If at the beginning of the pandemic in the country, Brazilians coming from abroad, or who had contact with people who had recently arrived from other countries, were the most susceptible to contracting the coronavirus, today the situation is different: research that analyzes the lethality of Covid-19 in Brazil show that components such as ethnicity, income and education are decisive in the effects caused by the disease. Second data from PUC-Rio, the death rate from Covid-19 among the black population with low education is 80,35%, while white people with higher education have a fatality rate of 19,65%.
To face the coronavirus crisis not only in its medical and biological aspects, but also its social face, the inclusion policies adopted by universities around the world are fundamental in reducing the inequalities that are accentuated by the pandemic. These were the topics discussed in a webinar promoted by GAPS - Global Access to Postsecondary Education, a global entity that brings together researchers and educational leaders in the quest to expand access and diversity in higher education. The digital event was held on July 21st and was attended by Matheus Gomes (28), a final year Mechanical Engineering student at Unicamp, who represented not only the University, but all of South America.
A former student at the Technical College of Campinas (Cotuca), Matheus was president of the Motor - Junior Company of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Unicamp and also of the Organizational Council for Extracurricular Activities (COE) of the unit. During his time at the University, he was also a student representative and currently participates in the initiative to create the Unicamp Heritage Fund.
Governance for universities and ethnic-racial discussions
Students from Jamaica, South Africa, the United States and the United Kingdom participated alongside Matheus. The chat took place around two main aspects: the effects of the pandemic on universities and how it manifests itself in different ways for white, black and people of other ethnicities.
Based on the discussions held, Matheus realized that the coronavirus imposed challenges on universities around the world. However, the way countries dealt with this was different. According to him, while in developed nations care was taken to ensure that protocols and general guidelines were formulated and offered to universities, in developing countries, such as Brazil, the adoption of measures that guaranteed the continuity of teaching and research was a prerogative. of the universities themselves.
"In some places it was municipal governance, in others it was national. But in one way or another, there was guidance on how aspects such as teaching platforms, assessment methods, class models, whether students should have timetables should be handled. fixed places to study. Since all this was clear to everyone, I believe it made adaptation easier for both students and teachers", reports Matheus. On this topic, the student presented Unicamp's experience in being the first public university in the country to suspend face-to-face activities, shortly after the WHO declared a pandemic, and also the work adopted to ensure that teaching was continued remotely. .
"I highlighted this point, not only the fact that it was a pioneer and courageous university, but also for having worked to bring inclusion to this debate. The work done together with the private sector to collect devices, internet chips and others resources so that the vast majority of students could go through this totally negative period with the least possible impact was something very good that I could feel and I took pride in being able to be part of it", says the student.
The measures that guarantee the black population's access to universities were also discussed and valued throughout the webinar. Matheus comments that a consensus among representatives from different countries is that the effects of the pandemic tend to be longer lasting for the most vulnerable groups of the population, which are mainly made up of black and brown people. Therefore, he believes that guaranteeing these groups access to leadership spaces, where racial issues can be discussed and problematized, is a responsibility of universities.
"I really believe that the great racial transformations that Brazil and the world need to go through involve the training of people who are part of groups in leadership positions. And the university has a fundamental role in training these leaders. A point discussed in the webinar is how These universities have trained leaders, black people in leadership positions, who in the future will be able to occupy these positions of transformation in the country. We need to train not only more university students, but black leaders prepared to debate this racial issue", he analyzes.
The full webinar will soon be available on the GAPS website.
