Without investing in education, we will hand over young people to denialism and crime, says Lula

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said this Tuesday, 2, that it is necessary to increase spending on education to combat the “delicate” moment the country is going through, marked, according to him, by “denialism, hatred and fake news. ” He participated in the inauguration of Impa Tech, the first undergraduate course at the Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics (Impa), in Rio de Janeiro.

“I’m 78 years old and I haven’t known any moment of denialism, hatred and fake news like we experience today. If we don’t invest, we’ll hand our young people over for free to denialism and organized crime,” Lula told the audience of students, employees of Impa and local civil servants.

Lula defined Impa Tech as a “bicycle goal” for his government. He took a historical tour to remember the emergence of the Brazilian Public School Mathematics Olympiad (Obmep), whose model was born and grew under his previous governments, with 18 million students registered in 2007. The national competition today integrates the format student selection process for Impa Tech.

“Today we have the biggest mathematics Olympiad in the world. There’s no United States, there’s no China, there’s no Russia,” he says.

This morning’s event marks the beginning of the first period of the bachelor’s degree in Mathematics of Technology and Innovation organized by Impa in its new Institute. The warehouse that houses the school was renovated and equipped by the City of Rio. Impa’s graduation will count on specific resources from the federal government, an investment that will amount to R$18.7 million in the first year.

Once enrolled, students undergo a four-year course, which begins with a basic cycle of one and a half years, followed by another two and a half years of classes focused on four emphases: Mathematics, Computer Science, Data Science and Physics .