What do teachers who announced a strike against the Lula government want?

Salary increase, career restructuring and precarious working conditions are the reasons that lead university professors to go on yet another strike, scheduled for April 15th. Behind the scenes, some of the teachers, supporters of the Lula government, were against the strike to avoid further damage to the president’s image. For the university professors heard by the People’s Gazettethere are other more urgent problems that would deserve the category’s attention, such as the quality of teaching and the low success rate of courses (number of students who manage to graduate).

According to professor at the University of Sergipe Rodorval Ramalho, the assembly rounds at federal universities showed the movement divided between PT and PSOL supporters. According to him, the majority of PT members voted against the strike so as not to further erode President Lula’s image. “The psolists, for their part, wanting to expand their influence in the category and with their limited vision of the structural problems of universities, defended the launch of the strike in all assemblies”, he adds.

“The lack of progress in attempts to negotiate with the government on the category’s central agendas – salary recovery, career restructuring, ‘repeal’ of measures that attack teachers and public education […], in addition to the precariousness of working conditions, led to the decision to launch the paredista movement”, indicates the website of the National Union of Teachers of Higher Education Institutions (Andes-SN). Until April 15th, local assemblies are being organized to confirm adherence to the strike.

“It is very clear that unions have space in the government and, therefore, in a certain way, they feel part of the government. This means that they tend not to adopt a more radical position, which could give rise to the strike ending in a counter-proposal”, says Wiliam Cunha, professor at the University of Brasília.

Higher education has more urgent problems, according to professors

“Technicians’ careers are among the least paid in the federal public service. Teacher salaries, no. The remuneration is considerably good compared to the rest of public servants”, adds Cunha.

According to the salary table that came into effect in May 2023, a full professor at a federal university, with a doctorate and exclusive dedication, receives more than R$22 thousand. An associate professor who works 20 hours, with a doctorate and without exclusive dedication, has a base salary of R$7,451.34. The values ​​disregard benefits such as food assistance, health assistance and transportation assistance.

“In addition to this petty and unacceptable partisan dispute, we are witnessing, once again, an excessive corporate concern on the part of trade unionists, more specifically, a concern about salaries, which, despite being fair, is far from being the center of the problems faced by the federal university system. ”, he reiterates.

According to Ramalho, among the problems, it is necessary to review universities’ funding sources, restructure the “assembly model” of management, improve teacher evaluation criteria and consolidate the distance learning system.

Expansion of vacancies is what gives votes; Lula announced the creation of 100 new campuses

The success rate in courses is also one of the problems that needs the attention of teachers, highlights Ramalho. According to the latest Higher Education Census, released by the National Institute of Studies and Research (Inep) in 2022, the course completion rate is only 40%. In almost 10 years, the dropout rate during graduation went from 11% in 2013 to 58% in 2022.

“I once again state that salary problems are the smallest problems of the system, which was expanded, irrationally, by PT governments that have only one policy, that of expanding vacancies. After all, this is what guarantees votes”, points out Ramalho. Recently, President Lula announced the creation of 100 new campuses of Federal Institutes of Education, Science and Technology. The action foresees an increase of 140 thousand new registrations. “The quality of the courses and even their viability are minor issues for left-wing populism”, he reinforces.

Higher education wants more budget from the MEC

The Annual Budget Law (LOA) of 2024, approved with R$200 million less than the previous year, and the cuts made by the MEC in 2023 displeased the class. Sector representatives were not satisfied with the promise of the Minister of Education, Camilo Santana, to replace R$250 million. The National Association of Directors of Federal Higher Education Institutions (Andifes) wants at least R$2.5 billion more.

Through the LOA, R$40 billion was allocated to federal higher education in 2024. Of the amount, R$6.3 billion corresponds to funding and investments and the other R$33.7 billion is used, almost entirely, to pay civil servants’ salaries . A note on the association’s website says that “Andifes is defending an additional amount of R$ 2.5 billion for this year to restore the cost and investment budget and increase the amount to R$ 8.5 billion, in order to bring it closer to the 2017 budget corrected by the IPCA of the period”. Also according to the text, the president of the entity and dean of the University of Brasília Márcia Abrahão Moura presented the universities’ budgetary difficulties to the minister.

At the same time, it is not difficult to find exorbitant expenses incurred by rectors. Márcia Abrahão herself spent more than R$50,000 on a single trip to participate in an event in Turkey. The dean of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Sandra Regina Goulart, spent R$385,000 on trips in 2023. In total, there were 29 trips to countries such as China, Belarus, Uruguay and Chile.

Of the R$385,000, more than R$133,000 went directly to the dean’s account to cover costs such as accommodation, food and transportation. Information can be found on the federal government’s own travel portal.

By note, UFMG informed that “it has worked to be a strong presence in important international inter-university networks and consortiums, in addition to standing out on the national scene, as the best federal university in the country, and on the international scene as one of the 10 best universities in Latin America and among the 500 best in the world”.

The university also reinforced that Sandra Regina has “active leadership within international university networks” and that all trips undertaken by the rector were approved by the UFMG University Council in compliance with current legislation. The report also contacted UnB, but did not receive a response.

In February, the People’s Gazette published an article with complaints about the misuse of public funds by support foundations, responsible for executing the majority of the universities’ budget. Support foundations, as they are institutions governed by private law, do not need to comply with all the transparency steps adopted by public authorities. Only a report to the state Public Prosecutor’s Office is planned, but, according to sources, it serves to fulfill a mere formality.