What’s at stake in the fight over the new high school

With the imminent presentation of a new bill to change the secondary education reform, the Ministry of Education finds itself in a crossfire: on the one hand, states that have already invested millions in changing the system; on the other, left-wing entities that pressure the government for a revocation due to the corporatist interests of the educational class. Meanwhile, students receive a despicable education, considered one of the worst in the world.

Reconciling students’ interests in favor of learning, reducing school dropout rates and improving educational rates were some of the objectives when discussing the proposal back in 2017. At the time, the Ideb (index used in Brazil to measure the quality of education) showed that students finished the third year knowing less than the average of their peers in other countries. Worse: this picture was the same in the last 12 years.

In the new secondary education, the student will be able to delve deeper into specific subjects and use them when choosing a higher education course or begin technical education, being able to finish the three grades by practicing a profession. This is already happening in countries like Chile, considered the best education in South American countries, according to the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA).

That’s the theory. In practice, the Ministry of Education has faced major challenges in implementing it, which began at least six years ago, when former president Michel Temer signed a provisional measure that established the new secondary education. The MP was approved by the National Congress and became law.

Implementation was scheduled for 2020, the year of the covid-19 pandemic. In Brazil, schools were closed and the scenario was not the best for the planned changes. Thus, the federal government, at the time already commanded by President Jair Bolsonaro, did not draw up guidelines for the states – which, in the division of responsibilities of the education systems, is mainly responsible for secondary schools.

Without guidance from the federal government, states began to organize the necessary changes. With such different realities, the current panorama is one of discrepant levels of implementation in each part of the country. While there are states that want to offer 28 training itineraries – path options for students to follow -, others will only be able to offer three.

An audit by the Federal Court of Auditors highlighted several obstacles that the MEC will need to face: a race against time due to delays in execution, changes in strategies to focus on results, dealing with a smaller budget than expected. These are some of the numerous difficulties highlighted by the TCU.

To complete, a great resistance of basic educational entities for the changes. National Confederation of Education Workers (CNTE), National Union of Students (UNE) and numerous unions have opposed the changes. Under pressure, the MEC decided to suspend the implementation of the new high school for 60 days, through an ordinance. This time will allow the federal government to talk to the base in an attempt to reach an agreement, in addition to organizing the work to be more effective.

The MEC is drafting a bill to present to the National Congress later this month. The text must contain relevant changes to the law that originated in Temer’s MP. The first is in relation to working hours, which was 1,800 hours in the three years and will increase to 2,400 hours. The basic subjects must also be expanded.

What will be assessed in Enem?

The federal government did not provide concrete information on what the changes would look like for Enem, the admission test for several universities in Brazil. “We have been working for two years without knowing what will be on next year’s Enem”, complains Bruno Eizerik, director of the National Federation of Private Schools (Fenep).

Behind the scenes, the MEC signals that changes to the exam will only take place in 2025. Which, according to experts, would be more prudent, given that the calendar for the year 2024 has already begun to be drawn up in several states.

Side A: “corporatist interests”

“Corporatist interests” was the term used by education specialist Cláudia Costin when talking about the main criticisms of trade unionists. With the changes in the new high school, teachers will have reduced subject offerings. Furthermore, they will need to train themselves to go beyond basic training and deliver multidisciplinary content, offering itineraries that spark interest in the student. That is, they will need to invest time and money to develop with a lower salary, given the reduction in hours worked.

Cláudia hopes that parliamentarians will once again reduce the number of hours and mandatory subjects planned. “The federal government allocated an excessive number of hours for basic general training, to guarantee all subjects such as philosophy, sociology, chemistry, physics – due to the teaching workload -, and very little time for in-depth areas. In practice, this means that the student will not delve into almost anything.”

For Bruno Eizerik, the new secondary education is only being stopped for political reasons, as the PT government would not like to displease its political base, which are the unions.

“Brazil does not spend little on education, it spends poorly on education. If you have the political will, make it happen. The old high school, the new high school, the “new new high school” [se referindo a proposta do governo atual]with political will and education being taken as a priority, it will happen”, he highlighted.

Side B: education in Brazil needs to advance

Costin and Eizerik are clear that revoking should not be an option for the government. “Just over two billion reais were spent on implementing the new secondary education, with teacher training, publications, adjustments to textbooks. Revoking is inconsequential, Brazil has already advanced a lot”, ponders Costin.

At the same time, Cláudia Costin also talks about the need for reorganization. “Yes, it is important, and I think the government was right in trying to put a brake on tidying up, because there are states that created a lot of informative itineraries and others that did not know how to move forward, others offered an excessive number of elective subjects. It needed tidying up,” she ponders.

Regarding the difficulty for some states to keep up with the changes, Bruno Eizerik states that the problems will be practically the same. “With the old high school, it was the same thing. There are no resources, no classrooms, nothing. The structural difficulties that schools have exist regardless of what high school will be like.”

For the director, the best solution is to make the necessary adjustments after evaluating the first results. “The first step would be to respect what is happening until next year, at least. Then, together with the states, and then public network and private network, it builds a transition model, enabling definitions such as number of itineraries”, he proposes.