Secretaries of Education are against suspension of secondary education – 04/04/2023 – Education

State Secretaries of Education released a joint note this Tuesday (4) against the suspension of the implementation of the new secondary education and the reform of the Enem, the main gateway for students to higher education.

Pressured by growing criticism from educators and students, the Lula government (PT) is expected to publish in the next few days an ordinance changing the policy’s implementation schedule.

The main practical consequence of this decision is in relation to changes in the Enem format. The current deadline for implementing the reform culminates in a new format for the exam in 2024, when the first class completes the three years of the stage in the new model.

“The new Enem was constituted after a long debate in the working group, suspending the schedule brings a risk of delay that, in the limit, can even make the new Enem unfeasible next year”, says in a note the Consed (National Council of State Secretaries of Education). More than 80% of secondary school enrollments are in state systems.

The secretaries argue that “any decision related to the topic” should only be taken after the conclusion of the public consultation opened by the Ministry of Education. The discussion must be completed within 90 days — a period that is extendable.

In March last year, the CNE (National Council of Education) approved an opinion that defined changes in the Enem from 2024 to adapt it to the changes in the new high school. Thus, candidates would take tests according to the area of ​​knowledge they studied in the optional part of the stage.

The new secondary education was approved in 2017, based on a provisional measure (which accelerates the legislative process), and provides for the organization of the timetable in two parts.

Under the new rules, 60% of the three-year workload is made up of regular subjects, common to all students. The other 40% are allocated to optional subjects within large areas of knowledge, the so-called training itineraries.

The implementation of the new format became mandatory in 2022 and has registered a series of problems. Students mainly complain about having lost class time in traditional subjects.

In addition to having content disconnected from the curriculum, they also say they do not have the option to choose the area of ​​deepening, since the itineraries have been imposed according to each school’s offer condition.

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UNDERSTAND THE NEW HIGH SCHOOL

What is it
Policy approved in 2017, by provisional measure, during Temer (MDB), defined that part of the workload would be chosen by students so that they could deepen their knowledge in the area of ​​greatest interest

Structure
It increased the number of hours of mandatory annual classes for the stage, going from 800 to at least 1,000. Thus, the total workload of secondary education was increased by 25%, from 2,400 to 3,000 hours, as follows:

• 60% reserved for the common workload, with the regular subjects
• 40% formed by electives within five major areas of knowledge, the so-called training itineraries

Limitations
Over the three years of the stage, the time devoted to traditional disciplines cannot exceed 1,800 hours. As before, schools had 2,400 hours to distribute classes in common subjects, in practice, the ceiling reduced the time dedicated exclusively to subjects such as mathematics, Portuguese, history and geography

Definition of itineraries and disciplines
The law says that education networks are free to define which itineraries and disciplines they want to create, as long as they are within one of the five established areas of knowledge

For whom OK
All public and private schools in the country. About 7 million students were impacted by the policy, most of them (about 85%) are enrolled in schools in the state education networks

Deadlines
The law established a period of five years for education networks to prepare, following the following schedule:

• 1st year of high school in 2022
• 2nd year in 2023
• All three years of the stage until 2024

Many networks, however, began implementation earlier, such as the São Paulo state network, which started the process in 2021