19/06/2021

In an article, Mendonça Filho defends the new IMPA campus.

Former Minister of Education José Mendonça Filho (DEM) defended the project for the new sustainable IMPA campus in an article published on Saturday (19) in Jornal do Commercio . The text highlights the importance of the expansion so that the institute can expand partnerships with the productive sector and teacher training programs, as well as put into practice the project to universalize OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematics Olympiad for Public Schools), “a fantastic project that promotes social mobility through education”.

“Without creating false controversies, and placing the country's interests at the center of the debate, the truth is that mathematics develops human capacities and skills, logical reasoning. The medalists are, for the most part, from small towns. Certainly, it is the new IMPA campus that Brazil needs,” stated Mendonça Filho.

Read more: In obituary, Folha highlights the work of Wolmer Vasconcelos In the book Inspiring Stories of OBMEP: Victor Bicalho Chico Alencar visits IMPA and the Sustainable Campus site Read the full article: Mathematics as inclusion

While reading the article 'Creating myths to win votes, the case of the expansion of IMPA', by Claudio Landim, deputy director of the Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics and coordinator of the Brazilian Mathematics Olympiad for Public Schools (OBMEP), I was reminded of an event that happened to me at the Ministry of Education, which shows how Brazil is a country of false controversies and debates of convenience.

On the same day that I received the director-general of IMPA, Marcelo Viana, an institution of excellence, requesting the renewal of the management contract, resources for research and for OBMEP, I met with representatives of Revoltados Online, among them the current congressman Alexandre Frota, who came to congratulate me on my position.

Of the two agendas, which one received prominence for several days in the press and on social media that so loudly proclaim "science" and "research"? The renewal of the management contract and the release of funds that would guarantee the operation of IMPA, the institution responsible for the country's entry into the elite of world mathematics, or a courtesy visit from members of a street movement? You don't even need to rack your brains to answer.

Five years after this episode, I see that some sectors – I'm not talking about government A or B, but society as a whole – continue with the same value system. Instead of celebrating the construction of the new IMPA campus in Rio, the left is trying to discredit the work of internationally recognized researchers and the Institute itself, supporting a disinformation campaign on social media to prevent the project, using a false controversy in defense of the environment.

In 2017, I learned about the innovative expansion project, which won the Lafarge Holcim Foundation award in Switzerland, the most important award in sustainable architecture. And I announced resources for the project: R $ 35 million, of which R $ 20 million were released during my administration. “They transformed tree removal into 'deforestation,' with replanting at a rate of 17 native seedlings planted for each tree removed,” laments Claudio Landim in the article.

The expansion will diversify IMPA's activities. It will broaden partnerships with the productive sector and strengthen education through teacher training and the universalization of OBMEP, a fantastic project that promotes social mobility through education. With 20 million participants, it creates opportunities for vulnerable young people in the country. Without false controversies and placing the country's interests at the center of the debate, the truth is that mathematics develops human capacities and skills, logical reasoning. The medalists are, for the most part, from small towns. Certainly, this is the new IMPA campus that Brazil needs.

*Mendonça Filho, former Minister of Education and consultant for the Lemann Foundation.