Government base removes urgency from project that modifies secondary education

Deputies from the government base asked this Wednesday (6) to withdraw the urgency of the project that changes the so-called new secondary education (PL 5230/23), as they disagree with the opinion presented by the rapporteur, deputy Mendonça Filho (União-PE). In the Education Committee, they accused the rapporteur of subverting the Executive Branch’s proposal and asked for more time to debate the matter.

Mendonça Filho was Minister of Education in the Michel Temer government when the new high school was proposed, in 2017. As rapporteur of the Lula government’s proposal, he stated that he intends to maintain basic criteria of the law approved when he was minister.

The government supporters disagree with the rapporteur regarding the proposed workload. Under current law, the time allocated to the common curricular base must not exceed 1,800 hours. The mandatory subjects in all high school curricula are Portuguese, mathematics and English. The Executive’s project foresees the inclusion of Spanish, arts, physical education, chemistry, biology, history, geography, sociology and philosophy in the mandatory curriculum.

To accommodate the increase in subjects, the government project foresees that the common curricular base at secondary level will have 2,400 hours. In the case of articulation with technical courses, from 2026, the workload must be increased by 1,200 hours. This would result in a longer class day for students who opt for technical training.

According to Mendonça Filho, this difference compromises equity in education, and the requirement of 2,400 hours for the common base would make technical training unfeasible. “Two thousand and four hundred hours is not enough, it’s not enough. For the states, this proposal makes technical education in Brazil unfeasible”, he emphasized. The rapporteur assesses that the best thing is to reduce common general training. “Which does not mean reducing learning”, he added.

Another point that leftists disagree with the proposal is the training itineraries – part of the curriculum made up of subjects of free choice by students. The government text limits the organization of itineraries. The project determines that they are organized with components from at least three areas of knowledge, encompassing languages, mathematics, social and human sciences and natural sciences.