Haddad reinforces rigor in the education system.
The city government announces the "More Education São Paulo" program, with a one-month public consultation period. Among the changes, students can be held back a grade starting in the third year, homework will be mandatory, and bimonthly report cards will be released to parents online. In 2011, under the current model, it was found that 38% of students reached the 4th grade without being fully literate; the mayor wants to improve the performance of students in the public school system.
247 - The City Hall presents this Thursday (15) the Mais Educação São Paulo, a program named in reference to the Ministry of Education, which aims at the curricular and administrative reorganization of the Municipal Education Network. The concepts of the reformulation will be available for public consultation on the program's website until September 15th to receive suggestions from the population and will come into effect from 2014.
Among the main concepts of the new plan is the division of the nine years of Elementary School into three cycles: Literacy Cycle (1st to 3rd grade), Interdisciplinary Cycle (4th to 6th grade), and Authorial Cycle (7th to 9th grade). Currently, the division is only two periods, Elementary I (1st to 5th grade) and Elementary II (6th to 9th grade). The measure softens the change between cycles, since, instead of the student going from a single generalist teacher to a series of specialists from one year to the next, the transition will be gradual within the cycles.
In the current model, the possibility of retaining a student due to lack of learning exists only in the final years of both cycles (4th and 9th grades).
The new program also proposes retention not only at the end of each cycle (3rd, 6th, and 9th grade), but also in the 7th and 8th grades if the student does not show progress. In 2011, with the current model, it was found that 38% of students reached the 4th grade without being fully literate.
"The goal is not to increase grade repetition, because we know that the repetition industry is as perverse as the automatic promotion industry. But it is about the teacher and the students themselves organizing the nine-year transition in a way that there is clarity about what is wanted at each stage of the process. At the end of the third year, full literacy. In the sixth and so on. In the seventh, eighth and ninth years they enter the specializations," says Mayor Fernando Haddad.
Homework, bimonthly tests, and report cards are once again mandatory for the entire school system. Students will receive grades from zero to ten, sent to their parents at home every two months. The system of make-up classes during the holidays is also returning.
The goal is to include 100 students in the program by the end of 2016. (With information from the São Paulo City Hall press office)