Brazil universalized childhood education, primary and secondary

The president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, receive the National Education Plan (PNE), after waiting four years in the Congress for approval

President Dilma Rousseff signed on Wednesday, 25 without vetoes, the National Education Plan (NEP), which establishes guidelines in the area of ​​public policy for the next ten years. Among the goals of the NEP

are increasing investment in education to 10% of GDP at the end of the decade, the eradication of illiteracy, the offer of full-time education by at least 50% of public schools and the increase the enrollment in graduate to achieve annual target of 60,000 teachers and 25,000 doctors. The approval of the NEP should be published in a special edition of the “Diário Oficial da União” (DOU) on Thursday, 26, informed the Minister of Education, Henrique Paim.

"We have NEP to the challenges that Brazil is facing," said Paim in conference. "The NEP was constructed from several discussions with the society, educational movements. It was built from every contribution that Congress gave and the president acknowledged all this effort." Forwarded by the Presidential Palace to Congress at the end of the Lula government, the plan was processed for 3.5 years to get to Dilma’s table. One of the main resistances of the government was the goal of reaching the level of 10% of GDP invested in education after ten years (currently it is 6.4%) - Finance Minister, Guido Mantega, even claimed that the measure would "break" the Brazilian State.

To get around this, the Planalto sponsored an accounting maneuver to include in the numbers, for example, the “University for All” Program (ProUni) and partnerships with private institutions of the “Science Without Borders”. Paim supported the inclusion of these programs as part of the investment in education. "By offering scholarships from Pronatec (National Program for Access to Technical Education and Employment), and from “Science without Borders”, which are the best universities in the world, we are creating educational opportunities. Unless we have partnerships with private institutions, we will not move forward. All this has to be accounted for." said Paim.

One of the main innovations of the NEP is the institution of the concept of student cost-quality (CAQ), a new financial parameter of basic education, which stipulates a minimum application per student. The target is to

include this parameter in the Union supplementary funding to all states and municipalities that fail to reach the minimum value – this mechanism was likely to be vetoed by President Dilma Rousseff, but eventually was kept.  The Ministry of Education (MEC) himself recommended the veto, but the Casa Civil worked to maintain it. Asked about it during the conference, Paim said. "This is an internal government discussion"

The plan provides that, in two years, i.e. in 2016, the initial CAQ (CAQi) will be implemented. "There is no definition of what the CAQ is, in fact, the law states that we have to define the student cost-quality. We have two years to implement the CAQi, first I have to define what is student cost-quality, and right now it would be premature to make any calculation about additional resources." concluded the Minister.