"School will be able to print the digital book, for those who need it"

Just one day after the controversial and controversial announcement by the governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio Freitas – who determined the exclusive use of digital books as didactic material by the public teaching network of the State of São Paulo – the State Secretary of Education, Renato Feder, came out in defense of the measure imposed by the boss.

"The school will be able to print the digital book for those who need it", reacted, in a mocking tone, the secretary who 'justified' the unilateral measure, in advance that the government bandeirante intends to distribute, still in this second semester (2H23), 20 thousand cell phones to students, devices seized by the Federal Revenue, to be donated with this goal.

The 'providence' would be a response to the barrage of criticism fired by educators and members of society civil, based on the evident lack of digital access by most of the population of the largest metropolis Brazilian. Faced with this question, the secretary recalls that “there are 800,000 computers on the network, which is about one computer for every four students, which is a high rate even considering First Class countries World. There will be no need to buy more computers,” he concluded.

Regarding the absolute prioritization of the digital book as a teaching resource by the occupant of the Palácio dos Bandeirantes, Feder argued that “the standardization of textbooks and their control by the government are essential to improving learning ", because, in his assessment, these" would facilitate the training of teachers and the application of the Prova Paulista, bimonthly, digital and equal for all classes. schools".

By denying the intention of the Freitas mandate to exercise ideological control over local education, the secretary took the opportunity to hurl his barbs at the quality of the PNLD's textbooks. “The secretariat evaluated that they lost content, depth, are superficial”, he fired.

When interviewed by Folha de S. Paulo, Feder maintained that “our main objective is to increase learning and the essential thing is the quality of the class, so that it is engaging, so that the teacher feels safe teaching that content... not just writing it down on the board or just talking, without the student paying attention attention".

Under the pretext that “the teacher wasted a lot of time writing on the blackboard”, the secretary understands that “now, in a click, all the content will be on the digital whiteboard or on the television set in the living room. classroom".

Without providing further explanations about the extension of digital functionalities to the entire state education network - many of them without any Internet access – the educational authority recalled that the material has been available to teachers since March and that the material referring to the third bimester would have already been distributed in June, which would have the 'advantage' of being editable and subject to removal, inclusion or modification of slides.

Resorting to the image of the tripod to try to explain his 'idea' of teaching, the secretary listed the didactic material as the first leg, that is, the digital material. The second would be the training of the teacher who masters this material (digital, of course) and the third is the test, which must be consistent with the material (digital, well!). “In São Paulo, we are building this tripod”, he said.

Despite Feder's silence, when asked if there was political motivation in the state's decision not to participate in the PNLD (Programa Nacional do Didactic Book) – which buys books for schools with funds from the National Education Development Fund (FNDE), from MEC – the loss would reach R$ 120 million, corresponding to 10 million textbooks, according to the estimate of the Brazilian Association of Books and Educational Content (Opens book). The account rises to R$ 200 million, if secondary education is added.