Brazil: Evangelical Pastor Appointed Minister Of Education

Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro designated Milton Ribeiro as the new Education Minister on Friday, following the resignation of the previous one last week.

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According to the government website, Ribeiro has degrees in Education, constitutional law, and theology, and he is as well a pastor at an evangelical church in Sao Paulo state.

The former minister, Carlos Alberto Decotelli, resigned on July 1 after a controversy which pointed out that he lied about his degrees in two foreign universities, one in Argentina, the other in Germany as well as post-doctoral work that he never completed.

The national press has classified Ribeiro's political discourse as "moderate" as he distances himself from the so-called "ideological wing" inside the Government, and stand for a "conservative revolution in education."

The new appointee preaches at a Presbyterian church in Santos outside Sao Paulo and has the support of religious groups that also back the president and believe that the Education Ministry is pivotal to increase Christian values in Brazil and prevent the influence of the left in schools.

Ribeiro has a doctorate in Education from the University of Sao Paulo (USP), a Master of Laws from the Mackenzie Presbyterian University, as well as a degree in Law and Theology. Since May 2019, he is a member of the Public Ethics Committee of the Brazilian Presidency.

Predecessors of the current minister are Ricardo Vélez Rodríguez, who served for three months, Abraham Weintraub, from April 2019 to June 2020, and Carlos Decotelli. He was in front of the Education portfolio for only a week.