Reorganization of ministries ignores indigenous education – 05/30/2023 – Education

The provisional measure of the Lula government (PT) that reorganizes the ministries ignored the existence of indigenous education and removed from the MEC (Ministry of Education) historical attributions of the portfolio, with rural education and human rights.

There is not even a provision in the text for articulation with the ministry on these topics. The measure also points out that the MEC has among its competences “education in general”, a term foreign to the legal system of the area.

The processing of Provisional Measure No. 1,154 has caused wear and tear on the government in relation to changes made in Congress that represented an emptying of the role of the ministries of the Environment and Native Peoples. However, the changes that impact MEC’s ​​performance and legal attributions are from the original text edited by President Lula’s team in January.

These changes were ignored by MEC members over these months. The Minister of Education, Camilo Santana, never spoke on the subject.

A provisional measure has the force of law when enacted, but needs to be considered by Congress. This text, which created and recreated folders, expires this Wednesday (31).

Indigenous education is completely forgotten in the text. Education in the countryside, one of the great challenges of the educational system, appears among the areas of responsibility of the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Family Agriculture.

Human rights education policies also do not appear under the MEC or with articulation with the portfolio. This topic is under the responsibility of the Human Rights and Citizenship portfolio.

The text of the provisional measure also does not mention quilombola education. Attributions such as sustainable rural development, identification and recognition are with the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Family Agriculture. Policies for the protection of quilombos appear under the umbrella of the Ministry of Racial Equality.

The Civil House did not respond to questions in the report, such as the question whether members of Education participated in the elaboration of the text or in the discussion of the theme in Congress. The Secretariat for Institutional Relations of the Presidency also did not comment.

The MEC said, in a note, that it is working to include a technical adjustment for improvement, through a wording amendment, so that the text reflects all the modalities provided for in the LDB (Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação).

As the provisional measure is converted into law, the text particularly empties the actions played within a subfolder recreated in the MEC by the Lula government with a focus on indigenous education, in the countryside, quilombola, human rights, in addition to special education.

This is Secadi (Department of Continuing Education, Youth and Adult Literacy, Diversity and Inclusion). This subfolder has a directorate for “Education Policies for the Countryside, Indigenous Peoples and for Ethnic-Racial Relations”.

The recreation of this subfolder, which had been extinguished in the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, was celebrated by members of the current management.

Researcher João Marcelo Borges, from the Center for the Development of Public Management and Educational Policies at FGV, says that the text creates a mess by redistributing MEC’s ​​historical attributions without providing for articulation with the portfolio.

“Civil society, the press and part of the government reacted to the movements that hit the ministries of the Environment and Native Peoples, but nobody was touched on education. It is very worrying and it seems that the herd is passing in education”, he says, who identified changes and gaps.

Borges also draws attention to the use of the term “general education” in the part of MEC’s ​​competences. “Apart from the legislative bizarreness, education in general would be what? If the norm defines ‘in general’, a control body or even the citizen can demand from the MEC things that are not within the scope of the portfolio”, he says.

“It seems that no one has read it, because it impacts MEC’s ​​historical attributions, a folder that is not new”.

Other points in the text may cause problems for the government to act. The Racial Equality department, for example, is responsible for coordinating and monitoring the implementation of affirmative action policies.

“Are we going to have bodies with competences to evaluate education policies without foreseeing articulation with MEC? Is the Ministry of Racial Equality going to usurp part of the work of the Secretariat for Monitoring and Evaluation of Public Policies and Economic Affairs of the Ministry of Planning?”, asks Borges.

The Lula government is working to ensure that the text is voted the way it is. A Sheet showed on Monday night (29) that, given the fear that the provisional measure that restructures the Esplanada dos Ministérios will be altered or, at worst, lose its validity, political articulators of the Lula government (PT) act to keep the text unchanged approved last week in a joint committee in Congress.

Although ministers Rui Costa (Casa Civil) and Alexandre Padilha (Secretary of Institutional Relations) have stated last Friday (26) that they would act in Parliament to return functions to the Ministries of the Environment and Indigenous Peoples, emptied in the commission, the assessment of allies is that any attempt to modify the MP would increase the risk of it becoming invalid.

Changes in educational issues have so far not been cited by government officials.