Lula sanctions full-time school program – 07/31/2023 – Education

President Lula (PT) sanctioned, this Monday (31), a law that creates the Escola em Tempo Integral program. The forecast is to promote one million new vacancies in the modality in basic education schools still in 2023.

According to the government, the investment for this initial wave will be R$ 4 billion this year and next. The goal is to reach around 3.2 million enrollments by 2026, from kindergarten to high school.

“Encouraging states and municipalities to invest in full-time education is a reaffirmation of our commitment to offering quality education for all,” said Lula.

The declaration took place during the approval of the bill establishing the Escola em Tempo Integral Program, at the Planalto Palace.

In his speech, the petista still criticized the administrations of governments in the last six years —Michel Temer (MDB) and Jair Bolsonaro (PL)— and defended that spending on education is an investment.

“To a dwindling budget came the dismantling of numerous educational programs, in addition to the wave of hate propagated by social networks. Hatred that materialized in the criminalization of male and female teachers, and even in the heinous attacks on schools in the country”, said the PT.

The program is aimed at states and municipalities, which must register with the MEC. Schools considered full-time are those where the permanence is at least seven hours a day or 35 hours a week in two shifts, with no overlap between them.

The expansion of class hours is seen by specialists and studies as one of the main strategies for improving education. But the modality means more expenses for states and municipalities, which concentrate enrollments.

The Lula government’s project is for the Union to help public education networks in maintaining these students on extended hours. This type of help has already been carried out by the federal government, but there was a depletion of support during the Bolsonaro government.

All full-time enrollments created from 2023 onwards may benefit from federal funds, even those prior to the enactment of the law. The government promises to establish guidelines for the full-time offer that will be promoted, which has not yet been presented.

Both experiences from previous programs and studies collect evidence that, despite the importance of students having more hours of study, the content that will be covered in this period is essential for greater educational success.

Brazil has a goal on this topic in the PNE (National Education Plan) law of 2014. The country would have until 2024 to have at least 25% of full-term enrollments and half of the schools with this offer.

In 2022, the country reached a total of 38.4 million enrollments in public basic education schools.

Meeting the PNE target is practically impossible on time. The new MEC program, however, foresees that the teaching networks direct the creation of vacancies in the stages for the search of these parameters.

Full-time enrollments have been growing, but at a slow pace. The 2022 school census showed progress, both in primary and secondary education.

In high school, the public network reached 20.4% of students with extended hours. It was 12% in 2019.

But there are regional distortions. Pernambuco, for example, has 62.5% of full-time high school students, while this rate is 4.4% in Paraná.

Public secondary education is practically entirely the responsibility of state governments.

In elementary education, whose schools are in the municipal and state networks, the percentage of full-time students is 14.4%. There are also large regional differences in terms of fundamentals.

In Amapá, only 2.1% of elementary school students are full-time. On the other hand, Ceará already has 41% of students with more class hours.

In early childhood education, a stage that includes daycare and preschool, the situation has remained stable in recent years.

In municipal kindergartens directly managed by the municipality, 57% of children are full-time, while the percentage is 92.8% in units associated with the government.

In preschool, 12.2% of children in the municipal network and 59.4% of children in the private network with an agreement are enrolled full-time.

The law sanctioned by Lula was an initiative of the government itself. The project had been definitively approved by the National Congress on July 11.