Tarcísio de Freitas will expand civic-military education in SP – 07/12/2023 – Education

In a note published this Wednesday night (12) on Twitter, the governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans), announced that he will expand the program of civic-military schools in the state.

This decision is contrary to what was announced by the Lula government (PT) earlier in the day, that the MEC (Ministry of Education) began the process of total extinction of the federal program that was the banner of the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) administration. The MEC sent a letter to the education departments to initiate the transition of schools to this model and remove military personnel from schools.

“I was a student at Colégio Militar and I know the importance of quality education and how the school needs to convey correct values ​​to our young people. The government of São Paulo is going to issue a decree to regulate its own program of civic-military schools and expand teaching units with this format throughout the state”, said the governor.

In addition to São Paulo, the governments of the Federal District and Paraná also announced the maintenance of the program. The governor of Paraná, Ratinho Júnior (PSD), will continue with the 12 schools linked to Pecim (National Program of Civic-Military Schools) and another 194 civic-military schools implemented by the state program.

In the Federal District, Governor Ibaneis Rocha (MDB) also announced that he will maintain the 12 teaching units of shared management between the Secretary of Education and the Secretary of Public Security, in addition to four others in partnership with the federal government.

The three governors supported Jair Bolsonaro in last year’s election, and both Tarcísio and Ratinho had their names speculated as possible candidates for the Planalto in 2026.

Regarding the decision of the MEC, there is no forecast for closing units. What will happen is the end of this federally supported model. Teaching networks in the states can maintain the format with their own resources, if they so wish — exactly what São Paulo, Paraná and the Federal District did.

The MEC document distributed since Monday (10) says that the “progressive closure of the program” was decided after evaluating the measure. The idea is for the program to end at the end of the school year, with the withdrawal of Armed Forces personnel working in schools.

“From this definition, a process of demobilization of the Armed Forces personnel involved in its implementation and allocated in the educational units linked to the Program will begin, as well as the gradual adoption of measures that allow the end of the school year within normality necessary for work and educational activities”, says the text.

The Ministry of Defense also agreed with the MEC’s ​​decision.

At the beginning of the year, the government extinguished an undersecretary that had been created during the Bolsonaro administration to take care of the issue. The Minister of Education during the Lula administration, Camilo Santana, had already indicated that he would not support the measure, but there was still a lack of definition on how the schools would look in the model.

In it, reserve soldiers, as well as military police and firefighters, work in the administration of the school. Unlike purely military schools, which are fully managed by the Army, in this design, the Education departments remain responsible for the school curriculum, but students must wear uniforms and follow rules defined by the military.

The PT is mostly against the model. But there are also those who defend the government in the party and in the subtitles that support the government.

This lack of definition that lasted the first half of 2023 was fueling both criticism of militarization and demands from those who are in favor of it. In Congress, Camilo repeated to congressmen that, in addition to the model not being aligned with government policy, there would be a deviation from the purpose of using education resources to pay military personnel.

A decree that will regulate the extinction should be published in the coming days. There will be the repeal of the act that created this policy under Bolsonaro.