Survey reveals violence scenario in Brazilian schools

More than 22.6 thousand teachers were threatened by students and over 4.7 thousand had their lives risked in the schools where they teach. The figures come from a questionnaire entitled Prova Brasil 2015, given to directors, students, and teachers from the 5th to 9th grade all across the country. The numbers were organized and released today (Mar. 20) on QEdu, www.qedu.org.br.

The study, the main report on the performance of public school in the country, looks into students' essential skills in Portuguese and Mathematics, as well as the school environment. The survey comes as part of the Basic Education Development Index (IDEB, in the original acronym), of the Ministry of Education, and is regarded by specialists as instrumental for boosting the quality of education.

The answers to the questionnaire bring to light the violence landscape in schools. Attacks not only target teachers and employees, but also students themselves. Most teachers (71%, or 183.9 thousand) reported physical or verbal attacks from students to other students in the school.

Altogether, 262.4 thousand teachers answered the questionnaire.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira