MEC needs to lead the discussion about the new high school – 04/04/2023 – Education

The suspension of implementation of the new secondary education by the MEC (Ministry of Education) until a public consultation on the reform is carried out is a good measure, albeit late. Changing secondary education faces technical and political obstacles.

From a political point of view, although the need to reform this stage had been discussed within the MEC since President Lula’s second term, the amendment was approved in an unusual and rushed way, by means of a provisional measure, even with a bill in proceeding in Congress. The references for the preparation of training itineraries were published three days before the end of the Temer government. Then, for four years, we had an absent and inept government when it came to public education.

Without a broader discussion with the educational field, in a government considered illegitimate by the leftist camp —especially by the PT, the party of the current President of the Republic—, the measure quickly became a “fight flag” of that field and of a large segment of education professionals and student organizations that orbit around it. The arrival of the PT to power brought the matter back to the table. “Yesterday’s losers became today’s winners” (I’m sorry, Bob Dylan) and demand consistency from the government they helped elect.

The issue is not just political. There are design and implementation problems, which can widen the already abysmal existing educational inequalities. How are you Sheet has warned several times that in networks such as the state network of São Paulo, the new model coexists with a lack of teachers, teachers complementing working hours with disciplines for which they were not trained, expansion of distance learning and restriction of training itineraries, disrespecting the students’ right to choose, the latter being the main motto of secondary education reform.

In addition to extravagant and unacceptable measures, such as Portuguese teachers teaching elective physics subjects and students who enroll in elective mathematics courses but are obliged to take the humanities courses, there is a design problem. As there is a very generic definition of what can be offered to students, going deeper into an area of ​​the student’s choice can be illusory.

The new secondary education assumes that it is organized in 3,000 hours over three years. Up to 1,800 hours must compose the so-called Basic General Training (FGB), with traditional subjects, and 1,200 hours that make up the so-called training itineraries. Students can choose between propaedeutic itineraries, which should serve to deepen the areas of interest of the student who intends to attend higher education, and those of technical training.

Thus, a student who intends to study engineering has fewer hours of mathematics at FGB and should deepen his studies in the area by attending corresponding training itineraries. When the school denies you an itinerary in mathematics, it is violating two of your rights: that of choosing your academic path and that of preparing for the university course that interests you. Here, a review of the classification of the areas of knowledge adopted, the better organization of training itineraries in a design that aims at effective deepening, following the international experience, would be good ways.

Despite what was suggested in the transition report, the MEC seems to have imagined that the implementation of the new secondary education was an outdated issue, and at this moment it has been adopting —or being led to adopt— measures that could have been taken in the first week of government.

Successful public policies need a good design, which takes into account in particular who will implement them, in this case the public networks in the states, private schools and, above all, education professionals. But they only materialize with good politics, composed of active listening, convincing power, building consensus. MEC has an excellent technical team. It’s time to take the field and lead the discussion, bringing everyone interested to the table, while reserving a seat at the head of the table for students.