PR: new high school could end technical courses – 11/02/2023 – Education

The Secretary of Education of Paraná, Roni Miranda, is trying to convince deputies to change the bill for the new secondary education sent by the Lula (PT) government to Congress. He argues that the mandatory course load for traditional subjects, such as Portuguese and mathematics, should be more flexible for technical and professional courses.

The bill provides for an increase in the workload of traditional subjects and reduces the space in the curriculum in which each student chooses an area of ​​interest to delve deeper into. This specific part of the curriculum is currently called “training itineraries” and, in the bill, was renamed “in-depth paths”.

For the secretary of Paraná, this expansion of traditional subjects is welcome in regular courses, but could put an end to technicians who require more time for specialized learning. He gave as an example of courses that could become unviable: teaching, pharmacy, nursing, digital games, livestock and agriculture, among others.

According to Miranda, only courses in the management area, such as logistics and administration, which require less specialized learning time, fit into the new proposal. According to him, Paraná has 77 thousand students studying technical education, and the government intends to increase this number.

Forwarded last month to Congress, the federal government’s project changes the new secondary education, created by a 2017 law, under the Temer government. Lula responded to criticisms that students and educators have of the current model, which reduced the workload of traditional subjects from 2,400 hours, as it was before, to 1,800.

As the new secondary education now has 3,000 hours in total over the three years of the course, 1,200 hours were allocated to the itineraries. The criticism is that the student fails to learn essential content and gets lost in a series of confusing curricula, with new and disconnected subjects, for which the public network has no structure.

The text forwarded by Lula takes up 2,400 hours for traditional subjects and leaves 600 hours for itineraries. This is in the case of regular education. As for technical courses, it allows, as an exception, a load of 2,100 hours for traditional subjects, leaving more space (900 hours) for specialized learning.

This flexibility, however, is only granted to those courses that are not taught full-time. Furthermore, it defines that, from 2026, courses that require more time for specific subjects must be expanded to full-time.

The text sent to Congress was the result of a public consultation and debates involving entities such as the National Education Council (CNE) and the National Council of Education Secretaries (Consed). Miranda admits that the bill was practically consensual among the secretaries and that he agrees with the new terms, with the exception of the mandatory workload for technical courses.

He fears that the networks will not be able to expand all technical schools to full education due to lack of resources and also because many students need to work and study. Miranda graduated from the public school system in Paraná and says he had to study at night and work as a waiter during the day to help his family financially.

Graduated in history, he became a public school teacher and school director, including at night, and then a regional director, until he was invited by Renato Feder, in 2021, then Secretary of Education of Paraná, to work on his team. With Feder’s move to the São Paulo secretariat this year, Miranda was appointed Secretary of Education by the re-elected governor Ratinho Jr. (PSD).

“Our concern is that, in Brazil, only around 15% of students who complete public school access higher education,” Miranda told Sheet. “Vocational high school is an opportunity for these young people to enter the job market and look for ways to go to college.”

The Lula government admits that the country’s socioeconomic vulnerability is an obstacle to expanding comprehensive secondary schools and announced that it is developing a scholarship program for students from the poorest families.

The bill also provides that education networks will have financial and technical help from the MEC to expand the duration of technical courses in high school. It also mentions the need to guarantee the provision of evening secondary education for young people who need to work, with curricular organization and workload “compatible with different contexts and student needs”.

The Government of Paraná, in turn, has been criticized for closing schools at night, including those that offer courses to non-literate adults.

Miranda says that this closure is related to a reduction in demand and the need to expand full-time schools. He admits that there is “an abyss between the level of learning at night compared to during the day”, states that the dropout rate of those who study at night is up to 200% higher than that of those who study during the day and argues that these courses “should be the exception, not the rule.”