieve the best academic form, are just making a mayhem, will have their budgets cut.”

Speaking in Dallas, Texas, where he travelled to attend a gala dinner, Bolsonaro denied his government had cut education budgets and cast the protests as a partisan spectacle. “They are useful idiots, imbeciles, who are being used as the manoeuvring mass of a clever little minority who make up the nucleus of many federal universities in Brazil,” he said.

The cuts to the country’s education system sent shock waves through federally funded universities, generally Brazil’s most prestigious and competitive schools.

University hospitals, research grants and federally funded high schools are also affected by the cuts, which the Ministry of Education said was a part of meeting a spending cap imposed by Bolsonaro.

Called to explain the cuts to lawmakers in Congress, Weintraub blamed the situation on the legacy of the previous government, while defending a shift away from spending on universities to favour elementary schools.

“The priority is preschool, elementary school and technical school,” he said. “A scientific, technical, number-based, efficient and managerial approach is vital to save this country from the economic stagnation of the last 20 years that we are living.”

At the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, students said conditions on campus were already dire. Letícia Ferreira, an art student, said the classroom she studied in flooded when it rained and lost electricity if they turned on a fan.

Another art student at the university, Isadora Grilo, said the cuts were aimed to “alienate everyone, so they don’t have any critical thinking.” The university said 41% of its budget was cut.

Barbara Ottero, 29, who got her bachelors and masters degrees from a federal university that will be affected by the cuts. “They will make education totally inaccessible. It’s practically privatising,” she said.

“My father was unemployed when I went to university, there was no way I could have paid. It’s unjust for students.”

Elizabeth Saar, a retired sociology teacher said universities were being attacked. “If we had difficulties in schools before, now public education is practically over.”

The marches marked the first national protests against the administration of Bolsonaro, whose poll numbers are falling as he struggles with a weak economy, rising unemployment, an unruly coalition in Congress and infighting in his cabinet.

The protest is the latest development in an increasingly heated battle over Brazilian education. Bolsonaro and many of his supporters have declared war over what they call “indoctrination” by left-leaning teachers in schools by instructing students to record and snitch on their teachers. </s> RIO DE JANEIRO: Students and teachers from hundreds of universities and colleges across Brazil began a nationwide demonstration on Wednesday (May 15) in "defence of education" following a raft of budget cuts announced by President Jair Bolsonaro's government.

Classes were suspended in numerous establishments as demonstrations took place in 17 of Brazil's 27 states, local media said, with particularly large ones in major cities like Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia and Belo Horizonte.

The biggest demonstrations are planned for the end of the day, though.

In the capital Brasilia, federal troops were deployed in front of the ministry of education in case of trouble.

The protest movement was sparked by Education Minister Abraham Weintraub recently slashing federal university subsidies by 30 per cent.

Several chief education officers claimed the budget cuts would compromise the ability of federal universities to function, and threatened to paralyse them.

Then the sudden suspension of the payment of masters and doctorate scholarships in the sciences and human sciences last week threw oil on the fire.

"Secondary school pupils, university students, researchers, teachers and other education employees will take to the streets in every state" to protest against the budget cuts, the National Student Union (UNE) had announced on Tuesday.

Despite the cuts affecting only federal institutions, the protest movement has been joined by many private universities such as Rio's Pontifical University which voted last week to join the nationwide demonstration. </s> Rio de Janeiro: Tens of thousands of students and teachers protested across Brazil in “defence of education” on Wednesday in response to a raft of budget cuts announced by President Jair Bolsonaro’s government.

 Classes were suspended in federal universities and secondary schools across Brazil’s 27 states in the first nationwide protests against the far-right president since he took office on January 1.

 Protesters flocked onto the streets in Brazil’s biggest cities including Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte, in marches that grew steadily larger as the day wore on.

 The budget cuts feature a 30 per cent reduction in subsidies paid to state-owned universities.

 Bolsonaro blasted the protesters. He accused leftist militants of stoking the protests.

 Speaking from Texas — where he was to receive an award from the US-Brazil Chamber of Commerce — Bolsonaro defended his education policy, saying he had inherited “a Brazil that was destroyed economically.”

 He added that necessary budget cuts had been “lower than forecast.”

 Some 15,000 protesters marched in the capital Brasilia, while 20,000 took part in demonstrations in the northern city of Belem, according to police.

 Organizers said 70,000 people marched in the leftist stronghold of Salvador in the northeast.

 Isolated incidents were reported. Police used tear gas to disperse protesters in the southern city of Porto Alegre, and a bus was set on fire at the end of the march in Rio.

 Organisers estimated up to 150,000 people had taken to the streets in a massive demonstration in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s economic capital and biggest city, where protesters chanted the slogan: “Books Yes, Weapons No.”

