Lula attributes delay in literacy to Bolsonaro – 06/12/2023 – Education

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) attributed, this Monday (12), the delay in literacy in the country to previous governments, citing denialism of the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) management during the Covid-19 pandemic and the view that investments would jeopardize “the so-called fiscal balance”.

The statement was given during a speech at the signing ceremony of the National Literacy Commitment decree, a policy aimed at ensuring that all children are fully literate by the end of the 2nd year of elementary school.

“The delay in literacy is due to the fact that the Brazilian state has failed miserably in recent years. It has failed because it thought that transferring resources to elementary schools was an expense and would jeopardize the fiscal balance”, said the Chief Executive.

“When the pandemic led to the closure of classrooms, the previous ruler preferred denialism and hate speech. The result could not be otherwise”, he added. Lula does not mention his predecessor by name.

At the end of May, a study presented by the MEC (Ministry of Education) pointed out that more than half of Brazilian children in this grade are illiterate.

The survey, carried out by Inep (National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira), shows that 56.4% of students who were in this grade in 2021 cannot read or write within the expected parameters.

The study helped to support the policy presented and signed this morning. The investment, according to the government, will be around BRL 2.5 billion in four years, with BRL 1 billion still in 2023.

The government’s bet is on the actions of the states in relation to municipalities, in collaborative instances of governance and in the protagonism of evaluations. Camilo Santana’s ministry will subsidize actions with entities of the federation, in five main axes: management and governance; training, physical and pedagogical infrastructure; recognition of good practices; and evaluation system.

Despite focusing on students up to the 2nd year, the policy also provides for reinforcement actions for children from the 3rd to the 5th year who have not completed learning in the previous phase. The impacts of the pandemic on these children motivated this choice.

According to the MEC, there will be more than 7,000 grants for literacy policy organizers in states and municipalities. There will also be awards for managers.

The foreseen teacher training and preparation of didactic materials will be decentralized, taking into account only MEC guidelines. The folder must accredit eligible materials and training for the project.

Launching a new literacy pact was one of the government’s promises for the first 100 days, but the project only came out now.

The MEC will coordinate nationally, and there will be the creation of state and regional coordinators (management and pedagogical), in addition to those responsible for each city.

Implementation will depend on the adherence of states and municipalities and, according to reports from senior MEC officials, the government is betting on a strong mobilization. But there may be difficulties in this regard, since at least 15 states have literacy projects to work with municipalities. The idea is that the Commitment can run in a hybrid way with ongoing initiatives.