Senate approves education guidelines in comprehensive education; text goes to the Chamber

The Senate plenary approved, this Tuesday (12), a project that establishes standards for the implementation of full-time education. The project, which originated in the Jovem Senador program, was approved in the form of a substitute presented by the rapporteur, senator Professor Dorinha Seabra (União-TO). The text goes to the Chamber of Deputies.

PLS 756/2015 amends the National Education Guidelines and Bases Law (LDB – Law 9,394, of 1996). Proposed by five young senators in 2014, the text was analyzed and approved by the Human Rights Commission (CDH), which transformed it into a bill.

Originally, the project suggested eight hours of school activities per day. Dorinha’s text, approved by the Senate, determines that students in this modality must spend at least seven hours a day or 35 hours a week at school. According to the rapporteur, the LDB already establishes the workload present in the substitute.

In the report, Dorinha explains that there are differences between the concepts of “full-time education” and “full-time school”. According to the rapporteur, the first corresponds to a perspective that encompasses physical, emotional and cultural aspects. The second is linked to the increase in workload “due to pedagogical projects aimed at integral education itself”.

“Last year, we voted on a federal government full-time school program, which, in fact, is a one-off program. And our goal here, with this guideline, is to define, more than an extended day, what are the conditions for comprehensive education to expand”, explained Dorinha.

Political-pedagogical project

The project also defines the creation of a “political-pedagogical” project that includes the construction of an integrated curricular matrix. To promote comprehensive education, areas of sports, culture, environment, science and technology, leisure, health, social assistance, human rights and professional education are included.

The proposal also includes suitable school infrastructure, with spaces suitable for the development of pedagogical activities, including classrooms, library, laboratories, courts, multipurpose rooms, recreation and social areas, among others. In addition to adequate teaching and technological resources in educational establishments.

Under the approved substitute, there is the possibility of partnerships with associations and institutions of higher and professional education, as well as cultural, sporting, ecological, scientific, leisure, health, social assistance and human rights defense entities.

“We have to have a new concept of school building, because there have to be activity hours, there has to be family support and the teacher has to prepare his classes. The bill says that this can be done together with society in the sports area, in the cultural area, in the technological area, in professionalization. That’s the way, I would say. It’s the way to do it together with society”, said senator Flávio Arns (PSB-PR), who defended more investments in education.

Current reality

The number of enrollments in full-time education in Brazil increased and reached a level of 21.7% last year, according to data from the 2023 School Census, released by the Ministry of Education (MEC) and the National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira (Inep), this Thursday (22).

The initiative to expand full-time education was a banner embraced by the Minister of Education, Camilo Santana, since he took charge of the department.

The federal government launched the Full-Time School Program last year to increase the number of enrollments in this modality. According to the MEC, the program has an investment of R$4 billion, and the objective is to increase the number of full-time enrollments in basic education schools across Brazil by 3.2 million by 2026.

The measure may have some positive points, such as mitigating young people’s contact with crime, but researchers and education experts warn about the ineffectiveness of full-time learning, the exorbitant expenses to the detriment of the low benefit that this type of education entails, and for the error of focus, which should be on the quality of teaching offered, and not on the number of hours in the classroom.

*With information from Agência Senado