Teachers already print digital books in schools in SP – 08/03/2023 – Education

Without television or computer in all classrooms, teachers from state schools in São Paulo are distributing to students printed sheets of the so-called digital textbooks of the Tarcísio de Freitas administration (Republicans).

As shown by Sheetthe Department of Education, led by technology entrepreneur, Renato Feder, decided that it will no longer use printed teaching materials in the state network and gave up receiving books from the federal government for the final years of elementary school (from 6th to 9th year) from 2024.

Since April, however, the secretariat has already instructed teachers in all grades (elementary and high school) to use the digital content produced by Feder’s team. A Sheet had access to the material, which consists of a series of slides with content from the disciplines and activities to be developed in the classroom.

In theory, the material should be presented to students on televisions, digital whiteboards or by a projector. As not all classrooms have this equipment, teachers have been instructed to print the slides and deliver them to students so that they can follow the classes.

While teachers improvise the use of didactic material, schools accumulate didactic books, sent by the Ministry of Education, packaged and unused as instructed by the secretariat.

In a note, the Department of Education confirmed that the digital material has already been implemented in the state network in the second quarter of this year, but says that teachers are not obliged to use it.

The folder recognizes that it is still “working so that all schools have the necessary infrastructure” to guarantee access for all students to digital material and that, while this does not happen, the units are authorized to print the contents.

A Sheet, teachers reported that they have been informed by school management that the use of digital material is mandatory. They even need to register in the secretary’s system that they accessed the classes.

A teacher at a school in Fernandópolis said that he has been printing out the slides, which he will use in class, to hand out to the students. He asks them to stick the single sheets in the notebook, but many end up crumpling, losing or even making a folding plane to play with their colleagues.

Another teacher said that there are televisions available to be used in the classrooms of his school in Mogi das Cruzes, but he has also been instructed to deliver printed material so that students can follow during class and then study at home.

According to him, without having written information, many students end up copying the content of the slides in their notebooks, which delays classes.

For João Marcelo Borges, a researcher at FGV’s Center for the Development of Educational Policies, by implementing digital material without providing structural conditions for its use, the secretariat is transferring the cost of implementation to schools and teachers.

“The school will have to assume, with the printing of the material, a cost that was formerly the Union’s responsibility. Printing this volume of material for the students will be charged to the schools, who will have to buy ink, a printer”, he says.

He also highlights the contradiction of the measure, since students will continue to depend on printed materials, but now with precarious printing. “It’s a huge contrast of this fetish with the digital and around the responsibility of the school with the printing of materials, as they did years ago with the mimeograph.”

“The PNLD [Programa Nacional do Livro Didático] it was strengthened over all these years and generated a culture within schools, of care and approximation of students with the book. It is regrettable that São Paulo gives up this practice and goes back to improvising materials, then they will still blame the student for losing or making a ball of paper with the printed sheets”, says Borges.

In a note, the Department of Education said that the digital material was prepared by a specialized technical team, composed of more than one hundred teachers-curriculumists from the network. And that the elaboration process followed the common flow of other editorial productions in the public sphere.

“On average, each material in a class goes through a production cycle of about thirty days,” said the folder.

He also stated that he is working to ensure that “all students can access digital materials, by making notebooks, tablets, smartphones and computers available”. Questioned, the secretariat did not say whether there is an ongoing tender for the purchase of this equipment or if there is a forecast of when they will be available to all students.