The Bolsonaro government wants to kill one of the 10 best educational systems in the world: the federal institutes.

In the latest PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) evaluation, the largest global education assessment system, the Federal Institutes of Education, Science and Technology (IFs) are among the top 10 education systems on the planet, ahead of countries such as the USA, South Korea, Germany and the United Kingdom. 

This impeccable quality is only possible due to the pedagogical-scientific organization of the Federal Institutes, which, until the Bolsonaro government, had the autonomy to regulate teaching activities, without EVER denying the three pillars of Teaching-Research-Extension, the only viable path to achieving such a level of international performance. 

The Federal Institutes (IFs) are islands of educational, scientific, and technological progress in Brazil that, instead of being encouraged and replicated, have been suffering from strong attacks on their budget since 2016 and, from 2019 onwards, from direct interference in the organization of teachers' work. 

The announced death of this Brazilian educational gem occurred with Ordinance 983/2020 – MEC, which dismantles the pedagogical-didactic-scientific organization of the Federal Institutes (IFs) by burying research, extension, and innovation activities in the teaching workload. This ordinance aims to transform the IFs into purely teaching institutions, in a worn-out approach to education that is based solely on the "transmission" of content, despite the inseparability of teaching, research, and extension. 

The decree establishes a minimum teaching load (14 hours), without limiting the maximum. This stratagem outlines the planned scenario of dismantling the best educational system in Brazilian history. If there is no maximum teaching load, this means that, as long as teachers do not have their entire teaching load filled, no other teacher can be hired. 

It should be noted that this minimum of 14 hours makes it impossible to maintain quality, since the Ordinance establishes that for every hour of class, one hour of preparation, correction, evaluation, etc., must be added. Therefore, at a MINIMUM, 28 hours of the weekly workload would be dedicated solely to classes. I reiterate, this will be the minimum. In addition to this teaching load, IF (Federal Institute) teachers are required to participate in management, committees, working groups, coordination, events, etc. 

For anyone who knows, even superficially, the dynamics of the Federal Institutes, it is clear that this means the end of research, outreach, and scientific and technological innovation. In a country already marked by educational and technological regression, its own government is acting like an anti-education terrorist. 

For faculty, even their career advancement will be threatened, since research, outreach, innovation, project coordination, book and article publications, student supervision, etc., are significant elements in the scoring that allows faculty to progress. If there is no time for these indispensable actions in the pedagogical process, educational darkness takes over the environment, cognitively amputating students who, until then, excelled in national and international events, and professors who produce science, innovation, patents, etc.

The Federal Institutes, which have the potential to be the driving force behind a new Brazil, now find themselves on the brink of collapse, their necks exposed before a Death Order: the death of education.

What is striking, on the other hand, is the passivity of the National Congress and the managers of the Federal Institutes in the face of this authoritarian abuse that tramples on current legislation. The institutional corrosion that has marked Brazil in the last decade is spreading like metastasis, affecting vital organs of society, such as education. Decree 983 flagrantly disregards the legislation that establishes the principles of professional, technical, and technological education, which in itself should be reason enough not to comply with it, since a decree is at a lower hierarchical level than a law. 

Law 11892/2008, which created the Federal Institutes, establishes among its purposes and objectives the following actions: developing extension programs; developing local productive arrangements; conducting applied research, entrepreneurship, innovation, cooperativism and cultural production; transferring technologies for the benefit of society; offering undergraduate and graduate courses (Master's and Doctorate degrees), etc. 

I ask you, reader: how can any of these aforementioned activities, which are fundamental to the country's development, be carried out with teachers who become "lecture-giving" machines, as if education were limited to that? How can the quality highlighted by PISA be maintained if Decree 983 completely disrupts the dynamics of teaching work? Look at the quality of Brazilian education, which is reduced to lectures, and see if that's what the Federal Institutes (IFs) should become. Instead of the failed lecture-based model being used by the IFs for the Brazilian educational turnaround, the opposite is happening: they want to level the IFs down. Who benefits from this dismantling?

