NO WATER, NO BREATHING AND NO CLASSES: THE IMPACT OF THE HISTORIC DROUGHT ON SCHOOLS IN THE RURAL AMAZON OF UATUMÃENSE

Abstract

This article analyzes the impact of the historic drought on rural schools in the Uatuamaense Amazon. This is a study anchored in the theoretical-methodological assumptions of Historical-Dialectical Materialism under the universal, particular, singular triad, using the categories of contradiction, mediation, and totality, supported by bibliographical, documentary, and field research developed over time in the communities of the Specialization Course in Rural Education in Pedagogical Practices of the Escola da Terra Program at UFAM (2022-2023). Three teachers who work in a rural school in São Sebastião do Uatumã/AM participated in the research, with whom we conducted semi-structured interviews. The results indicate that in the Uatuamaense Amazon there are 19 rural schools, whose organization is multi-grade, single-teacher, with multi-grade and serial classes, and are located in rural/peasant territories and that, with the extreme drought in the region, these schools were impacted. These impacts include difficulties in accessing schools for students and teachers, difficulties in delivering school meals, impact on students' learning processes, planning and teaching work, in addition to the suspension of in-person classes and the early end of the 2023 school year. We conclude that it is necessary to fight against hegemonic public policies and neoliberal proposals that still do not consider the geographic, environmental, territorial reality and the Amazon region, in which rural schools are inserted.