Education the old way?

Everything began with a biographical text. This book is based on the memories of a teacher who began taking classes in the 1940s. It could be a perfectly normal story – but, at a time when the country had little to offer its citizens other than primary level education, these first grade teachers determined the future of several generations to come. Many of their former pupils have exceedingly grey memories of a time when the rod and other physical punishments were commonplace. Others, like Joaquim Pinto Serra, recall learning their first letters with someone whom they remember as an extension of their own family. “I was lucky enough to have a real jewel of a teacher, and really happy memories. I studied at the old Conde Ferreira school in Loulé. Besides being a beautiful building, it was a school through which hundreds of pupils passed. It was very sad when it was demolished because, these days particularly, it is perfectly simple to preserve beautiful buildings.” For Pinto Serra, who no longer works in a medical capacity and who has dedicated himself to writing, «Uma professora ao canto do olho» is a book “about the warmth and affection that teachers deserve. A book that tries to uphold the value of teaching professionals in society.” Indeed, this was the motivation behind the publishing of the book. It also serves as a warning of a reality that persists. “I completed my course as a primary school teacher in July 1946, in the city of Faro. I was assigned to the borough of São Brás de Alportel – a school in Almargens. Once inside the classroom, with windows hanging open, my concerns began: some of the chairs were broken, the teacher’s chair possessed only one leg – and the blackboard, instead of slate, was wood, painted black. In various places, the paint had worn away so that you couldn’t write on it. Everything was dirty, dusty, musty. Once the rains came, it got very cold. I had to place buckets and bowls in the classroom as it rained inside almost as much as it did outside.” Maria Armanda Tavares Belo, born in Faro and today aged 82, thus describes her first teaching experience. She was a teacher for 40 years in several government schools. It was a journey she documented carefully and which forms the basis of this book. The setting she describes is one found in many schools 70-odd years ago: the buildings were old; the pupils came from poor families; boys and girls studied in different schools – and the portrait of the president of the republic and head of state, along with a crucifix in the middle, were all part of the furniture and a symbol of the values of the dictatorship. At the time, four years of schooling was considered sufficient. Secondary school and university were reserved for the elite – some of which are still at the forefront of politics today. These days, multiplication tables and the alphabet are no longer taught with the iron rod of times gone by – but lack of investment in schools continues. From North to South, children still receive their primary education in the dismal buildings constructed during Salazar’s dictatorship. Inland, and in the rural areas of practically all the Algarve boroughs, the schools that still have pupils, struggle with all the old problems: cheerless outside toilets, no funds for teaching materials, lack of pastoral care and any attempts at social integration. According to what parents and teachers have told vivalgarve in various conversations, there are also still children today – in the 21st century – who don’t attend school because of their family’s financial difficulties.

The failure of so many pupils to complete school successfully is deftly hidden among statistics sent to the European Union. “Special-needs” continue to go by the board. Recently, Faro’s Civil Governor Isilda Gomes told journalists that there are 3000 mentally and physically challenged inhabitants in the Algarve. Does this number include the young people and children left at home because of the lack of space available for them in teaching institutions? It’s impossible to answer that question. But reading «Uma professora ao canto do olho» shows that lack of willingness to change mentalities is another tradition that lives on. For example, in 1974-75, classes in Sex Education were already being talked about – a topic that still today is at the centre of discussions between teachers, pupils and the Ministry of Education. And still a taboo. These days, teachers are protesting at the evaluation methods being imposed on them by the government.

They consider the framework too bureaucratic – saying it involves too much paperwork and minimizes the time they have to actually teach. Only a few days ago, Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues, the current Minister of Education, showed herself to be receptive to the teachers’ protests. Is that democracy? Progress? See what the former primary school teacher wrote about a subject that, still in 2008, hasn’t made it onto the timetable: “Often, teachers receive directives that are absolutely impossible to carry out. We received one which said we had to give lessons in Sex Education. Well… we teachers were concerned… we didn’t know how to do this. Obviously, I agree with the idea of Sex Education. These days, it’s what everyone’s talking about… but in those days, just the word ‘sex’ was a taboo.”

The book “has no story”, Joaquim Manuel Pinto Serra tells us. “We invented two characters, a grandfather and his grandson. The old man represented the old times, and the young man, today’s generation. Their conversations over a table in a café are meant to highlight the differences between education in the past and education as it is now.”

“When I taught, until 25th April 1974, the educational programmes were much more complete and demanding than they are now. These days, there are people who don’t know the name of our first king or who Camões was. They simply know that June 10th is a Bank Holiday,” Maria Armanda wrote in one of her journals. A little too reactionary? The decision is yours. Published by «Mar da Palavra», «Uma professora ao canto do olho» is on sale now in bookshops with a price tag of €15.