Mendonça Filho will report on the reform of secondary education in the Chamber

Federal deputy Mendonça Filho (União-PE) was chosen to report on the Lula government’s bill that proposes changes to the secondary education reform, reversing several points of the project approved in 2017. Mendonça Filho was Minister of Education in the former government. President Michel Temer when the secondary education reform was presented in 2016, which at the time caused a strong reaction from teacher and student unions, with the occupation of more than 800 schools in the country.

Mendonça Filho’s appointment is not well received by the government base in the Chamber of Deputies, interested in revoking points of interest of the unions. The unions want, for example, the return of the encyclopedic curriculum of 14 subjects (to maintain the need to hire more teachers, which will result in a more superficial curriculum in all of them) and the prohibition of hiring teachers with notorious knowledge (technicians who could teach students in professional courses), to force the hiring of traditional teachers who have graduated from colleges, even without experience in technical topics.

The government’s proposal to change these and other points was forwarded to Congress on October 26th, by minister Camilo Santana. According to the Ministry of Education (MEC), the text presented was prepared based on the public consultation carried out in June and July this year. The result of the virtual consultation was released by the MEC in early August.

The PL presented by the MEC revokes the so-called training itineraries, the possibility for the student to choose an area of ​​knowledge to delve deeper into, as occurs in other countries. In its place are the In-depth and Integration of Studies Pathways, with a shorter workload (to make room for the 14 subjects) and, therefore, detrimental to students who would like to pursue technical education. Each school must offer at least two deepening and integration of studies until the beginning of the 2025 academic year.

The PL presented by the MEC also includes the Spanish language obligatory in all education networks within three years. The text also suggests prohibiting the use of distance education, a modality used in difficult-to-access places, such as the interior of the Amazon.