Prosecution investigates digital book at school – 08/03/2023 – Education

The Public Prosecutor’s Office of São Paulo launched a civil inquiry to investigate the decision of the Tarcísio de Freitas government (Republicans) to use only digital books, and no longer printed ones, in state schools from the 6th year onwards.

When opening the inquiry, prosecutor Fernanda Peixoto Cassiano questioned the fact that, with this decision, the government opted to give up R$ 120 million that it would receive from the National Textbook Program (PNLD). This is the first time that São Paulo has been excluded from the program, designed to buy textbooks for the states with funds from MEC’s ​​National Fund for the Development of Education.

In a letter to be sent to the São Paulo State Department of Education, the prosecutor mentioned the fact that the government announced that it would be responsible for preparing the didactic content and demanded information about who the people and companies would be that would prepare this material. , in addition to costs.

He also questioned whether this decision would not affect “the pluralism of ideas and pedagogical concepts, as well as social, regional and cultural peculiarities”.

Fernanda Cassiano also asked for a response on the pedagogical impacts of adopting digital-only works, as well as on the harm caused by the excessive use of technology in childhood and adolescence. She cited a Unesco report on the subject and suggested a postponement of the decision for the deepening of the debate.

The government will have ten days to answer the questions. The prosecutor stated that legal measures could be taken.

Sought by the report, the São Paulo Secretary of Education stated that it has not yet been officially notified and that it will provide the necessary clarifications as soon as this happens.

In an interview with Sheet, the Secretary of Education, Renato Feder, stated that the intention of standardizing the content is to improve the quality of teaching, as, according to him, this will facilitate the training of teachers and the application of the Prova Paulista, which is the same for all the schools. He also criticized the quality of the PNLD books, stating that they are superficial.

As shown to Sheet in a report on Monday (7/31), the government of São Paulo chose not to adhere to the PNLD for fundamental 2 (6th to 9th grade) and informed that it would do the same with secondary education.

As of 2024, only digital books produced by the Department of Education will be used for students in state schools from the 6th grade onwards.

The measure was heavily criticized by educators interviewed by the Sheetwho questioned both the abandonment of the use of printed books and the fact that the government standardizes the material and controls the content, which ends, according to them, with the plurality of ideas.

For experts, digital books do not favor the retention of content in the same way as printed ones, in addition to leading children and adolescents to even greater screen consumption.

There is also great concern about the fact that part of the population of São Paulo does not have access to the internet and computers. About that, Feder said that schools could print the books for students who need it. But this is a complicated way out, according to teachers interviewed by Sheetbecause there is a lack of paper and a printer in many schools, and students lose single sheets.