 Education Minister Abraham Weintraub — who sparked the protests by slashing the federal university subsidies — was forced to defend his policy in Congress.

 Weintraub insisted the government “is not responsible for the disaster of basic education in Brazil.” — AFP </s> Brazil’s education ministry has set off a political storm by calling for the public to denounce parents, students and teachers who “stimulate” protests against budget cuts during school hours.

The ministry published its call, which contained a link to where people could inform on its website, just as a second round of demonstrations against the slashing of education funding took place in more than 100 cities across the country on Thursday.

The note, which claimed “teachers, suppliers, staff, students, parents and responsibles are not authorised to disclose and stimulate protests during school hours”, drew an immediate storm of criticism down on controversial education minister Abraham Weintraub.

Amid accusations of incipient totalitarianism, opposition politicians are mobilising to charge the minister with abuse of authority, while in comments to the local media one of the country’s leading federal prosecutors said his ministry’s note could violate the constitution and the country’s statute of the child and adolescent.

Mr Weintraub started the current round of student unrest by saying he was cutting funding to three universities because of what he said was their promotion of “messing about” rather than focusing on academic standards.

After his initial plan was met with outrage, he dropped the idea of punishing individual institutions to unveil instead a funding freeze across the entire public university sector.

An acolyte of the former astrologer turned conspiracy theorist who is the guru for several ministers of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, Mr Weintraub has vowed to combat what he sees as “cultural Marxism” in the country’s education sector.

Thursday’s note also warned that educational institutions are banned by law from promoting actions organised by political parties. The Bolsonaro government has sought to portray the recent student protests as being organised by its left-wing opponents.

The minister has already been charged by federal prosecutors for moral damages after they accused him of “hateful discrimination directed at representatives of the student movement” since he took over the ministry in April.

The charge includes as evidence a conversation the minister had with politicians in the northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte who questioned him about the lack of funding for basic cleaning services in local universities. Mr Weintraub responded that student union bodies should be called in to clean the institutions instead.

Prosecutors are seeking a fine of five million reais (€1.14 million).

He is also facing questions about allegations his ministry has blocked funds for the rebuilding of the national museum, which burned down in a fire in 2017.

This week’s protests and the administration’s combative reaction to them highlight the increasing political polarisation in Brazil.

The education cuts come against a background of a worsening economy with confirmation this week that during the first three months of the year it suffered its first quarterly contraction since 2016. </s> Sao Paulo, Brazil - Tens of thousands of students, teachers and researchers across Brazil took to the streets on Wednesday to protest against government cuts and spending freezes to the education budget.

Brazil's National Student Union called for protests after the Ministry of Education said it was freezing nearly a quarter of discretionary spending due to budget restrictions across public services because of the current financial crisis in the country.

But scholars across Brazil accuse President Jair Bolsonaro of waging an ideological attack against education, and of using budget cuts to pressure congressmen to approve a much-anticipated but controversial pension reform.

"This protest is against what is happening at MEC," said Celso Napolitano, president of the Federation of Teachers of Sao Paulo (FEPESP). "The cuts in federal universities mean a death strike in the scientific production in Brazil."

Protests took place in 27 cities across the country. Online, the hashtag "education tsunami" trended throughout the day.

'My weapon is my education'

In Sao Paulo thousands of protesters occupied the city centre for hours, chanting "Bolsonaro Out", and holding signs reading "my weapon is my education".

Marcus Vinicius, 19, was part of a large group of students from the University of Sao Paulo, one of the leading institutions in the country.

"The minister says we only party, then I want to invite him to come to our school and see what we produce every day," Vinicius told Al Jazeera, referring to the Minister of Education's statement that universities are in "shambles".

Vinicius is studying public management and says his university has already made cuts to research, especially for post-graduates. "The 'party' we do is being here, protesting for education for our country, so that there is more inclusion, and people that really need public universities can have access to it," he added.

Just a few metres away, Letícia Coelho and other teachers looked on the protests and their students. A group dressed in blue protested in defence of the "survival of oceanography" courses, while others wearing black t-shirts rallied for law courses and departments.

"It touches me to see them here but it also makes me really sad that we still have to be fighting for education in 2019," Coelho told Al Jazeera. She is an art history professor at the Federal University of Sao Paulo, and said many of her students come from lower classes and are the first generation of their families attending school.

"That makes it extra hard," she said. "I think these cuts are scandalous and go against a long policy of investment in federal universities."

'Contingencies'

In a congressional hearing about MEC's decision, Education Minister Abraham Weintraub said, "There are no cuts, only contingencies".

He said the "contingencies" were part of a government austerity plan and that all funds could be reinstated "if the economy records any growth". Opposition politicians accused Weintraub and the government of using budget cuts as "blackmail" to move their agenda forward.

