PL to change secondary education reaches Congress by September – 08/07/2023 – Education

The Minister of Education, Camilo Santana (PT), promised to submit a bill to the National Congress by the beginning of September to change the reform of secondary education.

The changes proposed by the MEC (Ministry of Education), revealed by the Sheet in the last week, they foresee a reduction by half of the workload of secondary education destined to the diversified part of the curriculum and a reduction from four to two the options of areas of deepening to be chosen by the students —in addition to technical education.

Santana said this Monday (7th), at a press conference in Brasilia, that he has stipulated until August 21st for the MEC to dialogue with educational networks and entities around the proposal. Consed, the body that brings together state education secretaries, had positioned itself against deeper changes in secondary education, but has been in dialogue with the minister.

“By the 21st we will be able to consolidate and finalize the proposal and from then on send it to the National Congress”, said Santana. “We are going to dialogue with both houses of Congress [Câmara e Senado]”.

The government wants the approval of the project in the Legislature by the end of the year.

The minister stated that the Enem will not be changed before 2025. Thus, the exam, which is the main gateway to higher education, will have the same format at least until 2024.

Implemented in 2017, during the Michel Temer (MDB) government, the reform made the high school curriculum more flexible —providing a common part for all students and a diversified part, based on the so-called training itineraries. The implementation has provoked strong complaints from students, professors and specialists, which indicate the infeasibility of applying what is foreseen in the legislation.

Pressured by criticism from educators and students, the Lula government rushed to reduce the government’s weariness with the issue. In April, the MEC issued an ordinance that suspended the implementation schedule for the new secondary education – the main practical effect was to stop the prediction of change in the Enem in 2024. The previous month, the ministry had created a public consultation.

The government avoids talking about repealing the new high school, as critics close to the PT ask. MEC’s ​​proposal attacks problems of the new secondary education, such as the issue of workload, but maintains a certain idea of ​​curricular flexibility in the reform.

The interview with the minister was convened to present the results of online consultations with students and professors, as well as information gathered at meetings and seminars held in recent months. The folder, however, did not reveal the general results, but only trends – which include items such as demand for greater common cargo, interest in professional education and scholarships.

The main complaints about secondary education were related to the offer of subjects with no curricular connection, within the so-called training itineraries, and the reduction of classes with traditional content. The MEC project defines an extension of the obligatory general part, to the detriment of the time foreseen for the diversified part of the itineraries.

The common block of the curriculum, linked to what is foreseen in the National Common Curricular Base, must correspond, according to the MEC proposal, to 80% of the total load in the MEC project —according to the current rules, defined in 2017, it is 60%. This means that the common part is 2,400 hours out of a total of 3,000 hours of classes over the three years.

Taking into account the organization with five hours of daily classes, the model of the PT government results in one day of class per week for classes related to the diversified part. Today, that part represents two days a week.

If professional education is offered, there is a possibility that the common part will be 2,200, with the rest destined for this training.

The 2017 reform defined that the diversified part should be organized into five options: languages, mathematics, human sciences, natural sciences and professional education. One of the obstacles faced by public school students is that there are not, in fact, all these options in schools for students to choose from.

Now, in the new MEC project, only two paths are foreseen, in addition to professional technical education — which remains an option, but currently has a low offer in the country.

The paths would be: 1) languages, mathematics, human and social sciences and their technologies; and 2) languages, mathematics, natural sciences and their technologies. All schools should offer both options, according to the minister.

MEC and Consed should define guidelines on the general content of these two areas. The idea is to put an end to the offer of subjects that are unrelated to the curriculum, as has been happening in some networks.

According to the government, the public consultation would have heard via WhatsApp 102,338 students, 1,075 young people who did not identify themselves as students, 30,274 teachers and 5,480 managers. In addition, another 11,000 people answered an online questionnaire on the federal government’s consultation platform.

In the interview, the minister emphasized that the consultation was able to receive collaborations that went beyond the curriculum issue. There is in the plan of the MEC the provision of actions to improve the infrastructure of the schools and the permanence of students.

The government will develop, according to the draft, a national strategy for student retention, including the granting of financial incentives, prioritizing students who are part of families enrolled in the Bolsa Família register. The creation of grants for high school students is already one of the government’s promises.

The minister also confirmed that more content should be placed as mandatory in the common part. Today, there is talk of mandatory “physical education, art, sociology and philosophy”, in addition to Portuguese and mathematics in all years.

The new text extends this preconization to all areas of knowledge, “including digital culture”. They would be: Portuguese language and literature, foreign languages ​​and literature (with priority given to English and Spanish), art, physical education, mathematics, history, geography, sociology, philosophy, physics, chemistry, biology and “digital culture, computational thinking and information and communication technologies”.

The text still has the forecast to expand full-time high school enrollments, with a minimum total workload of 4,200 hours (seven hours of classes per day). Last month, Lula sanctioned a promotion law for new vacancies with extended working hours in all stages of basic education.