Higher education was the most affected by the cuts in expenses announced by the Ministry of Education (MEC), but areas of basic education and - identified as a priority by the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PSL) - will also suffer from the contingency of resources in the folder.
In participation in the Plenary of the Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday, 15, day of national protests for education, the head of the MEC, Abraham Weintraub, stated that this is a temporary containment of expenses (“until the country takes off”) and that the government will comply with its plan to concentrate its efforts on day care centers, basic education and technician.
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Education experts, however, claim that the cuts can directly impact programs and actions in progress in Brazilian schools, with a direct effect on municipalities, mainly in remote areas or needy.
According to data from the Integrated System of Financial Administration of the Federal Government (Siafi) tabulated by the NGO Contas Abertas, the National Fund for Development of Education (FNDE), a government autarchy whose function is to transfer resources for basic education in states and municipalities and functions as a kind of agency to promote the school routine, had frozen almost R$ 1 billion of its budget of R$ 4.7 billion for 2019.
Within the FNDE there are programs that finance, at the municipal level, everything from textbooks to school transport, aid in teacher training and incentives for the construction of day care centers.
In the Chamber, Weintraub stated that basic education was forgotten by the federal government in recent years. “Essential, basic education is Brazil's weakness. We are below the target established in the National Literacy Plan (PNA). Those who are left out of day care are the poorest children, part of the most vulnerable society, ”she said.
The minister attributed the responsibility for the cuts to the previous administrations of Dilma Rousseff (PT) and Michel Temer (MDB). “We are not responsible for the education disaster, we did not vote for it.”
The Bolsonaro government, like its predecessors, temporarily suspended the spending of funds in search of fiscal balance while the country's situation does not improve. If the Executive ends the year with a deficit greater than that foreseen in the Budget (R$ 139 billion) without authorization from Congress, the rulers may be liable for a crime of fiscal responsibility.
On the other hand, if the fiscal situation improves, the government stated that it may release funds.
The measures also caused a reaction in Congress. “The biggest complaint, the biggest apprehension among parliamentarians is the absence of a plan for education. This minister only talks about cutting. It has no propositional action. We cannot even evaluate it because there is nothing proposed. It is the first time that I see a minister who defends, who asks for cuts in his area”, said federal deputy Idilvan Alencar to BBC News Brazil. (PDT-CE), which is part of the Chamber's Education Commission and has chaired the FNDE and the National Council of Education Secretaries (Consed).
Also during the sabbath in the Chamber, Weintraub stated that he will seek that the resources of the Lava Jato fund (with money recovered from corruption schemes) are partially allocated to education.
BBC News Brasil sought out the MEC about the impacts of blocking programs linked to the FNDE and is awaiting a response.
The blocking of funds for the Caminho da Escola program, aimed at renewing, standardizing and expanding the fleet of school vehicles in the country, reached 82% of the sum authorized in 2019 (BRL 23 million of BRL 29 million), according to data tabulated by Contas Open.
A study carried out in partnership with the Federal University of Goiás indicates that this program led to a reduction in the average age of vehicles (9.3 years in the Northeast and 6.7 in the country, for example). But the fleet linked to Caminho da Escola is approaching ten years of use and also needs to be renewed.
According to managers and teachers, the two main benefits of the program are the guarantee of access to education and the reduction of school dropouts.
For Daniel Cara, coordinator of the National Campaign for the Right to Education, this is the type of transfer that, when it is not done, it may make going to school unfeasible for children in remote areas or without transport structure public.
“The concrete problem is that the right to education happens throughout the school year. If you don't have school transport, it's practically impossible for many children to go to school,” says Cara to BBC News Brasil.
The production, purchase and distribution of textbooks had frozen R$ 144 million of its budget of R$ 1.9 billion (or 7.6% of the total) within the FNDE.
In the Ceará municipality of Sobral, “we received notification that only 25% of textbooks will arrive for replacement. This is a problem mainly in Elementary I classes (first to fifth grade), when textbooks are consumables (they are not reused from one year to the next)", says the municipal secretary of Education, Herbert Lima.
“It won't even be enough for half of the students. Our network is more structured and acquires textbooks from other places, but for the vast majority of municipalities this will be a big problem.”
Lima affirms that the municipalities have had difficulty in dialogue with the MEC, to know if some points of the contingency will be specific or permanent. “The fixed amount we received for school meals was lower, for example, and without any explanation. As there is no interlocution, there is insecurity in the municipalities.”
Support programs for the implementation and maintenance of day care centers within the FNDE also had frozen resources – R$ 21 million, out of a total of R$ 125 million divided into two headings.
Support for the functioning of Youth and Adult Education (EJA), aimed at people who have not completed primary and secondary education at the correct age) had a freeze of R$ 14 million, or about 40%.
For Daniel Cara, one of the major problems of discontinuing funding for basic education is that the measure could, in practice, put an end to many of the MEC's projects. “Rebuilding them will require new hires and procedures, which is very difficult”, he says.
Asked about the importance of MEC optimizing and prioritizing expenses in times of crisis, Cara says that, in fact, “it is always possible to rationalize”.
“But we cannot do this by stifling public policy. There is no way, for example, to improve school transport by ending (with the resources of) school transport”, he opines.
Carlos Eduardo Sanches, technical advisor of the National Campaign for the Right to Education, says that he has heard from secretaries and educational managers difficulties in accessing FNDE funds, “generating delays, for example, in payments for construction works kindergartens”.
And, in addition to the FNDE, secretaries say that another obstacle is planning your budget, due to the absence of clear guidelines.
Valmir Nogueira, Secretary of Education in Paragominas (PA), says that FNDE transfers to the municipality are still up to date, but in return less resources came than the expected from Fundeb (Fund for the Maintenance and Development of Basic Education, where most of the money that finances public schools in states and municipalities comes from) for the State.
“Without this complement, how are we going to be? The impact is brutal, and in some municipalities the risk is that there is no money to pay payroll (of teachers). Here we are contingency fuel expenses, transportation, maintenance contracts.”
Fundeb's financing model expires (by law) next year, and there is still no official definition of whether it will be extended or replaced. Cecilia Motta, Secretary of Education of Mato Grosso do Sul and President of the National Council of Secretaries of Education (Conseg), states that this is the main concern of educational managers, because “Fundeb is the guarantee of the right to education".
According to a note from the MEC on May 6, the executive secretary of the MEC Antonio Paulo Vogel stated that the portfolio is seeking subsidies to help Congress to draft a constitutional amendment on Fundeb, “as the result of a dialogue between the government, organized civil society and specialists in education".
BBC News Brasil questioned the MEC if there is any contingency in Fundeb in effect at the moment and awaits the return of the portfolio.
(Source: BBC News published in G1 News)
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