Minister Manuel Heitor considers hazing a ‘fascistic practice “- Observer

The Minister of Higher Education said on Tuesday that “there is good and bad hazing hazing”, considering them “a fascistic practice” that has nothing to do with academic tradition. Manuel Heitor believes that the best practices should be the subject of a “close combat”, including political.

“I think that there is good and bad hazing hazing. I am clearly cons to the procedures and that is what I will write to all student leaders. And this is the only position that we take. Today is indeed combat those movements that have to be considered from the political point of view, but above all the communication should be higher education, “said today the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Manuel Heitor, in parliament .

During the regimental hearing by Members of the parliamentary committee on Education and Science, the Minister announced that he will write a letter in the first week of September, start time the next school year, student leaders, deans universities and presidents of polytechnic calling for “maximum vigilance and total repudiation of hazing.”

“it is a practice that we have to watch, it is a fight that is not won in Portuguese society,” the said minister who advocated the need for a “close combat this scourge.”

in his opening speech, Mrs PSD Nilza Sena invoked the academic tradition “deeply rooted” in cities like Coimbra to defend a weighting in position on the best practices and defense of its eradication, noting that even the Socialist Party (PS) has previously expressed more moderate opinions, asking for a moralization around the subject.

“Prague is an expression very, very strong, “he stressed the MP. Manuel Heitor countered that the best practices have nothing to do with “academic tradition”.

With all due respect for the academic life, the practice, I would say fascistic, of praxis, not has nothing to do with academic tradition. “

Still on the best practices, the Left Bloc deputy Luís Monteiro argued that” there is a mystification of tradition that we need to dismount. “

“what matters is to discuss what kind of integration we want our students”, stating that the practice of hazing fits behaviors of violence and coercion.

Luís Monteiro was the promoter of a letter open to all higher education institutions, signed by 100 personalities called. “Integration in higher education: democracy is made of alternatives,” and published earlier this month

the document, which asks creating an alternative to hazing “does not seek ideological space,” as it has “with people from various social and professional backgrounds,” he said at the time Luis Monteiro.

Among the subscribers include, among others, university professor Adelino Maltez or military April Vasco Lourenço, writers like Luisa Costa Gomes and Miguel Sousa Tavares, Members Paula Teixeira da Cruz (PSD), Alexandre Quintanilha (PS), Teresa Caeiro (CDS-PP), André Silva (PAN), the former health minister and lawyer Antonio Arnaut, the sociologist André Freire, or the writer’s widow José Saramago, Pilar del Rio.

the President of the coordinating council of the polytechnic considered “good and timely “the call with this open letter.