In addition to ignoring the fundamental principles of the Federal Institutes' Creation Law, the Ordinance also contradicts other laws, such as Law 12.772/2012 and the Law of Guidelines and Bases of Education (LDB). The former deals with the positions and career plans of federal teaching professors, highlighting the importance of teacher qualification through doctoral courses and the career progression process, which is far from limited to classes taught. The LDB, among many other norms affected by Ordinance 983, establishes in its article 57 a minimum of 8 weekly hours of classes for higher education. 

But are Federal Institutes (IFs) also Higher Education institutions? Yes, they are! More than that, IFs require teaching skills that go beyond higher education, as professors teach at almost all educational levels: Continuing and Initiated Training (FICs), Youth and Adult Education, Vocational Education at the Secondary Level, Teacher Training, Distance Education, Undergraduate Degrees, Specializations, Master's Degrees, and Doctorates. Consider the pedagogical universe in which IF faculty operate and the level of demand and qualification for such diverse activities. IF faculty do all this and also conduct research, extension programs, innovation, entrepreneurship, management, lectures, workshops, and provide consulting services to local production arrangements, etc. 

Only in the minds of people who are very incompetent to manage national education, or of unscrupulous individuals, could a decree like 983, which destroys one of the best education systems in the world, be enacted. This decree is a crime against Brazilian intelligence. 

The rectors, the higher councils, and the institutional procurators should act firmly in resisting this dismantling which, beyond pedagogical disagreements, tarnishes the legal principles that created and regulated the Federal Institutes. Law 11892/08, for example, guarantees financial, administrative, and pedagogical autonomy to the Federal Institutes, a legal provision essentially annulled by Ordinance 983.  

It should also be mentioned that Article 2 of the same law states that "Federal Institutes are institutions of HIGHER, basic and professional education" and, in its paragraph 1, affirms that for the purposes of regulation, evaluation and supervision of higher education institutions and courses, the Federal Institutes are equated to universities. Now, the law leaves no room for unreasonable interpretations. It clearly states that in terms of rules, evaluation and supervision of institutions AND higher education courses, the Federal Institutes must be treated like universities. The LDB (Law of Directives and Bases of National Education), a law created before the existence of the Federal Institutes, mandates that the minimum workload for higher education professors be 8 hours. What kind of legal professional interprets anything differently regarding the equivalence in terms of rules and evaluation? 

There are no loopholes or narrative engineering that could coherently justify giving different treatment to the Federal Institutes (IFs), which, as the law itself states, are also higher education institutions. But they are more than that. They are higher education institutions and, also, basic and technological education institutions. They have more functions than the university and, for reasons unknown, some want to undermine the work of teachers and the quality of the service provided. 

University rectors, councils, and legal departments should not be intimidated by the imposition of a paltry decree that distorts the law. The legal hierarchy does not allow this type of overreach, and legally, a public servant must refuse to comply with an obviously illegal order.

Finally, there are several draft laws (PDLs) in Congress that respond negatively to this Ordinance, such as PDLs 483, 484, 485, and 487, all from 2020. Therefore, to avoid adopting illegal acts proposed by the ordinance and, given the legal imbroglio on the subject being debated in Congress, it is necessary to hold back the application of this Ordinance in the Federal Institutes to comply with the principles of legality, morality, and efficiency that are directly confronted by Ordinance 983, in addition to its illegitimacy in relation to the legal principles mentioned in the text. An ordinance cannot deny, cripple, or make impossible the determinations of higher laws. 

May Brazilian congressmen, prosecutors, advisors, and managers of the Federal Institutes (IFs) have at least a shred of shame and prevent the destruction of one of the 10 best educational systems in the world. If they fail to act as they should, may the communities served by the IFs publicly protest against this terrorist decree.