Mendonça says he will not serve Lula’s interests

Federal deputy Mendonça Filho (União-PE) stated that he will not meet the corporatist interests of the unions in relation to the changes to the new secondary education. After facing pressure to revoke the new secondary education, the Lula government presented a bill that met part of the demands. Mendonça, rapporteur of the proposal in the Chamber of Deputies, spoke to People’s Gazette which must maintain the main points of the law in force. In the Education Committee this Wednesday (6), the parliamentarian reinforced that he should not comply with the common general training hours suggested by the Ministry of Education (MEC), nor the ban on teachers with notorious knowledge nor the mandatory Spanish language.

High school issues have been debated for years. The first year of this stage of basic education is the year with the highest school dropout, failure and change of students to young adult education (EJA), according to data from the 2022 School Census. In 2017, the new secondary education was established in an attempt to make it more attractive to the student, in addition to being an opportunity to prepare them for the job market they will face upon completing the stage.

The changes approved in 2017 are considered by experts as a great opportunity to strengthen technical education in Brazil, such as People’s Gazette already shown. Current legislation allows students to dedicate part of their time to learning a new profession while still at school. But, due to pressure from unions, Lula’s proposal goes in the opposite direction. The number of professional courses that can be taken is limited with the possible reduction in the workload for technical training, as suggested by the Lula government’s proposal. This is because there is a need to make the hours allocated for both professional education and common general training compatible.

“Maintain the foundations and pillars of secondary education reform”, promises Mendonça

“I will work to maintain the foundations and pillars of secondary education reform. We can’t see a reality as tragic as this, with such crystal-clear evidence, and retreat,” Mendonça Filho told People’s Gazette. The Pisa 2022 data, released last Tuesday (5), supports the parliamentarian’s speech. The international assessment measures the knowledge application skills of 15-year-old students from more than 80 countries and economies. Brazil is among the worst in the world, stagnant since 2009.

For students who choose the vocational course during high school, the current law allocates 1800 hours for common general training and 1200 hours for technical education. Lula would like the common general training to have 2100 hours and 800 hours remaining for the technical course. Courses such as mechatronics, digital game programming and computer graphics, for example, have more than 1000 hours of workload and are unfeasible to be taken during high school. Mendonça stated that he could increase the burden of common general training than is currently in force, but it will certainly be less than that suggested by Lula’s Education Minister, Camilo Santana.

Another point under discussion is the MEC’s ​​attempt to prohibit the hiring of teachers with only notorious knowledge. Lula’s proposal wants only teachers with a degree to be in the classroom. Mendonça stated that, in the area of ​​technical education, he will not give in. “There are no specialist teachers with any other type of training who can meet the needs of Brazilian technical education. Are we going to make technical education unfeasible to satisfy the corporatism of some?”, he asked.

A People’s Gazette, the deputy stated that “the government is very susceptible and co-opted by corporatism. This is one of the problems of the Brazilian public sector and in education it is an even more present aspect.” Despite believing that part of the changes that education needs involves teacher training, Mendonça emphasized that his priority is to guarantee education that keeps students in school and is capable of preparing them for the job market. “My focus is the student. It’s children and young people. As long as we think about education without the student being the main actor, we will have the wrong objectives.”

To top it off, Mendonça made it clear that, in his opinion, he will not make Spanish a mandatory subject. The current curriculum already has English as a mandatory foreign language. “The fight to please segments and corporations is an easy fight. It would be so simple for me to say that Spanish is incorporated. I can put it as preferential, established from state networks, but not as a mandatory national policy”, explained the parliamentarian.

The changes must be voted on by next Tuesday (12)

Deputy Mendonça Filho held the position of Minister of Education under former president Michel Temer and headed the team that presented the provisional measure for the new secondary education, back in 2017. Now, as federal deputy, he was appointed by Arthur Lira (PP-PI ) rapporteur of Lula’s bill.

The bill, prepared by the Ministry of Education, was presented in October on an urgent basis. In other words, the text will not go through the committees, but will only be discussed and voted on in the plenary of the two Legislative Houses. The deadline for it to be considered by the Chamber of Deputies is December 12th, next Tuesday. If it is not appreciated, the House’s agenda will be blocked until the new high school project is voted on.

Government base deputy Glauber Braga (PSOL-RJ) criticized President Arthur Lira and the MEC himself. “It is an affront for Congressman Mendonça Filho to be appointed rapporteur, since he was the creator of the new high school way back when,” he stated. He complained about the lack of time to discuss a project of this importance and said he would demand it from the government itself.

“The government has the solution: remove constitutional urgency. Then there is no longer a deadline to vote until next week. Second, it issues a provisional measure revoking it. The government has in its hands the possibility of putting an end to this joke that is being proposed by deputy Mendonça Filho”, said Braga.