left makes maneuver to promote ideology in education

The rules of the National Education Conference (Conae) 2024, which will outline national guidelines for education over the next 10 years, were changed 13 days before the event. The new text contains changes to important deadlines such as the period for sending highlights to be presented by delegates, participants with the power to discuss, propose and vote during the event. Those involved also complain about the lack of disclosure of changes, the short deadline to analyze the document and the structure that makes it difficult to contrast ideas. During the event, the guidelines defined will support the National Education Plan (PNE) for the years 2024 to 2034. The national stage of Conae 2024 will be held from January 28th to 30th in Brasília.

As if it wasn’t enough for the regulations to change the rules of the game at the last minute, the document that will be the basis for discussion during the event was also changed. Delegates received the changes on the 20th, with eight days to analyze the 282 pages, 100 pages more when compared to the previous version. The first version, released in October by the Ministry of Education (MEC), raises several themes such as promoting gender ideology, opposition to agribusiness and homeschooling. The updated text confirms these themes and adds suggestions raised in the municipal and state stages.

“Although the regiment is very confusing, you dedicate yourself to studying it and understand it. Suddenly, on January 16th, they release another regiment with deadlines that are extremely tight”, complains Adriana Marra, who will participate in the event as a delegate . She reiterates that the tight deadline makes it difficult to carry out an in-depth study of the document that will be discussed.

Representatives of CUT, MST, ABGLT and left-wing entities are numerous

All changes made were approved by the National Education Forum (FNE), which is responsible for organizing the conference. The FNE has as members representatives of several left-wing entities that do not even work directly with education. The Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT), the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST), the Brazilian Association of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transvestites, Transsexuals and Intersexes (ABGLT) are among them.

The FNE itself was the one who established the criteria to define who should occupy the delegate vacancies. In addition to the FNE representatives themselves, 96 vacancies were allocated for representatives of “Movements for the Affirmation of Diversity” and 64 for “Social articulations in defense of education”. Meanwhile, representatives of scientific communities were left with only 50 vacancies.

The new Conae 2024 regulations provide that a simple majority will be required for an amendment to incorporate the base text. Although the text states that “fraternal, pluralistic and unprejudiced dialogue” must be the foundation of the discussion and voting processes at all stages of Conae 2024 “to guarantee the same rights and duties to all participants”, the maneuvers carried out by left-wing entities practically prevent dissonant voices.

“They say there was consultation, but there was little real debate. The entities involved in preparing the document will participate with a good number of representatives and most of them are not related to education”, highlights Anamaria Camargos, master in Education.

Lack of transparency and structure that makes debate difficult

The second version of the regulations also defined January 24th as the deadline for sending highlights. The limit did not appear in the first regiment and caught many participants by surprise, especially those against the ideologization proposals, who raced against time to make contributions. “I think people will get there and no longer be able to do highlights. The good thing is that this will create more evidence about the event’s lack of transparency”, says Camargos.

“I didn’t receive anything officially”, informs Adriana Marra. According to Marra, she only had access to the documents because a colleague, who will also be a delegate, forwarded the files received via institutional email. In addition to the lack of proper publicity, including among the representatives themselves, Marra believes that “Conae’s format makes any questioning about what is already planned difficult”.

The motions, suggestions for changes to the text presented by the delegates, will be previously assessed by a committee. The idea is for the group to evaluate whether or not the proposal should go to the plenary. Another excerpt highlights that the texts presented “cannot contradict the deliberations of Conae 2024”. Also according to the regulations, questions of order, used to contest some action, must not hinder the progress of discussions and, therefore, will be resolved by the coordination or assessed by the FNE itself.

Use of vague terms is an entry point for left-wing ideologies

Axis III deals with “Education, human rights, equity, inclusion and diversity”. One of the new strategies added after the municipal and state stages suggests that diversity should guide educational policies. Another suggestion is to give “centrality to confronting inequalities, valuing diversity” in national basic education and higher education systems.

“The text does not have a definition of the terms used such as ‘social quality education’, ‘inclusion’ and ‘diversity’. They choose words that have a sensitive and benevolent appearance. Who’s going to say they’re against inclusion or diversity?” asks Camargos. For the expert, the concepts are distorted in practice so that leftist flags such as gender ideology are raised. “The presence of these words in a document that will govern Brazilian education in the coming years is a risk that society cannot accept,” she warns.

Since the first version, the base document emphasizes identity issues more than the metrics themselves to verify the quality of teaching, as already shown by the People’s Gazette. The document makes clear the opposition to “ultra-conservative policies”, such as the brake on the approval of homeschooling, “demilitarization of schools” and opposition to agribusiness.

Last year, the MEC was expected to present the text on the new National Education Plan to the National Congress in 2023. The ministry even held some meetings to discuss the problems and define future goals. But, in the second semester, Camilo Santana’s team chose to rely on Conae to prepare the suggestions. With the guidelines of the conference, the MEC must analyze the text and prepare a bill that will be considered by the National Congress.