Mercadante: Coup plotters dismantled 10 years of progress in 100 days.

247 - In an exclusive interview with 247, former Minister of Education, Aloizo Mercadante, assesses the first 100 days of Michel Temer's interim government in education. According to Mercadante, never before in Brazilian history has there been such a rapid, profound, and compromising setback for the future of education as in these first 100 days of the interim government of Temer and Mendonça Filho.

The former minister questions the dismantling of fundamental education programs in the country, such as Pronatec, the Science Without Borders program at the undergraduate level, and the National Pact for Literacy at the Right Age. Furthermore, he questions cuts to FIES (student loan program) and the budget of Federal Universities.

Mercadante also disagrees with the interim government's support for the "School Without Political Parties" project. Check out the full interview:

247 – What is your assessment of the first 100 days of the interim government in education?

Mercadante – We are experiencing the greatest setback in education in Brazilian history. While the government of Juscelino Kubitschek saw the country achieve 50 years of progress in five with the implementation of the Goals Plan, under Temer's coup-installed and provisional government we are witnessing the dismantling of 10 years in 100 days. This is because there has never been, at any other point in Brazilian history, such a rapid, profound, and compromising setback for the future of education as these 100 days of the interim and coup-installed government.

247 - What setbacks can you point out?

Mercadante – First, we can mention the end of Pronatec. The decision to end the program represents a cut of 2 million enrollments in 2016, with 1.460 built from the agreement with the S system, which foresaw a transfer of R$ 3,2 billion to the Ministry of Education. We also launched EJA – Pronatec, Education for Young People and Adults, associated with vocational technical education.

Another relevant innovation was E-Pronatec, especially the partnership with Senai, which provided distance learning courses with classes, simulators, and distance learning exercises that would facilitate the participation of workers. Brazil won the World Skills competition, the global olympiad of technical and vocational knowledge, in 2015, driven by 9,4 million enrollments already made in the program that is now being dismantled.

247 – The entire government also announced the end of new places in the Science Without Borders undergraduate program. What is your assessment?

Mercadante – We are returning to a time when only students from wealthy families will be able to enjoy the extraordinary experience of an internship abroad. This action represents the dismantling of the largest scholarship and student mobility program in the history of Brazil, with more than 101 participating students, including undergraduate, sandwich doctorate, full doctorate, and post-doctorate programs. More than half of the scholarship students are from families with a family income of up to 6 minimum wages, and almost 80% have an income of up to 10 minimum wages.

The program focused on the areas of natural sciences, exact sciences, engineering, medicine and health, and technological areas, especially computer science. Selection was always transparent and republican, based on ENEM scores, with a minimum of 600 points. In these areas, among all students with more than 600 points on the ENEM, only 5% went on to postgraduate studies; among the participants of the Science Without Borders program, 25% are pursuing master's or doctoral degrees.

It was a strategic program for the internationalization of universities and the future of Brazilian scientific production, providing access for excellent students, largely from low-income backgrounds, to realize their dream of studying at the best universities in the world.

No less than 40% of students in the Science Without Borders program jointly completed an internship in industry or scientific laboratories during their stay abroad.

247 – In a video on social media you mention the end of the National Pact for Literacy at the Right Age. What is this about?

Mercadante – The agreement involved a training program for all literacy teachers, approximately 300 throughout Brazil. In addition to a stipend for literacy teachers, the agreements with public universities implementing the continuing education process also ensured a stipend for the university professors who provided training. We implemented a new management structure in 2016 across the five regions of the country, with greater integration between state and municipal education departments, including the production of structured teaching materials for teachers and children in the literacy process. We face an immense challenge in literacy today; one in four children does not learn to read by age 8, and one in three does not write as they should.

247 – And what about FIES? The government claims to be expanding the number of loans available in the second half of the year...

Mercadante – That's not true. The coup government cut 95 places from what was planned in this year's budget. Furthermore, in 2016, 41% of the places offered by FIES (Student Financing Fund) were not filled. Bureaucratic barriers and new requirements were introduced, making access to the program more difficult.

During the Olympic Games, we must also remember that the interim, coup-installed government severely cut the budget for the School Olympics in mathematics, astronomy, and history.

247 – What do you mean?

