Senate approves project that creates scholarships for high school students – 12/20/2023 – Education

The Federal Senate approved this Wednesday (20) a bill that creates a scholarship to encourage students to remain in high school.

The House did not change what arrived from the Chamber and now it goes to the Presidency of the Republic for sanction. The text was approved after a symbolic vote, when votes were not counted.

The project provides for monthly payments for high school students and also the creation of a savings account that can be withdrawn by the student upon completing the stage.

The objective of the project, a priority for the administration of the Minister of Education, Camilo Santana, is to reduce dropout rates in secondary education, which reaches 8.8% in the first year.

The MEC (Ministry of Education) estimate is that 2.5 million students could benefit from the project. This is the number of students enrolled in CadÚnico, the registry adopted for social programs such as Bolsa Família, and low-income students enrolled in secondary education.

To be entitled to the benefit, students will have minimum school attendance requirements of 80%, approval at the end of each year and participation in MEC assessments, such as Enem.

The text does not set the value of the scholarship to be received, but an agreement with the government determines that it will be R$200 per month for ten months. The savings in turn will be R$1,000 per year until the end of high school.

To finance the measures, a private fund will be created in which the Union will be able to contribute up to R$20 billion.
The project was sent to Congress as an MP (Provisional Measure), but the president of the Chamber determined that the text would expire and in its place a project authored by federal deputy Tabata Amaral (PSB-SP) would be voted on.

In the Senate, it was reported by senator Teresa Leitão (PT-PE), who made no changes to the text. In her view, the debate in the Chamber was broad and therefore no changes would be necessary.

“Completion of basic education is essential for employability and income at the individual level and development [do país] in the aggregate”, said the senator.

The idea is that the project will come into effect in 2024 at a cost of R$7 billion. These would also be the values ​​for 2025 and 2026.

The creation of a federal scholarship program in secondary education was a commitment made with the Minister of Planning, Simone Tebet, when she was still a candidate for President in the 2022 elections. Before announcing her support for Lula, Tebet made incorporation a condition of this promise to the PT government program.