The debate on secondary education reform – 04/12/2023 – Cida Bento

The expansion of inequalities, mainly socioeconomic and racial, is a recurring argument of the social segments against the implementation of the New Secondary School (NEM), since public schools will hardly have the physical and human conditions to offer training itineraries (subjects and flexible projects , by area of ​​knowledge, other than the traditional ones existing until then), proposed by the reform.

The precarious condition of students belonging to the poor, black, indigenous, quilombola and northern region populations has been invariable throughout the history of Brazilian basic education.

According to IBGE, the high school dropout rate in 2020 was 7.6%. This number represents approximately 401,000 young people, aged between 15 and 17, who stopped attending school. The same study indicates that the school dropout rate among young people from the black population was almost double (9.1%) the rate among young people from the white population (4.9%).

The difficulties of access, permanence and proficiency, especially for young people belonging to populations that have been made vulnerable throughout the country’s history, need to be at the center of the debate on the New Secondary Education.

The IBGE points out that, in 2020, only 51.7% of young people from the black population between 15 and 17 years old attended high school, compared to 64.5% of young people from the white population in the same age group.

It is by understanding that these variables were little considered and that there are inconsistencies in the implementation of the NEM that groups opposed to the reform point out that it will deepen educational inequalities.

On the other hand, the most recurrent argument of the group in favor of the reform is that it presents itself as an alternative to high school dropout rates and low student performance.

This intense and heated debate surrounds the reform of secondary education in Brazil, sanctioned by provisional measure in 2017, by the Temer government, and which entered into force in 2022.

Several state governments are against the complete repeal of the New Secondary School. However, many of them do not rule out the possibility of broadening the debate on how the NEM should be.

It is essential to point out that data on inequalities in secondary education are repeated in any other educational stage or level of education, as socioeconomic and ethnic-racial inequalities are chronic, historical and structural situations in education in the country.

And these inequalities, in times of crisis, get worse. In the private network, 88.2% studied remotely during the two years that Brazil continued in the pandemic – twice the percentage of public education.

Half of young people studying in public schools only had their cell phones to follow classes online, and two thirds of students in public schools said they did not have an adequate space to attend classes nor did they receive support from the state or municipal government, such as internet or electronic equipment for this purpose (Inesc, 2021).

The universal secondary education policy, desired by governments and society in general, to be effectively implemented, requires affirmative action that considers socioeconomic, ethnic-racial, gender and regional conditions.

And, for this, it is essential that a broad and democratic debate takes place involving interested sectors and segments, in particular from organized civil society, with a view to ensuring the provision of a secondary education with equity and quality for all people who seek access to it. it.

Under these conditions, it will be possible to build a qualified entry of our youth into the world of work, so that the challenges surrounding the accelerated implementation of new technologies, the bioeconomy and the persistent precariousness of working conditions in the country can be faced.

This column was written with Antonio Carlos Billy Malachias, geographer and consultant for the Education Program at Ceert (Center for the Study of Labor Relations and Inequalities).

PRESENT LINK: Did you like this text? Subscriber can release five free hits of any link per day. Just click the blue F below.