Fernando Alcoforado*
This article aims to show how the Lula government can promote a revolution in the education system in Brazil, which is going through an unprecedented crisis. This crisis results, on the one hand, from the lack of investment in the education system in Brazil, which makes it inefficient and ineffective, and, on the other hand, from the lack of government policies that contribute to overcoming the current problems of Brazilian education and for its adequacy to the ongoing scientific and technological changes that impact the world of work and society in general. The fact that Brazil’s education system is inefficient and ineffective prevents it from operating as a factor of economic and social development and from contributing to the social ascension of the lower strata of its population. The lack of an education policy adjusted to the ongoing scientific and technological changes also prevents Brazil from increasing the productivity of its workers and compromising its economic and social development.
1. The current situation of the education system in Brazil [1]
The insufficient investment in education in Brazil is one of the factors that have restricted its development. Spending on education in Brazil in billions of reais has been declining from 2015 to the present, as shown in figures 1, 2 and 3 below:
Figure 1- Budget of the Ministry of Education (MEC) from 2011 to 2020
Figure 2 shows the decline in federal government spending and transfers on education in billions of reais since 2014.
Figure 2- decline in federal government expenditures and transfers on education from 2010 to 2019
Source: https://www.ocafezinho.com/2020/01/29/gastos-do-governo-com-educacao-sao-os-menores-desde-2010/
Figure 3 demonstrates that government spending as a percentage of GDP has been declining since 2014.
Figure 3- Government spending on education in relation to GDP
Figure 4 shows that the basic education budget has been declining since 2012.
Figure 4- MEC Basic Education Budget from 2011 to 2020
Making an analogy between higher education and the construction of a building and basic education with the foundation or foundation of the building, it can be said that the education edifice will only be able to reach greater heights if it has a robust foundation in basic education that gives it support. In order to raise the edifice of education, it is first necessary to lay the foundation represented by basic education. For students to succeed in higher education, they must have a quality basic education. Higher education will only have great development if basic education is well structured and supports it.
Another important indicator of the weakness of the education system in Brazil concerns spending or investment in education per student, which is ridiculously low compared to other countries, as shown in Figure 5. If Brazil wanted to match the developed countries in terms of expenses per student, it should more than triple its expenses with the educational sector, going from the current 5.65% of the GDP to 20% of the GDP, according to data from the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). Brazil invests 0.76% of GDP in education while Finland, whose education system is recognized worldwide for being the most efficient and qualified from preschool to higher education, invests around 7.1% of its GDP in a high quality education system. Brazil would have to practically increase its spending on education by 9 times to match Finland.
Figure 5- Spending on education per student
The lack of investments in education in Brazil explains the poor results obtained by Brazilian students in the PISA International Student Assessment Program, which seeks to measure the knowledge and ability in reading, mathematics and science of 15-year-old students from industrialized countries OECD members as partner countries, as well as the classification of Brazilian universities far from the best universities in the world, a classification carried out by THE (Times Higher Education) which evaluates the performance of university students and academic production in the areas of engineering and technology , arts and humanities, life sciences, health, physics and social sciences and also considers research, knowledge transfer and international perspective, in addition to the teaching environment.
The insufficient investments in education and the lack of consistent government policies contribute to the aggravation of the current problems of education in Brazil. One of the problems that reflect the precariousness of Brazilian education concerns school dropout or school evasion in basic and higher education. According to a survey by the IBGE, of the 50 million people aged 14 to 29 in the country, 20.2% did not complete any of the stages of basic education, either because they dropped out of school before the end of this stage, or because they never attended. In this situation, therefore, there were 10.1 million young people, among which 58.3% were men and 41.7% were women. Considering color or race, 27.3% were white and 71.7% were black or brown. (See the website <https://censos.ibge.gov.br/2013-agencia-de-noticias/releases/28285-pnad-educacao-2019-mais-da-metade-das-pessoas-de-25-anos-ou-mais-nao-completaram-o-ensino-medio.html>.
In Brazil, 38% of the population complete primary education, against 45% in Mexico and 56% in Argentina. In South Korea, 83% of the population complete basic education. As for higher education, according to calculations based on data from Inep, the average annual dropout rate in Brazilian higher education was 22% in 2005, with little fluctuation between 2001 and 2005, but showing a growth trend that must have occurred in 2019 and 2020 because of the new Coronavirus pandemic. Annual evasion was higher in private HEIs, whose average rate in the period was 26% against 12% in public HEIs. In 2019, the schooling rate of people aged 18 to 24, regardless of the course they attended, was 32.4%. In turn, 21.4% of these young people were attending higher education courses and 11.0% were late, attending some of the basic education courses (See the website <https://www.scielo.br/j/cp/a/x44X6CZfd7hqF5vFNnHhVWg/?format=pdf&lang=pt>.
