O new Minister of Education, Abraham Weintraub, was sworn in at a ceremony last Tuesday (09). On the occasion, the minister stated that his work will be focused on fulfilling what is in the government's plan.
Abraham Weintraub is a professor at the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp). In addition, he holds a master's degree in Business Administration in the area of Finance from Faculdade Getúlio Vargas (FGV), and a degree in economics from USP.
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Weintraub takes over the portfolio after Ricardo Vélez Rodríguez leaves the ministry. The former minister was at the ceremony and said he handed over the position knowing that everything in the folder is in working order.
The new minister begins his duties with a speech that is a little more appeasing than the previous one. Weintraub told Folha de S. Paulo that his administration will not be aimed at “hunting communists”.
In addition, he also said that no changes will be made to the Enem schedule. Another expected point was the promise that Bolsonaro would read the exam questions before the tests, which was denied by the administrator.
However, the minister has already said that he wants to take action against abusive students. One of them is that, in cases of aggression, teachers must call the police and file a police report. Furthermore, in an interview with R7, Weintraub said that:
“If the student attacks, the parent is responsible. The teacher has to file an incident report. He calls the police, the parents are going to be sued and, ultimately, he has to withdraw the Bolsa Família from the parents and even guardianship of the child. We don't have to invent the wheel. You have to comply with the Constitution and the laws or we are heading towards barbarism. Today, there is a lot of “stop it”, “poor thing”. The poor guy is attacking the teacher”, highlighted.
Although the Bolsonaro government is approaching the ideas of Olavo de Carvalho, Abraham Weintraub said at the interview that your ideas and actions within the folder will not always be in accordance with the thoughts of the ideologue.
In addition, he also stated that his management does not necessarily need to please Bolsonaro's guru, and that the president trusts his work and seeks results.“The president gave me carte blanche to form the team. He asked me to technically deliver the best results. I'm not there to make noise.”
Still in the interview, the new Minister of Education stated that Brazil spends a lot of money on scientific production: “Brazil spends a lot and scientific production with objective results for the population is low. We need to better choose our priorities“.
Funds earmarked for the area have been experiencing declines in recent years. In 2010 it was BRL 10 billion, while in 2017 it was BRL 4.8 billion. Currently, Bolsonaro has announced a 42% cut in the budget for Science and Technology.
Still on federal universities, the administrator stated that he can indeed change the deans of the institutions. This is because, even if there are internal elections, the names on the triple list can be changed by the Ministry of Education. The minister did not present what the criteria for such a change will be.
As for the Quotas, Fies and ProUni Policy, the minister said that no changes will be made at the moment.
