The teaching in multi-classes and their conditions of work: a look at the rural schools in the Alto Solimões Region, Amazonas

Abstract

ABSTRACT. School education offered to rural populations has historically been linked to the concept of backwardness and precariousness. In these rural experiences, public power seems to have invested in timid actions, tending to leave rural education as the second or third plan, taking as educational references urban education (Batista, 2003). This problem is evidenced when we analyze the situation of many multisite groups existing in the Alto Solimões region, which seem to reflect the conception of school failure and precariousness, provoking the need to reverse the current scenario. This article intends to discuss rural education, forest and water education in the Alto Solimões region of Amazonas and, specifically, to deal with multi-classes and the working conditions experienced by teachers and students in these environments. For that, a survey of the issues considered as problems was carried out, through the application of questionnaires, interviews and workshops with the children. The study revealed the existence of many multi-classes groups in the region that, contrary to the prevailing view, seems to be the only alternative to access to school education in some distant localities. It was also verified that the structure and school infrastructure, as well as the valorization of teachers and school transportation are essential demands for the improvement of educational conditions. Above all, this is what children, teachers and community members want: a new school in the countryside, capable of guaranteeing success and learning in a comfortable and qualified space.