Education for All #5

See Guilherme Bergamini’s work in WTP Vol. V #6

mineral pigment
on cotton paper
28″ x 41″

Democratic societies presume educated citizens, that is to say, it presumes well-informed and critical people, both because it requires them to be able to determine their preferences and choose among different alternatives, and also because it is assumed that they should supervise their representatives and act directly in politics when necessary. In this context, education is considered a universal right and hence a duty of the State, which should provide it for free and at high standards to the whole community. Today Brazil, a country marked by its deeply unequal and unjust past, has been facing the challenge of ensuring that essential good to its people. Thus, Brazilian democracy appears to be a dream further away when one notices that, on the one hand, the precarious conditions of public education begins in its most elementary dimension—the physical space of schools—and, on the other hand, the ones who are deprived of education are those who could benefit from it the most: the country’s children.” —Guilherme Bergamini