Lula sanctions scholarship for high school students – 01/16/2024 – Education

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) sanctioned this Tuesday (16) a law that creates a financial incentive program for low-income students to remain in high school.

The proposal also provides for monthly payments for students and a savings account, the balance of which can be withdrawn after completing high school. The government has not yet released values, which will be defined later, by a decree.

According to Minister Camilo Santana (Education), the expectation is that the Executive can start payments as early as March.

The sanction of the project took place this Tuesday afternoon (16), in a closed ceremony at Palácio do Planalto. Vice Geraldo Alckmin (PSB) and ministers Camilo Santana (Education), Rui Costa (Civil House), Simone Tebet (Planning), Márcio Macêdo (General Secretariat of the Presidency) and Alexandre Padilha (Institutional Relations) were present, as well as parliamentarians.

There will be three types of deposits: monthly, annual and another for those who take the Enem (National High School Exam).

“I am a disciplined minister, it will be the president who will announce from the moment he launches [o programa]. There will be an amount that can be withdrawn monthly, and the amount that will remain in the student’s name at Caixa Econômica Federal and which can only be withdrawn after completion [do Ensino Médio]”, Santana told journalists at Palácio do Planalto.

The program is one of the Minister of Education’s 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 estimate is that the program could benefit 2.5 million students.

The idea is to finance the student’s daily life, with monthly resources, and give a kind of end-of-year bonus to encourage enrollment in the following year. Students who fail will only lose their annual deposit.

“We will also have assistance, an ‘extra plus’ in the third year, for those who take the Enem. Although we have grown by 10% in the number of students enrolled in the Enem enrolled in 2023, only half of those registered in the third year they took the test”, he said.

According to the portfolio holder, EJA (Education for Youth and Adults) students will also be included in the program.

Camilo Santana also said that President Lula vetoed some parts of the project, but the only relevant one was what concerns the frequency criterion for granting the benefit. Today it is set at 80%, but the law also provided for an increase to 85% in three years, which was withdrawn by Lula.

Other social benefits do not have this provision for increasing frequency, so the government assessed that it would not be fair. Congress will still analyze and may override the president’s vetoes.

The proposal was approved by the Senate on December 20 last year, without changes in relation to the text that came from the Chamber of Deputies.

The values ​​of the scholarships and the design of the incentive themselves are not detailed in the bill approved by Congress, now sanctioned by Lula. During the process, government supporters announced that the government was initially working with a format with payments of R$200 per month for ten months and additional savings of R$1,000 per year, until the 3rd year.

“A joint act by the Ministers of Education and Finance will define values, payment methods, operationalization criteria and use of savings to encourage school retention and completion. The amounts will be deposited in an account to be opened in the name of the student. The type account to be opened could be digital social savings”, informed the Presidency of the Republic, in a note.

According to the minister, the scholarship will be paid to students who are currently in high school, from the first to the last year. The first payments are expected to be made in March.

To access the incentive, students must have a minimum school attendance of 80% of the total teaching hours, complete the academic year with approval and participate in the Basic Education Assessment System and Enem exams, among other conditions.

Earlier, this Tuesday, minister Camilo Santana had already announced that the government will pay a sum of money to low-income third-year high school students who take this year’s Enem test.

Initially, Lula had issued a provisional measure to create a program of this type, with provision for a private fund of up to R$20 billion. The president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), however, defined that parliamentarians would let the text lapse —lose validity— and that the House would discuss the topic in a bill, as actually happened.

The decision caused discomfort in the government due to the protagonism sought with the initiative.

A PL authored by deputy Tabata Amaral (PSB-SP) was chosen, which was reported by deputy Pedro Uczai (PT-SC).

The approved project maintained the government’s plan to create a private fund — in which the Union will be able to contribute up to R$ 20 billion —, in addition to defining that the beneficiaries will be students enrolled in CadÚnico, the registry adopted for social programs such as Bolsa Família, and low-income students regularly enrolled in high school.