Schools criticize suspension of secondary education reform – 04/04/2023 – Panel SA

Fenep, the federation that represents private schools, is considering going to court against the decision of the Minister of Education, Camilo Santana, to suspend the schedule for implementing the new secondary education and changes in the Enem.

“Evidently there will be judicialization of this minister’s decision. And it will not be little. It is not just Fenep. Unfortunately, we will have to call the Justice to be the arbiter of this issue”, says Amabile Pacios, vice-president of the entity.

According to her, schools are not going to “give up and go back, because there’s no way to do that”. Pacios says that the way out indicated by the sector at this moment is that the government announces a transitional Enem in 2024 to wait for adjustments in the high school curriculum.

“We renovated the BNCC [Base Nacional Comum Curricular] and it gave high school a terminality, including technical-professionalizing, but high school continues to be based a lot on the Enem. If you make the Enem a mess that nobody understands, the college may not want the exam anymore”, says Pacios.

For Mauro Aguiar, member of the advisory board of Abepar (Brazilian Association of Private Schools) and director of Colégio Bandeirantes, the situation creates insecurity, not only for schools, but also for teachers, families and the ministry itself.

“There’s this huge cacophony from the government, everyone giving their opinion. When you consult the ministry’s basic education area, they don’t even want to talk. They’re insecure too. There’s a political pressure that has nothing to do with education and it starts to confuse the ministry itself to the point of not being able to guide and give direction”, he says.

Aguiar warns of the Brazilian backwardness. “When you reach adolescence, the cognitive and interest differences are very large. Presenting a curriculum with only one possibility is insane. Nobody does that in the world. Brazil is a bad counterexample with a rigid structure. The opposing arguments are, for example, , the lack of a specialized teacher, which would be for the fifth itinerary, which is the vocational one. And this is very important for more than 80% of public school students”, he says.

In the opinion of Elizabeth Guedes, president of Anup (association of private universities), the government’s decision represents a setback caused by mere political imposition.

“We understand the difficulties faced now, the complexity of implementation. The government is going to issue an ordinance for 90 days. That’s the time we have to help you”, says Guedes.

According to Celso Niskier, president of Abmes (association of higher education sponsors), the forum that represents the sector’s entities will meet this Wednesday (5) to take a position on the case.

Joana Cunha with Paulo Ricardo Martins It is Diego Felix

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