Schooling of children and adolescents from Pantanal (Brazil) in times of COVID-19

Abstract

This article analyses the ways in which educators of schools located in the riverside areas of Pantanal in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul (Brazil) - Escolas das Águas (Schools in riverside areas) - organized themselves to maintain schooling in the period of the pandemic generated by COVID-19. For the development of this work, a qualitative perspective was adopted. Data collection took place with a survey and study of local documentation and open interviews, via WhatsApp application, between April and June 2020, with the school management and teachers from these schools. The analysis of the educational situation was carried out considering the social policies context, which allowed the perception that vulnerable populations may be more fragile in exceptional situations. Education, mediated by Escolas das Águas, was found to be one of the only links between local population and public power.