Mercadante – The Brazilian Mathematics Olympiad for Public Schools has had its funding reduced by 50%, a measure intended to support the participation of 18 million students in 47 schools. Other Olympiads, such as Astronomy (50%) and History (35%), have also suffered cuts, demotivating and demobilizing one of the most motivating tools for students in the public school system.

They are working to end programs that were working well, such as the Diploma Portal. We implemented a portal at the Ministry of Education to combat fraud in university diplomas. A simple measure, requiring that all diplomas granted by university institutions be made available on a single publicly accessible portal. The question remains: who benefits from ending diploma forgery in the country?

They also put an end to the advances of the new Higher Education Evaluation System. After a long public discussion process, we launched a new system for evaluating courses and higher education institutions. We introduced research and university extension services into the evaluation program.

Another innovation was to give more relative weight to undergraduate and teacher training courses in the evaluation, among other long-awaited changes. The implementing decree was revoked without any improvements.

247 – And how do you assess the future of the expansion of federal universities, which was underway during the Lula and Dilma governments?

Mercadante – The coup government has already made it clear that universities and institutes of public and free education are not a priority. Cuts of 45% in investments and 18% in operating costs have been announced for 2017. This measure, coupled with the suspension of hiring new professors, jeopardizes not only future expansion but also the completion of courses already underway, with serious consequences for the quality of public higher education.

The disregard for education is so great that the coup government revoked the new representatives of society on the National Education Council, officially appointed by President Dilma. They replaced them with representatives from private education, especially in the Higher Education Chamber. In the Basic Education Chamber, they revoked the appointment of the most nominated candidates from the list of 39 education-related entities, which draw up shortlists of three for the presidency's approval. They also prevented representation supported by the National Confederation of Education Workers, UNE, UBES, ANDIFES, ANPG, to mention just a few of the overlooked entities.

247 - What about the "School Without Political Parties" bill, which is currently being debated in the Federal Senate?

Mercadante – We have seen a clear signal of support for the bills being processed in the National Congress and in several State Assemblies regarding this policy that censors teaching activities on topics related to politics, ideology, and gender. With the strong reaction, in addition to the consistent legal position of absolute unconstitutionality, there has been a certain retreat in the declarations, but no official government action to definitively stop them. This is a yo-yo government, without legitimacy from the ballot box and without legitimacy to advance fundamental policies for Brazil to make the technological leap necessary to become a great power.

247 – What is your assessment of the interim government's proposed economic plan that foresees adjusting investments in education only to correct for inflation?

Mercadante – The Brazilian Constitution mandates a minimum of 18% of federal tax revenue for education funding. President Dilma's government, over the past 5,5 years, invested R$ 54 billion above this constitutional minimum. The coup government is sponsoring and has already processed Constitutional Amendment Proposal (PEC) 241, which establishes that for the next 20 years, budget adjustments for Health and Education will only be based on the official inflation index. This means excluding public education and health from participating in economic growth for the next two decades.

247 – What about the National Education Plan?

Mercadante – We haven't heard a single statement of commitment from the new administration to the goals and strategies of the National Education Plan. All actions are going in the opposite direction, towards dismantling and regression.

The approval by the National Congress of a budget deficit limit far exceeding that proposed by the Dilma government showed no commitment to education; the priorities are elsewhere and highly questionable.

The only actions that can be highlighted, apart from the profound regression, were the unjustifiable postponements of some important actions that had already been scheduled.

The National Common Curriculum Base was preceded by a broad public consultation with over 12 million participants on the Ministry of Education's specific portal, in addition to seminars and public hearings, and was submitted to the National Education Council to conclude the process in 2016. The coup government simply postponed it.

FIES enrollments were postponed due to a computer system failure after the dismantling of the technical team. If there were problems with FIES, what can we expect with ENEM, which is a gigantic exam with great logistical complexity?

The "Hora do Enem" program, which had over 1,1 million participants in its mock exams, saw an increase from 500 to over 8 million accesses on the TV Escola platform and already has around 5 million students accessing its 1,2 video lessons and approximately 3 exercises. However, the third mock exam was also postponed.

The Provinha Brasil exam was only sent out online without any guarantee of its administration, breaking an important historical trend.

The Ministry of Education seems to be in shambles. Improvisation and, not always, the formation of a qualified and experienced technical team are consequences of the coup, which deeply affects Brazilian education.