The dropout of higher education students in Brazil happens, among other factors, due to existing weaknesses in elementary and secondary education that do not prepare students with sufficient training to attend higher education courses. This is the main reason why there is a large dropout of students in several courses offered by the Brazilian University, as it happens in the teaching of engineering in Brazil because, of the 150 thousand students admitted to the entrance exams to the course each year, only 32 thousand are graduated.
2. The necessary revolution in Brazil’s education system [2][3]
The revolution in Brazil’s education system has become imperative given the need, not only to overcome the weaknesses that currently affect education at all levels in the country, but above all to prepare and continuously update people for the current and future job market and to deal with the complexity of the world we live in and prepare people to exercise full citizenship. The education revolution in Brazil can be unleashed with the planning of an education system with the objective of increasing the number of quality educational units and having good managers, teachers and infrastructure. The revolution in education in Brazil should guarantee the existence of a career plan, training and appreciation of educational managers and teachers. It must adopt consistent policies for training educators, to attract the best teachers, pay them well and qualify them better, with innovative management policies that contribute to the success of the management models to be adopted in basic and higher education.
To build an education system in Brazil aimed at overcoming the problems of the present and also for the future, it is necessary to prepare the teacher to fulfill a new role. The teacher’s role is decisive because, through education, he must create a new type of Brazilian men and women qualified for the world of work and aware and well prepared to transform Brazil and the world we live in for the better. The success of student learning depends, to a great extent, on the competence of the teacher who, in present and future education, would no longer be a mere relay of information to students, assuming the role of articulator of teaching in individual and group activities with their ability to monitor, mediate, analyze processes, results, gaps and needs, based on the paths taken by students individually and in groups. It is proven worldwide that the teacher is the key to quality teaching and, thus, improving student performance. Educators need to learn to fulfill themselves as people and as professionals, learn to always evolve in all fields of knowledge, to be more affective and at the same time know how to manage groups. Teachers must become inspiring and motivating educators.
The teaching units in Brazil must equip themselves in the sense that the classrooms, instead of being destined exclusively to theory, also, and above all, aim at practice. The most interesting and promising model for using technologies is to concentrate basic information in the virtual environment and more creative and supervised activities in the classroom. The student must learn the theory at home, clarify their doubts, and practice in the classroom with the help of a teacher/mentor, especially at the University and in professional technical education. Students’ learning must be personalized when they learn with tools that adapt to their own abilities, being able to learn at different times and places. Teaching and learning can be done in a much more flexible, active and focused way at the pace of each student. Students should have the freedom to modify their learning process, especially at the University, choosing the subjects they want to learn based on their own preferences and being able to use different devices, programs and techniques that they deem necessary for their own learning.
Knowledge should not remain just in theory and should be put into practice through projects so that students acquire mastery of the technique and also practice organization, teamwork and leadership. One should teach by problems and projects in a disciplinary model and in interdisciplinary models without isolated disciplines; with more open models – of more participatory and procedural construction. Teaching units should provide more space for work programs with more collaborative projects and more practice. The assessment system must change with the end of the question and answer system for tests that do not adequately assess what the student is really capable of doing with the adoption of assessments aimed at carrying out real projects, with students getting their hands dirty.
The education system of the future in Brazil aims to enable people to have access to the mass of information available, to make people aware of exercising their citizenship, to build a better world and to qualify people for the world of work which are very important objectives, but another great objective of the future education system in Brazil to be pursued is to show how students can be happy based on positive psychology whose purpose is to make people achieve the well-being and happiness that, ultimately, they are people’s main goals in life. This is a practical action at home and at school to lead students to self-knowledge and to manage their emotions in the pursuit of well-being and happiness. The teacher must teach about love, about pain, about being and feeling. The teacher must help students to develop their full potential.
3. Conclusions
For all that has just been exposed, it is concluded that Brazilian education will only overcome its current weaknesses and carry out a true revolution in education in Brazil if there is an increase in investments in education in the country, which requires, as a preliminary, changes in the direction of the Brazilian economy with the abandonment of the neoliberal economic model, responsible for the current economic disaster, and the adoption of a developmentalist economic policy, similar to the one that was responsible for the greatest economic and social development in Brazil achieved in its history from 1930 to 1980, adjusted to the new times with the Brazilian national State assuming the reins of the Brazilian economy. This is the precondition for education to become a national priority and for there to be an increase in spending or investment in education, a fact that has not been happening, especially since 2014 in Brazil. Without increased investment in education, it will not be possible to solve Brazil’s immense problems and make the economy grow and develop in the future. The future of Brazil will be compromised if it does not consider education as a national priority.
