REFRAMING THE INTEGRATED CENTER OF PUBLIC EDUCATION
Presently, based on the information I’ve gathered from various public sources and the limited research available on the topic, there is no complete and comprehensive survey detailing the status and context of the over 500 CIEP units. Of these, only one reportedly maintains a full-time school schedule. Most operate below half of their intended student capacity; some are partially operational or functioning at minimal capacity. A number of CIEPs have been transferred to municipal management (which often leads to better maintenance), while others are rented out to private educational institutions or, in some cases, non-educational entities. Some units are said to be abandoned or repurposed as multi-story parking lots, and, according to a PDT politician, one is even being used as a candy factory.
While the right wing blatantly labeled any spending aimed at improving the conditions of the less privileged as mismanagement of funds or a straight-up futile endeavor, never tiring of doubling down on the perceived failures of the CIEP project, their critiques often came across as more coherent than those of their counterparts on the other side of the political spectrum. Even as these counterparts ostensibly claimed to address the challenges of the public basic education sector, they frequently went out of their way to distance themselves from the schools and the ideas proclaimed by the original project. Whether this was due to rivalry with the party that founded the project, a personal disdain for the public figures associated with it, the certainty (or belief) that the buildings themselves were hopelessly flawed in design, or simply an attempt to avoid the perceived "stigma" surrounding the project, it is hard not to see this as a case of proverbial throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
All these bipartisan aversions, to some degree, continue until today. But it’s worth remembering that they are in response to what is essentially an already established, vast infrastructure of school buildings.
SHORT HISTORIC NOTE:
The proposal of the Integrated Public Education Center (Centro Integrado de Educação Pública - CIEP) was elaborated in the political scenario of the re-democratization of Brazil. In 1982, with education as a priority goal, Leonel Brizola, from the Democratic Labour Party (PDT), was elected governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, with anthropologist Darcy Ribeiro as vice-governor and secretary of culture.
The CIEP, designed by the widely celebrated architect Oscar Niemeyer, were built from concrete modules manufactured in an actual factory of schools. Their implementation into the state's educational system was coordinated through the Special Education Program (PEE), becoming the first full-time public school project - as schools in Brazil follow a part-time regime. The goals and guidelines were discussed by public school teachers at the so-called Mendes Meeting. At one point, the state had 40% of total funds invested in education and culture.
In May 1985, CIEP 001 Presidente Tancredo Neves in the Catete neighborhood in the South Zone of Rio de Janeiro was officially inaugurated as the first unit. By 1994, at least 500 additional units had been built, primarily during Governor Leonel Brizola’s two terms (1983-87 and 1991-94). Each CIEP unit was named after significant figures in Brazilian education and culture and was also assigned a unique three-digit number.
Much of the original CIEP project was systematically undermined by dominant media outlets, which framed it as a political maneuver and dismissed its social benefits. After each of Brizola’s terms, oppositional candidates worked to defund and discontinue the project, leaving some units abandoned mid-construction.
The original project aimed to provide full-time education with support services like meals, health care, extracurricular activities, and, in some cases, residential care facilities — to improve the quality of life and education for underprivileged children and in consequence, of their families.
For further information, please refer to the bibliography at the end of the page ->
Drawings of the point-of-view perspectives registered throughout the CIEPs. // Entering one CIEP unit, with its modular structure built from prefabricated parts, can be like entering all 500 simultaneously, as the geometric perspectives in one building mirror those in any other across the state. It seems interesting to explore methods of conveying, through photo and videography, the unique spatiotemporal experience of visiting the CIEPs and create a sense of continuity despite the physical dislocation across dozens (or hundreds) of sites dispersed throughout the state, while also developing a typology of these spaces based on their reiterative architectural features.
REVISING CIEP'S COVERAGE IN THE JOURNAL O GLOBO
The proposal of the Integrated Public Education Center (Centro Integrado de Educação Pública - CIEP) was elaborated in the political scenario of the redemocratization of Brazil. In 1982, with education as a priority goal, Leonel Brizola, from the Democratic Labour Party. (PDT), was elected governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, with anthropologist Darcy Ribeiro as vice-governor and secretary of culture.
The proposal of the Integrated Public Education Center (Centro Integrado de Educação Pública - CIEP) was elaborated in the political scenario of the redemocratization of Brazil. In 1982, with education as a priority goal, Leonel Brizola, from the Democratic Labour Party (PDT), was elected governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, with anthropologist Darcy Ribeiro as vice-governor and secretary of culture.
A collection of headlines taken from over 600 articles published in O Globo, primarily during the years of the project’s implementation. // The selection was based solely on the patterns of headline formats, not on any perceived bias in the titles. This compilation serves as a representative cross-section of the published titles, revealing the journal’s editorial stance toward the project and exposing the inherent bias in its journalism.
(...) will the full-time public school implemented within the conditions stipulated by the original project decrease the market share of private schools? Does this representation of the CIEP [as covered by the newspaper O Globo] not serve interests that hide behind the idea of wasting public resources and the inefficiency of the program?
REVIEWING THE CURRENT STATES OF A CIEP
The proposal of the Integrated Public Education Center (Centro Integrado de Educação Pública - CIEP) was elaborated in the political scenario of the redemocratization of Brazil. In 1982, with education as a priority goal, Leonel Brizola, from the Democratic Labour Party. (PDT), was elected governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, with anthropologist Darcy Ribeiro as vice-governor and secretary of culture.
(...) will the full-time public school implemented within the conditions stipulated by the original project decrease the market share of private schools? Does this representation of the CIEP [as covered by the newspaper O Globo] not serve interests that hide behind the idea of wasting public resources and the inefficiency of the program?
(...) will the full-time public school implemented within the conditions stipulated by the original project decrease the market share of private schools? Does this representation of the CIEP [as covered by the newspaper O Globo] not serve interests that hide behind the idea of wasting public resources and the inefficiency of the program?
