Gabriel Mario Rodrigues – Chairman of the Board of Directors of ABMES
“Do not worry about the stones on the way, be they big or small. People jump over the big and kick the small ones. ”
Edgar Morin, sociologist and anthropologist, participated in the 3rd Livemo-Lives Laboratory – Viva Social Laboratory, held in Rio de Janeiro on 7 and 8 June. With more than 30 books published, it is undoubtedly not only an education scientist, but also an advocate of teaching as a way to address uncertainties in times of crisis.
Nearly 98 years old, he was categorical in an interview with the newspaper O Globo (‘Resisting uncertainties is part of Education’, says Edgar Morin). Clearly, it is clear that “in education, in normal times, certainties are taught, not uncertainties.” And in times of conflict like the one we live in, children need to be prepared to deal with difficulties and challenges.
Error is part of learning, we complete, and young people need to be prepared to live with a difficult world and the challenges of a transformative future that awaits them.
It is for this reason that in recent articles we are observing that all educational institutions must prepare for the exponential changes that social, economic, and political environments are creating because of the context of technology, communication, and information. It is essential to strengthen the implementation of the National Curricular National Base (BNCC), from the infancy to the secondary level, with the aim of training people able to face the challenge of occupations of the future.
We have already written that private schools feel the problem and, in order to offer the best course to their students, each of them is committed to having a curriculum that addresses this digital transformation and socio-emotional competencies that reality imposes. Changing an educational curriculum is already difficult. Imagine implanting a new stage where the student is a protagonist and not merely a disinterested assistant. It is an immeasurable challenge.
The data from the report “Skills and Jobs: An Agenda for Youth”, released by the World Bank last year, are terrible for Brazil. The report points out that half of the young Brazilians are threatened by unemployment and poverty.
• 11.2 million belong to the “nem-nem” – do not study and do not work
• 2.2 million only study, with lag;
• 8.8 million only work in the informal sector;
• 2,8 million work in informality and study.
These data are alarming and reflect the unequal country we have and that can only be redeemed if we have the motivation and purpose to change, which, in short, begins with Education. It is a challenge for society and the State, especially to create a more developed country with opportunities for all.
And to realize that the government is very unresponsive to this is that I present a timely collaboration received from Professor Raulino Tramontim that shows “the way of stones”:
1. This theme provokes a very interesting reflection to discuss the role of the different actors that must act in the implantation of the BNCC;
2. Look first at the role of the Federal Government. First, the CNE approved the proposal that was homologated by the minister and even traced the different (let’s call it) modules;
3. But we have the LDB that says basic education and competence of states and municipalities and there begins the problem. Brazilian states are extremely heterogeneous in their educational systems, from the poorest to the richest;
4. And how is it?
a) We need to model the implementation of the guidelines for adaptation to each system observing the basic rules in the public area, because the private area, as you have said, knows how to organize and plan better;
5. Note that the MEC stands still and can not put together a plan of action that includes:
a) Meeting with the Secretaries of Education of each State to present their system numbers as detailed as possible to know what we are going to deal with. For example: How many teachers need updating? Not to mention the infrastructure problem that would have required a heavy investment that at the present juncture is unfeasible … there is no money for compulsory expenses, let alone for necessary investments without which the guidelines can not be implemented;
b) Organize a technical training agenda under the responsibility of SEB that holds meetings in each state to enable groups of disseminators to the municipalities;
c) The MEC must analyze how much each State will need for investments and the States must present when each municipality will also need for investments;
d) Train modeling in practice, because everything has changed and it is not easy … I know why I was a literacy teacher and taught in a multiserial school, in work-oriented and technical-scientific centers;
e) It should be deployed for beginners and not for those already in the system, because adaptation would create more serious problems than one might imagine. Adaptation is always problematic.
f) Follow-up by SEB-Secretariat of Basic Education, monitoring in real time each state and for this the government must oblige the states to implement the internet in each school and the municipalities as well. We have satellite available and there is a program where the federal government donates the antenna and installs it to the local government to provide the ground and maintenance of the equipment. Until now there are only 230 municipalities that have joined, sign that either they did not understand the importance of the internet or it is omission.
g) For all of this to work, the MEC must conclude a federative pact (I do not like the term pact, but I can not find a better one, perhaps a term of commitment or responsibility) with well-defined schedules, tasks indicating those responsible and the evaluation would be where those who do not fulfill the duty of each should suffer some kind of penalty. The MEC can not stand in the role of sending money from Fundeb and education salary without effective control … no one knows the truth of the numbers.
6. The word challenge is appropriate, because to take on any challenge there has to be political will and it seems that the problems begin there. There is no political will today for this …. are worried about ideology to say little … so much so that it happened in USP the meeting of the former ministers of education to make a document and forward to the MEC. (Former ministers create Observatory in defense of education)
7. The current generation is in a hurry and our leaders are not! Education is in a hurry, because we are behind schedule, not to mention wasting precious time … We have already lost a lot, while other countries have taken important steps in the sector, putting ourselves at the forefront of good pedagogical and administrative management;
8. We also need to nudge the CNE to begin reviewing the degrees that make up teachers so that their proposals have affinity with the new BNCC. Perhaps instead of undergraduates we should have a Teacher Training Program for basic education, formed by several modules that certify the teachers that over time could go up making new modules …. We need to think differently … I still do not know how, what I know our degrees are no longer useful. And most problematic they are not evaluated and in this scenario the private education forms more than 69% of the graduates in small colleges mainly. But worse, who will do the degree and the poor who can not get better ……
9. Hence we need to think about how South Korea did and create a Teacher Training Institute in each region;
10. I believe that we should put the issue of the implementation of the Guidelines in both the basic and high school levels, if we do not want to die on the beach, because every day we receive students who are worse prepared in the process of entering higher schools and then you have a university degree and you do not have to know, you only have to pay the monthly fee and let the time pass to receive a useless diploma.
