13 days to execute 42% of parliamentary amendments received

The Ministry of Education (MEC) has only 13 days to execute 42% of the amount received through parliamentary amendments. According to data from the Siga Brasil panel, a Federal Senate tool, more than R$231 million has not been committed to date. Without the funds, federative entities, federal government bodies and other organizations in the education sector end up being prevented from implementing improvements or continuing work in the education system. To make matters worse, if it is not committed, the money allocated to education runs the risk of being reallocated by the Union to other areas the following year.

The difficulty with the education department’s budget is nothing new. Until November of this year, the MEC had not spent a cent of the R$801 million planned for literacy. According to public budget experts interviewed by People’s Gazette, those who receive the money often have technical difficulties in progressing the process. But this cannot be an excuse for omitting the transfer: the responsibility for budget execution lies with the MEC, which must provide all necessary assistance. Part of the amendments awaiting commitment are under the care of the National Education Development Fund (FNDE), which is also under the MEC umbrella.

With the help of Novo’s Voluntary Transfer Monitoring panel, it is possible to withdraw money where the money has not yet arrived. The party consolidated data relating to proposals and agreements and uses the Transparency Portal, a tool from the Comptroller General of the Union, as its database.

Universities await money for teacher training

Sociedade Goiana de Cultura, an NGO linked to the Pontifical Catholic University of Goiás (PUC-GO), still needs to receive R$ 1.4 million from a parliamentary amendment to implement classes in degree courses in physical education, Portuguese-English letters, mathematics and pedagogy. To date, less than R$50,000 has been committed to PUC Goiás. The money will be used to train at least 266 new basic education teachers.

In the same vein, the State University of Bahia is awaiting a commitment of R$370,000 to open two classes in the pedagogy course. The Bahian municipalities of Campo Alegre de Lourdes and Paramirim are awaiting the resources. The Regional University of Cariri, in Ceará, the State University of Southwest Bahia, the Catholic University of Pernambuco are some higher education institutions that are also awaiting funding for teacher training.

According to the panel, so far, not a single cent has been spent of the more than R$550,000 sent to carry out the Basic Education School Census in Pará. The objective is to collect data from the school community in the years 2023 and 2024. From what the official transfer website, the Pará Department of Education still needs to adapt the plans. The education departments of Mato Grosso, Acre and Rondônia, as well as other states, are also expected to receive a budget for the school census.

Rafael Parente, political scientist and master in public budgeting, believes that the problems in execution demonstrate that the MEC is facing management difficulties, as this is not a usual problem. “Many municipalities are small and do not have qualified technical staff to deal with the process and, sometimes, they make a lot of mistakes in the documents they need to present. This delays the execution of the money,” he says. Parente believes that, despite the municipalities’ difficulties, it is up to the departments responsible for budgets, in this case the MEC, to provide the necessary assistance to progress the work.

“Some bureaucracy is necessary for transparency and the good use of public money. For example, when it is a construction project, Caixa Econômica normally takes on this role of analyzing it. Go there, see if the land is public, if it is not an environmental protection area, if the project matches the expected costs”, he explains. However, due to the delay in the process and the bureaucracy, interest among parliamentarians in amendments that do not pass through the Executive, known as “secret budget” or “pix amendment”, has grown. In this format, there is much less control over the use of public resources.

Meanwhile, Brazilian education is among the worst in the world

On the 5th, the results of Pisa, an international exam that measures the knowledge of 15-year-olds around the world, were released. Brazil’s score has remained stagnant since 2009. The 2022 edition showed that 73% of Brazilians do not know basic mathematics. Brazilian students never left level 1, the lowest on the scale defined (from 1 to 6) by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), responsible for preparing and applying Pisa.

Ilona Becskeházy, PhD in educational policy from USP, analyzed the country’s performance in the exam. For her, education problems could be resolved with political commitment and access to international educational policy practices that have proven efficiency. Becskeházy cited the case of Sobral (CE), which improved educational rates by defining several policies such as complete literacy for children up to the age of six. The municipality of Ceará became a reference in Brazil in relation to the first stage of basic education.

The MEC’s ​​problems are not limited to budgetary issues. In October, the ministry released the base text of the National Education Plan (PNE) for the years 2024 to 2034. The document addressed several ideological points such as gender ideology and opposition to agribusiness in the classroom. Goal 7 of the current PNE was harshly criticized for stipulating specific education quality standards. “It is an education plan to have no effective metrics for learning and performance. They explicitly say that this should not be measured”, explained Anamaria Camargo, master in education.

A People’s Gazette contacted the MEC to clarify the reasons for the problem, but did not receive a response until the publication of this article.