The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, speaks at the celebration of the 90 years of the University of São Paulo (USP) today, in Sao Paulo (Brazil). EFE/ Isaac Fontana
São Paulo, Jan 25 (EFE).- The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, affirmed this Thursday that the state University of São Paulo, the oldest and most prestigious in the country, is the “face” of Brazil due to its diversity.
USP, which this Thursday celebrated 90 years of founding as a university campus, despite having 196 years as a law school, “every day looks more like Brazil. A face that is black, white, brown, indigenous. It is the face of the peripheries,” Lula said in his speech.
The president recalled that more than half of USP’s 100,000 students come from public schools and, in his opinion, this is due to the university’s adherence to the quota system.
“USP is demonstrating that to be part of the so-called ‘cradle of knowledge’ it is not necessary to be born in a cradle of gold,” Lula highlighted at the event that also coincided with the 470 years of founding of the city of São Paulo, the capital. of the homonymous state.
For Lula, knowledge in the hands of a few “leads to more inequality” and that is why his Government championed access to higher education.
“We increased the number of university students from 3.5 million to 8 million. We gave the children of workers the opportunity to become doctors. Because this is how a more developed and fairer country is built,” he noted.
In his statement, Lula cited that recent years have been “a time of attacks on universities, scientific production and education as a whole”, alluding to the budget cuts by his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022). ).
“It was a time of anti-science and obscurantism. Fortunately, that time belongs to the past,” stressed the president, who highlighted the natural vocations, scientific knowledge, energy infrastructure and productive experience of the South American giant.