In Brazil, the budget for universities is divided into mandatory expenses, such as salaries and pensions, which the government cannot reduce, and "discretionary" expenses, which includes water and electricity bills, housing for foreign students or maintenance work.

The recently announced cuts will slash 30 percent of funds to the discretionary expenses budget. This represents a cut of about $1.8bn, or 3.4 percent of the total annual budget for universities, according to MEC.

"The minister says the cuts only regard water and electricity bills, considered 'non-mandatory', but a university cannot run without water or light," Napolitano said.

"Because those expenses have to be covered, and the council of deans have said this, they will have to end up cutting their financing for scientific research," he added.

Funding for federal universities has been on a steady decline for years. A report by the news channel G1, using government data, revealed that more than 90 percent of all federal universities in Brazil have had their budgets reduced since 2013. The study found the decline in funding reached an average of 28 percent, although student enrolment went up 10 percent.

Investment in education has been a constant debate in Brazil, with pictures of schools with no light, holes in the roofs or cracks on the walls, constantly circulating on social media. For many, the announced budget cuts will deteriorate an already overwhelmed education system.

Bolsonaro and many of his ministers have criticised what they say goes on in public universities, often suggesting students use drugs and party instead of studying.

Earlier this month, during a Facebook Live broadcast, Bolsonaro said the money cut from federal universities will be reinvested in primary education, calling the education system in Brazil "a house with an excellent roof but rotten walls".

As thousands took to the streets across the country, Bolsonaro arrived in Dallas, Texas, for an event.

Talking to reporters at the Dallas airport, Bolsonaro called those protesting "useful idiots and imbeciles" and that most were "militants with nothing in their hands".

The government's plan also includes freezing 3,500 post-graduate scholarships across the country, which represent an investment of $12.5m. A representative of MEC's office for post-graduate studies (CAPES) told Al Jazeera the money "will not be re-invested somewhere else", but that "if the economy recovers, the idea is that all scholarships are reinstated". Until then, no new scholarships will be given. </s> Show caption Thousands protest in Brazil against education cuts<br> Photograph: Fabio Motta/EPA Brazil Students protest across Brazil over Jair Bolsonaro’s sweeping cuts to education From Amazon cities to small towns in the deep south, demonstrators turned out to condemn funding cuts Tom Phillips , Latin America correspondent Thu 30 May 2019 18.45 EDT Share on Facebook

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Tens of thousands of students, academics and teachers have taken to the streets of Brazil for their latest mass protest against what they call far-right president Jair Bolsonaro’s assault on education.

Up and down the country – from Amazon cities to small towns in Brazil’s deep south – demonstrators turned out to condemn Bolsonaro’s highly controversial moves to slash funding for public education and science.

In the capital, Brasília, student protesters were filmed burning an effigy of the Brazilian president while chanting the increasingly common refrain of his opponents: “Hey, Bolsonaro go and get fucked”.

In the northeastern city of Salvador, where a reported 70,000 people marched, one dissenter carried a diabolic caricature of Bolsonaro stamped with the phrase: “Not today Satan”.

Thousands of students marched through downtown Rio with placards reading: “Education isn’t an expense, it is an investment”.

“This isn’t just an attack on universities. It is going to affect all levels of education,” said Rodrigo Iacovini, an urban planner who joined a march in Brazil’s economic capital, São Paulo.

“We knew it would be bad – but not this bad,” Iacovini, 33, said of Bolsonaro’s six-month-old administration. “Unfortunately, they have shown themselves to be not just a conservative government, but a completely incompetent conservative government that is utterly detached from the Brazilian reality.”

Tanisia Maria Almeida, a masters student who demonstrated in the northeastern state of Sergipe, said she was horrified by spending cuts she feared would make it harder for students from poor backgrounds to gain an education.

Thanks to education programs created by the leftist governments of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff – University For All and Science without Borders – Almeida said she had secured a degree in bio-medicine and study in the United States.

“It makes me so sad that if these cuts happen people who – like me – also aren’t from wealthy families, won’t have the same opportunities I had. This really, really upsets me. I see young people … who want to grow but who will be prevented from doing so by these cuts – or they will have to leave the country.”

Bolsonaro swept to a landslide election victory last October, capitalising on widespread anger at the left-wing politicians who presided over Brazil’s worst ever recession and greatest ever corruption scandal.

But six months into the radical populist’s four-year term, opposition is growing with polls showing that about 36% of voters now consider his administration bad or awful, compared to 17% in February.

Moves to dramatically reduce funding for federal universities – unveiled last month by education minister, Abraham Weintraub – have caused particular outrage, prompting what observers call the largest protests against a newly installed Brazilian president in decades.

On 15 May tens of thousands of demonstrators staged nationwide protests against the cuts only to be belittled by Bolsonaro as “useful idiots” and “imbeciles”.

