Schools try to overcome uncertainties in high school – 10/01/2023 – Education

The uncertainty about what high school will look like from next year has given pedagogical coordinators, teachers, students and their families a headache. Given the Lula (PT) government’s delay in defining changes in this stage of education, private schools are pivoting to planning for 2024.

To make matters worse, there are also doubts about what will happen to the Enem (National High School Exam), the main gateway to higher education.

The problem is that there are many possible scenarios, and each school deals with uncertainty in a different way. Some prefer to leave everything as it is and only start thinking about changes from the moment the law changes. Others try to format their CV by focusing on the changes they consider most likely. And planning becomes a game of chess, an equation that is beyond indeterminate.

Approved by the government of Michel Temer (MDB) in 2017, the new secondary education came into force, under Jair Bolsonaro (PL), in 2022, with 1,800 hours for basic training (regular subjects such as mathematics, Portuguese, etc.) and 1,200 hours for itineraries formative (the student chooses an area in which they want to delve deeper; there are no limits to the creation of itineraries by schools).

The Lula government, mobilized by criticism from teachers and students, revoked the implementation calendar for the new secondary education and prepared a bill that increases the workload of regular subjects to 2,400 (as it was before the new secondary education) and limits the number of itineraries (there should be two or three).

This bill will be sent to Congress for a vote. But there are a number of uncertainties about when these changes will come into effect.

Last week, the Minister of Education, Camilo Santana, stated that nothing would change in 2024 in the curriculum and that the Enem would only be changed in 2025 — the exam is still in the old high school format, without taking into account the new itineraries .

Afterwards, however, he backed down and said that “if schools and education networks can make changes in time, they can make [já no ano que vem]”.

“This insecurity about the model is uncomfortable,” he told Sheet Antônio Eugênio Cunha, president of the National Federation of Private Schools (Fenep). “We are advising schools to continue their pedagogical projects until the law is changed,” he said. “When there is a definition, even if it is at the last minute, around November, private schools will find a way to adapt quickly, which is more difficult for public schools, and this only increases the gap in education.”

Pedagogical coordinator of the Lyceum of Arts and Crafts of São Paulo, Adenilson Bezerra, agrees. “The school is aware of the changes that the MEC will define and has all the conditions to reorganize itself if they are to be implemented in 2024.”

The Liceu is considering operating with two different curricula: a new one, with changes from the MEC, for the 1st year of 2024, and the one currently in force for the 2nd and 3rd years.

But there are schools that plan to adjust all grades, like Pioneiro. “For the 1st year, we will follow the new guidelines. In the case of the 2nd and 3rd, we will need to consider the workload already completed for basic training subjects and itineraries and make the necessary adjustments in 2024”, explained the pedagogical coordinator, Selma Alfonsi.

General Director of Rio Branco, Esther Carvalho emphasizes that it is important to define whether the changes will apply to classes that are already attending the new high school. The school has made curricular changes gradually and is available to make “any necessary adjustments so that students are prepared and successful in the entrance exams.”

Carvalho says that there are numerous planning difficulties, especially given the uncertainties regarding Enem. “All these uncertainties create insecurity for students, families and teachers. We are talking about a privileged context, with all the infrastructure.”

Depending on each school’s curriculum, which has been very different from each other since 2022, with the implementation of the new secondary education, adjustments may be easier.

“Our option was to work in modules and, as a result, we have the flexibility to add or remove part of the itineraries”, explains Marina Nunes, director of high school at Santa Cruz. Each semester, basic training classes are interrupted for two weeks so that students can join their itineraries.

This work is done with the same teachers as regular subjects. If it is necessary to reduce the itineraries, teachers simply continue with the regular subjects during the two weeks.

Schools that chose to maintain the 1st year with a greater focus on basic education subjects and left the itineraries more for the 2nd and 3rd years should readapt more easily. This is the case of Escola Nossa Senhora das Graças, better known as Gracinha.

“In the 1st year, the basic training hours are much greater than the itineraries so that students take different classes before choosing which area to delve into”, says the high school pedagogical advisor, Paulo Rota.

In some schools, the option has been to go ahead with the new secondary education in planning for 2024, given the delay in defining the changes. “There is no school planning in October, November. The ideal is that we have at least a year in advance to make a greater adjustment of the route”, says Maria Eduarda Sawaya, president of the Brazilian Association of Private Schools (Abepar), which brings together schools in São Paulo from elite, such as Bandeirantes, Santa Cruz, Magno and Beacon.

At Magno, the pedagogical team discusses possible scenarios, but considers that, for 2024, there would only be time for small adjustments, not for major changes. “We don’t make abrupt changes, education doesn’t work like that”, says the director, Claudia Tricate. “We cannot stay at the whim of change,” she criticizes.

Pedagogical coordinator at Carandá Educação, André Meller follows the same line. “These are changes that require a significant amount of time to be discussed and implemented. It is not feasible for them to be decided in November/December for implementation in the following academic year.”

Precisely for this reason, Equipe defined that, in 2024, all classes will have the curriculum currently in force, of the new high school.