Investments in education must support the execution of the strategies described below:
• Identify the role of human beings in the world of work in a future with profound changes throughout Brazilian society to carry out a broad revolution in education at all levels, contemplating the qualification of teachers and the structuring of teaching units to prepare their students for a world of work where people will have to deal with intelligent machines. The curricula of teaching units at all levels must be profoundly restructured to achieve these goals.
• Prioritize basic education so that it becomes universal.
• Promoting education for economic development and building democracy.
• Adopt the policy that the student must “learn to learn”, know how to solve problems, develop habits of solidarity, participation, investigation and also create critical mental dispositions.
• Develop education in Brazil, showing students a totalizing vision, establishing relationships between the parts and the whole, contrary to what happens today, which imposes fragmented knowledge according to disciplines.
• Consider as new responsibilities of the education system that of educating instead of instructing, forming free men instead of docile men and enabling them to face the uncertainties of the future.
• Making the teaching units in Brazil equip themselves in the sense that the classrooms, instead of being destined exclusively to theory, also, and above all, aim at practice.
• Make the teacher play the decisive role of, through education, creating a new type of Brazilian men and women qualified for the world of work and conscious and well prepared to transform Brazil and the world we live in for the better.
• Make the teacher stop being a mere relay of information to the students, assuming the role of articulator of teaching in individual and group activities with their ability to monitor, mediate, analyze processes, results, gaps and needs, from of the paths taken by students individually and in groups.
• Make sure that knowledge is not only in theory and is put into practice through projects so that students acquire mastery of the technique and also practice organization, teamwork and leadership.
• Make the student learn the theory at home, clarify their doubts, and come to practice in the classroom with the help of a teacher/mentor, especially at the University and in professional technical education.
• Modify the student performance assessment system, replacing the question and answer system that do not adequately assess what the student is actually capable of doing with assessments taking into account the realization of real projects, with students executing them.
• Adopt social assistance measures for students and their families by teaching units to combat student dropout, as well as showing how students can conquer their well-being and happiness, which, ultimately, are the main objectives of people in the life, promoting the conditions for them to reach their self-knowledge and manage their emotions in the pursuit of their well-being and happiness. The teacher must help students to develop their full potential.
• Promote the most adequate articulation between the education system in Brazil, teachers and families, which is decisive for the success of the educational process.
• Universalize education using the distance education system (EAD).
• Elaborate a new National Education Plan aimed at the future, aiming to increase the number of quality educational units, with good managers, teachers and infrastructure capable of motivating students and promoting meaningful, complex and comprehensive learning.
• Elaborate a new career plan, training and enhancement of educational managers and teachers, with consistent teacher training policies to prepare the best teachers, pay them well and qualify them better, and with innovative management policies for basic education and higher.
• Promote the selection and training of top teachers, with professional recognition and good working conditions.
• Raise the level of quality of education in Brazil by making massive investments, mainly in teacher training, in support material and in improving the structure and functioning of educational institutions.
• Elaborate a plan to increase the training of teachers to carry out their activities.
REFERENCES
1. ALCOFORADO, Fernando. Mutirão cívico pela educação no Brasil. Published on the website <https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mutir%C3%A3o-c%C3%ADvico-pela-educa%C3%A7%C3%A3o-brasil-artigo-e-v%C3%ADdeo-alcoforado/?originalSubdomain=pt> on 26/11/2021.
2. ALCOFORADO, Fernando. A revolução na educação necessária ao Brasil. Published on the website <https://www.slideshare.net/falcoforado/a-revoluo-necessria-ao-sistema-de-educao-do-brasil> on 26/11/2020.
3. ALCOFORADO, Fernando. Fatores de sucesso dos melhores sistemas de educação do mundo. Published on the website <https://www.academia.edu/15990066/FATORES_DE_SUCESSO_DOS_MELHORES_SISTEMAS_DE_EDUCA%C3%87%C3%83O_DO_MUNDO> on 21/09/2015.
* Fernando Alcoforado, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, of the SBPC- Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science and of IPB- Polytechnic Institute of Bahia, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development from the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of strategic planning, business planning, regional planning, urban planning and energy systems, was Advisor to the Vice President of Engineering and Technology at LIGHT S.A. Electric power distribution company from Rio de Janeiro, Strategic Planning Coordinator of CEPED- Bahia Research and Development Center, Undersecretary of Energy of the State of Bahia, Secretary of Planning of Salvador, is the author of the books Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de Barcelona,http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2015), As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2016), A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017), Esquerda x Direita e a sua convergência (Associação Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018), Como inventar o futuro para mudar o mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019), A humanidade ameaçada e as estratégias para sua sobrevivência (Editora Dialética, São Paulo, 2021), A escalada da ciência e da tecnologia e sua contribuição ao progresso e à sobrevivência da humanidade (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2022) and a chapter in the book Flood Handbook (CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, United States, 2022).
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