Lula: Education is an investment for young people not to become zombies – 01/26/2024 – Education

President Lula (PT) said this Friday (26) that spending on education is an investment to prevent young people from going into organized crime or drugs.

The statement was made during the press conference “Brazil United for Education”, with the Minister of Education, Camilo Santana, in which a decree was signed with the rules of the federal program that will pay scholarships and a savings account to keep poor students in secondary education. The project was called Pé de Meia.

Students from Bolsa Família beneficiary families will receive a monthly scholarship of R$200 to stay at school. The program also provides for savings with annual deposits of R$1,000, the total amount of which can only be withdrawn at the end of high school.

Lula did not answer questions, but his speeches were in the sense that spending on education is an investment, not an expense — something he has said since the beginning of his third term.

“What we are trying to do is prevent this money that we are putting into education from being put into prisons in the future, from being used to recover young people who have no opportunities and have fallen into organized crime. [Estamos] Trying to give a chance for a young man who is 16 years old, 17 years old, due to lack of perspective, to go to drugs, to become a zombie on the streets of the capitals, wandering around without any respect from society, without perspective. Sometimes stealing gas from his house to sell, to buy drugs,” he said.

“Before we lose this young man to organized crime, to drugs, we are trying to get him back for his country, for his family. That’s why I continue to insist and fight every day: don’t mention the word spent when you talk about go to university, technical school. Don’t get me started, because it’s the most extraordinary investment a country can make”, added the president.

The estimate is that the program could benefit 2.5 million students across the country.

There will be ten installments of R$200 per year (the first, at the time of registration). Payments are expected to begin this year in March, but there are still bureaucratic details to be resolved, according to the government.

If the student participates in the Enem, there is a provision for another payment of R$200. The government’s objective is, in addition to keeping young people in school, to encourage them to participate in the exam, the main gateway to higher education.

Pé de Meia is one of the MEC’s ​​main efforts to reduce school dropouts. According to data from the department, 8.8% of students leave school in the 1st year of high school.

The initiative is also seen as one of the government’s main political agendas. Within the government, there is a bet on the measure also in the electoral clash.

The program regulated this Friday was launched without the approval of the National Treasury, the body that manages federal public accounts. As shown by Sheetit was ignored in the preparation of the MP (provisional measure) that authorized an investment of up to R$20 billion in a private fund to finance the scholarship to encourage students to remain in high school.

Document obtained by Sheet through the LAI (Access to Information Law) shows that the consultation on the content of the policy was sent for analysis by technicians on November 27, 2023, the same day the MP was signed.

In an order, the deputy secretary of the National Treasury, Viviane Varga, states that “there was no time for the body to demonstrate.”