Review of the new high school comes up against old problems – 12/20/2023 – Education

In 2024, the first students who have experienced the secondary education reform from end to end, from the 1st to the 3rd year, will graduate nationally. They should also be the last, as Congress and the federal government prepare a new restructuring, which will be discussed next year to take effect in schools in 2025. This second major change in secondary education in seven years, however, will not attack the main problems of this teaching stage, point out experts consulted by Sheet.

The reform law, sanctioned at the beginning of 2017 by then president Michel Temer (MDB), had as its main novelty the division of the curriculum into common mandatory subjects and optional subjects, called training itineraries. They occupied, respectively, 60% and 40% of teaching hours over the three years, a total of 1,800 and 1,200 hours. The idea was that students would have the freedom to design their path based on what they want to do in the future, the so-called “life project”.

When it arrived at schools, there were cases of itineraries with little connection to the curriculum and drawn among students, without the opportunity to choose as proposed by law. Third-year students also complained about the lack of history, geography, biology, chemistry and physics classes so close to the entrance exam.

Another focus of the project was encouraging technical education, allowing students to leave with a diploma in a specific area after studying the same number of hours as a regular high school; and the promotion of full-time schools (with seven hours a day or more) — a modality that, in the state of São Paulo, surpassed the performance of regular schools in the Saeb (Education Assessment System), as shown in a study by Fernando Vizotto Galvão, PhD in Education from USP.

The New Secondary Education proposed by the MEC (Ministry of Education), sent to Congress in October, has focused its discussions on increasing the workload of common subjects. While the Lula government (PT) defends a minimum of 2,400 hours over the three years, rapporteur Mendonça Filho (União Brasil), former minister of Temer, proposes a lower minimum of 2,100 hours.

Also at the forefront of the debate are training itineraries, in a campaign to bring them closer to the traditional curriculum or professional development. These classes should also change their name, being known as “in-depth and integration of studies paths”. The project report cites excessive options for optional subjects, in the version approved in 2017, and difficulty in implementing them in schools with a lower socioeconomic profile.

Executive president of the NGO Todos pela Educação, Priscila Cruz welcomes the possibility of choice for students, in line with the practices of developed countries, but barring itineraries that, originally, “could be anything”. “Brazilian high school was the closest thing to an industrial process of training students, with no space for projects, no in-depth itinerary. [Essa mudança] it will give space for the different vocations of youth to take place”, she comments, satisfied with rapporteur Mendonça’s changes in this part of the project.

When the topic moves on to students’ more definitive decisions about their future, such as an area of ​​knowledge to be specialized in as early as high school for the rest of their lives, there is some fear among experts. Jhonatan Almada, member of the UNESCO Network of Specialists in Educational Policy, believes that this is too much pressure on an individual who is still in training.

Regarding the implementation of training itineraries, the lack of infrastructure is also highlighted as an obstacle depending on the school. Data from the 2022 School Census, compiled by QEdu, an educational data platform, shows that 57% of regular public schools in the stage do not have a science laboratory, for example, for in-depth itineraries in the area. The disparity in conditions can limit low-income schools to optional ones with few requirements and even increase the gap between public and private education, argues Andressa Pellanda, general coordinator of the National Campaign for the Right to Education.

The course load of basic general education subjects is one of the most divisive issues. Cruz believes that the transition from a ceiling of 1,800 hours, in 2017, to a floor of 2,100 hours, defended by Mendonça, is enough, allowing for expansion if necessary. Pellanda, on the other hand, prefers the minimum of 2,400 hours suggested by Camilo Santana’s (PT) ministry, in addition to disapproving the organization of the subjects that gains strength in the discussions.

The 2017 reform chose to unite traditional subjects (such as arts, physical education, mathematics, geography) into four areas of knowledge: languages ​​and their technologies, mathematics and their technologies, natural sciences and their technologies; and applied human and social sciences. Discussions in Congress tend to maintain this logic, which Pellanda sees as a weakening of important sections for critical thinking such as philosophy and sociology, which would initially be excluded from the curriculum under Michel Temer.

Unlike the project from six years ago, the new reformulation of secondary education will be put into practice without the Covid-19 pandemic and by the same government that will sanction it, which should contribute to its implementation, believes Cruz. In the years leading up to 2022, many of the efforts in national education were aimed at reconciling teaching with the coronavirus crisis.

Despite the mobilization around the New Secondary Education, experts agree that the project will not solve the most serious problems at this stage in the country. The discussion between MEC and Congress focuses, almost entirely, on curriculum changes, without looking at more structural points. Issues such as career plans and good teacher training, infrastructure in schools and plans to ensure student retention are considered more crucial to dealing with problems such as school dropout rates, which reached 6.5% in 2022.

In Almada’s definition, it is a discussion “disconnected from the real school”, which has 32% of schools without libraries and 15% without access to broadband in public secondary education.

Even the R$200 monthly aid for low-income students, approved by the Chamber, is viewed with caution: Almada expects more effectiveness studies and Pellanda regrets the low value. She claims to recognize that the amount can help the most needy students, but “not by far” solves the main problems facing Brazilian secondary education.