With PNE on the agenda, opposition will have 2024 crucial against ideologized teaching

The document that will serve as the basis for discussions at the National Education Conference (Conae), on January 28, 29 and 30, 2024, in Brasília, presents a strong ideological charge, as the People’s Gazette. Given this, experts consider that the opposition has a crucial mission in the coming months: to reduce as much as possible its influence on the National Education Plan 2024-2034, which will be voted on in Congress this year.

Among other things, NGOs and associations that participated in the preparation of the text were involved in promoting gender ideology, curbing educational freedom and home education and even opposing agribusiness in the classroom. Amid these ideas, the document also places strong emphasis on the centralization of decisions about education in Brazil in the hands of certain organizations and social movements (read below about the subject).

Conae was the first step towards preparing the National Education Plan (PNE), which will guide public policies in the educational area over the next decade. The reference document will serve to support an Executive project to be sent to Congress at the beginning of the year.

Congressmen have the power to change this project, but experts consulted by the People’s Gazette have shown concern about the level of knowledge of opposition parliamentarians about radicalism and the risks of the proposals.

To issue this warning, the association De Olho no Material Escolar released, on December 13, a public note highlighting that the document is “contrary to the best practices adopted by reference countries in the educational sector.”

Among other things, the entity points out the “absence of a technical-scientific basis in the approach to content”; the refractory stance towards private initiative; the attack on home education and family freedom; the long-winded and vague speech, without technical rigor, which makes debate difficult; the absence of a student literacy proposal; and the lack of plurality in the choice of groups that prepared the document.

In excerpts of the Conae text, there is explicit mention of the fight against specific political groups. The text talks, for example, about opposing “ultra-conservative policies and proposals”, about guaranteeing the “demilitarization of schools” and about stopping the “interventions of the Escola Sem Partido movement and the various groups that wish to promote agribusiness through education”.

Not by chance, four entities linked to agribusiness decided to sign the public note prepared by De Olho no Material Escolar: the Brazilian Agribusiness Association (ABAG), the National Association of Agricultural and Veterinary Input Distributors (ANDAV), the Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock of Brazil (CNA) and the Brazilian Rural Society (SRB).

The president of De Olho no Material Escolar, Letícia Jacintho, who is an administrator, rural producer and analyst in the education sector, says that the entity is “closely monitoring the document presented”. “Our technical team is focused on every detail and, based on what we studied and evaluated, this document cannot, in any way, be the Bill that will guide the country’s education in the next ten years. Brazilian students urgently need to improve their results,” he says.

For her, the Conae reference text does not discuss some “very serious problems”, such as the low ability to read text and understand Portuguese, the lack of knowledge about operations in mathematics, and learning goals and sub-goals.

According to Letícia, the association “is mobilizing public, private, parliamentary entities, academia, leaders, associations and civil society to find a path in which the Conae document is widely known and discussed, and not just an opinionated outline of what education should be in Brazil”.

One of the problems, in her view, is that many parliamentarians do not focus on education, and it is necessary to change this reality. “We are working actively and voluntarily in several municipalities, bringing technical and scientific capacity so that parliamentarians can defend a quality education model, with effectiveness and strategy to put the country where it deserves to be”, she says.

Main mission is to provide an argumentative basis for opposition parliamentarians, says expert

For educational consultant Andréia Medrado Serrano, in working to block Conae’s ideological proposals, the essential challenge at this time is to avoid the implementation of the National Education System (SNE), which could represent a path of no return in the centralization of control of Brazilian education in the hands of movements and groups with an ideological bias. The most worrying point in the Conae document, in her view, is this.

“Although we have seen an extremely ideological text, this text is just the tip of the iceberg, because, in truth, behind this text there is an entire movement of centralization and rigidification of national education”, he warns.

Therefore, according to Serrano, the main focus of those who are concerned about ideological bias in education should be to convince Congress to prevent the SNE’s development from progressing as it is. She emphasizes the importance of dialoguing with opposition and center parliamentarians, explaining the negative aspects of Conae and working on alternative proposals for legislation.

“Our power of action is in fact in parliament. We need to act by talking and explaining to parliamentarians what this Conae text is about, what the intention of this conference is…”, he says. “The narrative that comes with the proposal for the National Education System is basically the following: the parliamentarian who votes against this is not concerned about education in Brazil. We need to say that it is exactly the opposite.”

The expert highlights the need to create a robust movement to support parliamentarians in understanding the problems. She considers it crucial to explain to congressmen the need to vote against the current SNE proposal, showing how it limits the freedom of federative entities and families in education.

“The idea is that we can understand the structure of the education system that Conae has defended, explain it to parliamentarians and then start working with them on a possible replacement that can overlap with the project that will come from the Executive,” it says.

Conae’s proposal for a National Education System, with a single curriculum and unified pedagogy, threatens educational freedom and the plurality of ideas, contradicting the Brazilian Constitution, she says.

“The proposal of the National Education System is to make the National Education Forum and the National Education Council deliberative, normative bodies that do not need or depend on the Federal Executive to make educational decisions. As we know, who makes up this National Education Forum These are entities that often have nothing to do with education and are much more concerned with advancing a political-ideological agenda”, he explains.

If groups opposed to the ideological bias in education manage to displace the SNE, there will be the possibility of a less unbalanced fight in future discussions carried out by grassroots education movements, especially at the municipal and state levels.

“The big problem is that, by approving a National Education System along these lines, as Conae is proposing, we will have less power to articulate. We need, at this first moment, to fight so that this system is not approved. Once Once we have achieved this objective, then we need to strengthen grassroots movements, so that they work in education councils.”

For Serrano, movements against the ideologization of education still face difficulties in the municipal, interregional and state stages of Conae due to the lack of sufficient delegates with voting power. This is reflected at the national stage, where representation continues to be low.

To solve this problem, she sees as essential a stronger presence of institutions and movements that serve as a counterpoint to the ideologization of education councils, as a long-term strategy to influence educational policies.

“We know there is resistance from them [dos movimentos ideológicos]but it turns out they weren’t expecting the our resistance. That’s why we need to continue. We really need to act within the social structure,” he says.

Serrano recognizes that groups that are concerned with the ideologization of education began to organize late in comparison to other social movements, but considers that the work of recovering from losses, despite being arduous, can bear fruit.

“It is important that we understand the mechanism of how the councils work, that we are able to place our own people. We are going to face a lot of resistance, as we saw with the guardianship councilors and with the challenges of numerous candidacies”, he states. “It’s worth continuing this fight – remembering that, first, we need to make this system [o SNE] not be approved. Once it is approved, we won’t have much room to fight this fight.”