Federal educational flags shelved

Not a penny, not more, not less. This is the grim picture of Brazilian education, which, until now, has not received any of the R$ 801 million allocated to the new (and widely celebrated) program of literacy in this year's budget, under the 'pompous' title of 'National Literacy Child Commitment', launched last June, which never even got off the ground.

Another ‘expensive’ program for Planalto – and also the subject of advertising expenditure – that of Escola em Tempo Integral, had only 41% of its total planned allocation of R$ 1 billion, effectively executed to date, with the aggravating factor that most of the resources released have not been effectively used for their intended purpose original. The obvious conclusion is that these two pillars of a central area of ​​the PT government are just the 'shadow' of what its goals proposed.

With the promise overriding the commitment, Planalto's prediction of an investment of R$1 billion this year and another R$2 billion, by 2026, in order to ‘eradicate’ Brazilian systemic illiteracy. Not even the marketing idea of ​​using the then governor of Ceará, now minister, as a ‘poster boy’. of Education, Camilo Santana, was enough to convince the public about the continuation of the measure federal.

Irony or not, there was a lack of federal ‘commitment’ (pardon the pun) in enforcing the distribution of resources between state and municipal education networks. Worse, the news that does not want to be silenced is that the MEC would not even have committed any amount, which would have the purpose of facilitating teacher training actions, in addition to making materials. With the 'committed' resources in hand, it was up to schools to set up so-called 'reading corners', an educational action that continued in the realm of political fiction.

The consequence of this palace ‘inaction’ is that, at best, any concrete action will only reach the classroom in the year comes (if it comes), in which the education secretaries would already be resigned that the next school year will begin without any changes effective.

The harsh reality, guided by the MEC itself, is that 60% of Brazilian children do not know how to read or write when they reach the second year of elementary school, corresponding to approximately 4 million children. Quite a task for the president and his Education sub to fulfill, a mandate commitment to be fulfilled in full.