Understand the proposals for the new high school – 12/19/2023 – Education

The Chamber of Deputies may vote this Tuesday (19), in plenary, on the bill that changes the secondary education reform. The text that will be analyzed is by deputy Mendonça Filho (União-PE), who was Minister of Education when the changes to the school curriculum were approved in 2017, under the Michel Temer (MDB) government.

Temer’s reform proposed making teaching more flexible, with the division of the curriculum into a common part, focused on basic subjects (such as Portuguese and mathematics), and a diversified part, with areas of in-depth study that would be chosen by the students.

The practice, however, was tumultuous. Since the implementation of the new format became mandatory, in 2022, a series of problems have occurred, reported in reports from the Sheet: students complain about having lost class time in traditional subjects; itineraries generate content disconnected from the curriculum; and schools do not offer a range of itinerary options, with cases even involving draws among students.

Faced with criticism and pressure from students, educators and specialists, the Lula (PT) government sent a bill to Congress providing, among other adjustments, to increase the workload of traditional subjects and limit the offer of itineraries to avoid the profusion of options.

The deputies, however, presented a substitute for the government text, with Mendonça as rapporteur. The new proposal stipulates an increase in the workload of basic general training, but below what Lula’s team desired. The deputy’s argument is that the problems arising from the reform were not caused by the model approved in 2017, but rather by failures in the coordination of the MEC during the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government and difficulties in the pandemic.

Last Wednesday (13), deputies approved, by 351 votes to 102, that the project must be processed urgently — that is, it goes directly to the plenary, without undergoing analysis in the House’s thematic committees. The text can be discussed this Tuesday.

Understand the models for high school below:

Secondary education reform 2017

• 60% of the common workload with regular subjects, such as Portuguese and mathematics
• 40% formed by optional

What are the itineraries:

• Mathematics and its technologies
• Languages ​​and their technology
• Natural sciences and their technologies
• Applied human and social sciences
• Technical and professional training

Lula government project (Oct.2023)

• 80% of the common workload with regular subjects
• 20% formed by optional

What are the itineraries:

• Languages, Mathematics and Natural Sciences
• Languages, Mathematics and Human and Social Sciences
• Languages, Human and Social Sciences and Natural Sciences
• Mathematics, Human and Social Sciences and Natural Sciences

Schools will only be required to offer two of them

How is technical education?
If the offer is professional education, there is a possibility that the common part will be 2,200 hours, with the remainder allocated to this training

Chamber Project (Dec.2023)

• 70% of the common workload with regular subjects
• 30% formed by optional

What are the itineraries:

• Mathematics and its technologies
• Languages ​​and their technology
• Natural sciences and their technologies
• Applied human and social sciences
• Technical and professional training

How is technical education?
The text opens up the possibility of allocating 300 hours of the common load to deepen technical education content. Thus, with this modality as an itinerary, the 1,200 hours planned for technical training would be completed