Brazil’s firebrand leader attempted to row back from those characteristically incendiary remarks this week in an interview with Record, a sympathetic Brazilian broadcaster that has emerged as his answer to Trump’s Fox News.

Bolsonaro admitted he had gone too far but again disparaged the protesting students as naive “kids” who were being manipulated by their teachers and “didn’t even know what they were doing”.

Bolsonaro’s critics credit such comments, and the president’s broader offensive against public education, with helping to unify his opponents.

“Today’s demonstrations are part of a growing process of social mobilizations against the Bolsonaro government,” said Juliano Medeiros, the president of Brazil’s leftist Socialism and Liberty party (PSOL).

“Our main message is that Bolsonaro cannot govern with his back turned to Brazilian society.”

Iacovini, who studied at two of Brazil’s top federal universities, said that while education cuts had left him feeling “profoundly demoralized” his spirits had been lifted by the scale of recent anti-Bolsonaro protests.

“It gives me hope that it is possible to resist this government’s regressions … Brazilian people are starting to see that the threat this administration poses is a threat to all of us, not just to others.”

Almeida said she was battling not just the government, but her Bolsonarista relatives too.

“A large part of my family voted for Bolsonaro and they defend what he is doing,” she said. “I just cannot understand how a country that wants to develop starts by cutting something as basic as education.”

Almeida rejected attempts to characterise the protests as a purely left-wing initiative. </s> Tens of thousands of students and teachers protested across Brazil in "defense of education" on Wednesday in response to a raft of budget cuts announced by President Jair Bolsonaro's government.

Classes were suspended in federal universities and secondary schools across Brazil's 27 states in the first nationwide protests against the far-right president since he took office on January 1.

Protesters flocked onto the streets in Brazil's biggest cities including Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte, in marches that grew steadily larger as the day wore on.

The budget cuts feature a 30 percent reduction in subsidies paid to state-owned universities.

Bolsonaro blasted the protesters as being "useful idiots manipulated by an expert minority that makes up the heart of federal universities in Brazil."

He accused leftist militants of stoking the protests.

Speaking from Texas -- where he was to receive an award from the US-Brazil Chamber of Commerce -- Bolsonaro defended his education policy, saying he had inherited "a Brazil that was destroyed economically."

He added that necessary budget cuts had been "lower than forecast."

Some 15,000 protesters marched in the capital Brasilia, while 20,000 took part in demonstrations in the northern city of Belem, according to police.

Organizers said 70,000 people marched in the leftist stronghold of Salvador in the northeast.

Isolated incidents were reported. Police used tear gas to disperse protesters in the southern city of Porto Alegre, and a bus was set on fire at the end of the march in Rio.

"I have a master's degree and a post-doctorate in energy. If someone is an idiot in this story, it's not me," said Mariana Moura, a 38-year-old protester in Sao Paulo, angered at Bolsonaro's criticism.

"Without science there is no health, or work. We are here fighting for Brazil to continue producing knowledge. Without money, there is no knowledge," said Moura, a researcher.

"Unfortunately, education is not a priority. That's why I'm here today to fight for public education," said Alessandra Roscoe, a writer, as she took part in the protest in Brasilia.

"Class today is in the street," read one banner in Rio. Demonstrators chanted: "Either stop the cuts or we stop Brazil."

Organizers estimated up to 150,000 people had taken to the streets in a massive demonstration in Sao Paulo, Brazil's economic capital and biggest city, where protesters chanted the slogan: "Books Yes, Weapons No."

Education Minister Abraham Weintraub -- who sparked the protests by slashing the federal university subsidies -- was forced to defend his policy in Congress.

Weintraub insisted the government "is not responsible for the disaster of basic education in Brazil."

He warned that "university autonomy is not sovereignty. Universities have to respect the laws."

Since assuming the presidency, Bolsonaro has been on an ideological campaign to promote his ultraconservative ideas and values, and to erase any trace of the 2003-2016 leftist Workers Party government -- including what he called "cultural Marxism" -- from classrooms.

Eduardo Bolsonaro, one of the president's three lawmaker sons, accused the Workers Party of being behind Wednesday's massive street protests.

The reaction to the education cuts combined with international trade tensions worried the markets, with the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange hitting its lowest level since January 3.

Several chief education officers claimed the budget cuts would compromise the ability of federal universities to operate and threatened to paralyze them.

A sudden suspension of financing for masters degrees and doctorate scholarships in the sciences and human sciences last week threw oil on the fire.

Although the cuts affect only federal institutions, the protest movement has been joined by many private universities such as Rio's Pontifical University, which voted last week to join the nationwide demonstration.
Fifteen days after the first wave of protests, millions of students, schoolteachers and university professors hold demonstrations in over a hundred Brazilian cities against massive cuts in the education budget. Brazilian Education Minister Abraham Weintraub accuses teachers of "coercing" students into participating in the protests.