"We're Being Left Behind": Parents and Students Demand Action on São Paulo's Crumbling School Infrastructure

On a sweltering afternoon in the Jardim São Luís neighbourhood, Mariana Santos stands outside Escola Municipal Professor Anísio Teixeira, pointing to water stains spreading across the concrete walls like rust-coloured maps. Her daughter attends fourth grade in a classroom that, she says, houses 38 students—well above recommended capacity. "The teachers are exhausted," Santos said. "And the school keeps telling us repairs are coming, but it's been two years."

Her frustration reflects a broader anxiety gripping São Paulo's public education system. A recent survey by the Sindicato dos Professores do Ensino Oficial do Estado (APEOESP) found that 67% of public schools across the metropolitan region reported maintenance backlogs exceeding six months. In peripheral zones like Capão Redondo, Itaquera, and Brasilândia, the figure climbs to 78%.

The infrastructure crisis has become impossible to ignore. At Instituto Federal de São Paulo's campus in Mauá, students have organized informal documentation of electrical hazards in laboratory spaces. At Universidade de São Paulo's Faculdade de Educação in Butantã, graduate researchers studying educational inequality report that funding cuts have reduced library hours and eliminated several tutorial programs serving low-income undergraduate cohorts.

"People think São Paulo's education is fine because there are good private universities," said Ricardo Oliveira, a community organizer with Rede de Educadores Populares, based in the Zona Leste. "But if you live in a favela, if you depend on public schools, you're experiencing a completely different reality. My son's school in Sapopemba doesn't even have functioning bathrooms in one wing."

Student voices underscore the personal toll. At ETEC São Mateus, a technical school serving the eastern suburbs, 19-year-old Beatriz Ferreira, who studies nursing, described sharing textbooks between three classmates and conducting practicum work on outdated equipment. "We're competing for jobs with graduates from better-resourced schools," she said. "It feels unfair."

The education ministry has allocated R$2.1 billion for infrastructure repairs over the next fiscal year—a slight increase from 2025—but community leaders question whether disbursement will reach the neighbourhoods most in need. Meetings at the Subprefeitura de Guaianases and various Conselho de Escolas have grown contentious, with parents demanding transparency on spending priorities.

For families like Santos', the wait continues. She hopes her daughter's classroom will be expanded before the end of the year. Until then, she attends evening meetings organized through WhatsApp groups, gathering alongside other parents determined to ensure that peripheral São Paulo's children receive the education they deserve.

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