Banner with the theme Education - Urgently Important

NEWS

Curricular Base is conservative, privatizing and threatens autonomy, experts assess

BNCC construction process is marked by divergences

authorship
image editing

About three years ago, the Ministry of Education (MEC) began actions aimed at building the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC), a public policy whose objective, according to the Department, is to establish a set of guidelines to guide the curricula of public and private early childhood and elementary schools in Brazil. After this time and after the preparation of four versions of the document – ​​the last being the result of a review carried out by the MEC in conjunction with the National Education Council (CNE) – the proposals contained in the BNCC will be debated by the CNE today and tomorrow (December 4th and 5th). The expectation is that the vote will take place in December, so that the document can be approved by the MEC and come into force from 2019. According to two experts consulted by the Journal of Unicamp, the Base’s profile is not the most encouraging. In general terms, they say, the initiative has a conservative character, reflects with greater emphasis the interests of privatizing groups and represents a risk to the freedom and autonomy of teachers, among other problems.

Professor Maria do Carmo Martins, leader of the Memory, History and Education Research Group (Memory) at the Faculty of Education (FE) at Unicamp, explains that the preparation of the BNCC was provided for in the Education Guidelines and Bases Law (LDB), promulgated in 1996. As a State policy, he states, the Base is a legitimate project. “It turns out that the discussions were extended and were developed at a time of deep social conflict, during which there was an intensification of divergences between the different groups that participated in the process. To a large extent, the document reflects these divergences”, considers the professor.

Photo: Scarpa
Professor Maria do Carmo Martins: “The Base is not a specific agenda for the privatizing segments. However, representatives of marketing interests linked themselves to the State and managed to make their demands explicit”

A noticeable aspect of the BNCC proposal, continues Maria do Carmo, is the presence of proposals that take into account the interests of education entrepreneurs, such as producers of software and educational materials. “The Base is not a specific agenda for the privatizing segments. On the contrary, it is on the agenda of different social groups, including those who strongly defend quality public schools. However, representatives of marketing interests linked themselves to the State and managed to make their demands clear. One of the consequences of this strategy was the withdrawal of some movements from the process, because they realized that they could no longer defend public schools”, she reports.

Another issue present in the current BNCC proposal, according to the FE professor, is the conservative nature of the document. An inattentive reading of the text, notes Maria do Carmo, may give the impression that it is free from prejudiced policies. “But a careful look will see that the Base is very timid in relation to social rights, inclusion actions and gender issues, a position that is in line, for example, with the stance of those who defend the School without a Party. It is interesting that society is aware of this, so that it can understand how these movements influence the formulation of public policies, especially those linked to education”, analyzes the professor.

Because of these and other aspects, the Unicamp specialist states that she considers the existence of the BNCC to be inappropriate at this historical moment, precisely because the document was created in a context of heightened divergences. “I agree with professor Luiz Carlos de Freitas [also from FE-Unicamp], who warned in 2015, when the first version of the document was released, that there was no basis for discussing the Curricular Base. At that time, he warned that this policy would only serve as a catalyst for interests with great political expression. I think that is what happened, because the issues involving a fairer society were not and still are not resolved in the country”.

When analyzing the possible impacts of the measures provided for in the BNCC on the curriculum and the quality of education, the specialist draws attention to two points. One of them refers to the ambiguous characteristic of the document. “While stating that the Base is not the curriculum, but rather a guideline for its elaboration, the text goes into detail about the aims and objectives of teaching. There is an inversion there. There is a consolidated criticism of the traditional view of curricula organized by objectives. And BNCC insists on consolidating this vision of curriculum development, ignoring that it is in the dynamics of culture that selections are made, so that they are socially valid for the community of students and educators, giving meaning to the educational process”, she specifies.

The second issue addressed by Maria do Carmo, which is directly related to the first, concerns the quality of education. In the teacher's opinion, by linking quality to systemic assessments, the document places the expressiveness of the schooling process in the background. “In other words, the idea in question takes the comparison of learning out of the pedagogical encounter, which is something that can qualitatively change people's lives, and places it on the result. This produces a standardization of education, based on a standardized vision of quality”.

Game in progress

Professor Antonio Carlos Amorim, also from FE-Unicamp, closely followed the discussions surrounding the BNCC, mainly in the period between 2013 and 2015, when he held the position of vice-president, for the Southeast region, of the National Association of Postgraduate Studies. Graduation and Research in Education (Anped), one of the scientific entities that were called into dialogue by the MEC when the proposal to build the Base was revived. He agrees with professor Maria do Carmo when she states that the clashes between different groups ended up being reflected in the text of the document. “It is worth saying that the disputes occurred both within the MEC and between the public and private sectors”, she points out.

Amorim also understands that the third version of the BNCC expresses market interests more emphatically, which can be seen in different aspects. One of them, he points out, is the idea of ​​efficiency related to learning, which would allow students to learn content more quickly. “The Base establishes, for example, that literacy occurs at an earlier age. Thus, early childhood education would be structured within the logic of schooling, for which the creation of a guiding curriculum is one of the fundamental bases. The document also gives emphasis to certain subjects that it considers to be priorities, to the detriment of others. One of the interests in focus are international rankings that would evaluate the quality of education. The objective seems to be, in short, to generate ways to improve the country’s image on an international level”, he details.

Photo: Scarpa
Professor Antonio Carlos Amorim: “What we have today is the dispute, for example, between entities linked to the business sectors and scientific associations. The federal government has privileged some sectors and considered some issues to be overdue, but I don't see things that way. I think we still have room for negotiations”

The conservative contour of the BNCC is reinforced by the professor. According to him, by indicating the implementation of national minimum curricula, the Base fails to highlight several themes, notably cultural ones, which would express a certain conception of neutrality of pedagogical sciences. “In this way, disciplines that work on topics considered more controversial, such as issues related to gender diversity, would lose space, something well in line with the flags defended by supporters of the Escola sem Partido”.

In addition to these important presences in the Base's proposal, Amorim also highlights an absence, which according to him is revealing of how the process of constructing the proposal took place, and which therefore deserves reflection. “High school is not at BNCC. It was not included because some segments want to link it to professionalization. There is still no agreement on this, given that the LDB establishes that secondary education, as well as primary education, is a duty of the State. We still don't know what will be done with this level of education. However, we see a clear movement towards linking professional training to the participation of the private sector”, he observes.

Although he recognizes that the sectors that defend privatization interests have played a leading role in the design of the BNCC, the FE-Unicamp professor understands that the game is not over yet. “What we have today is a dispute, for example, between entities linked to the business sectors and scientific associations. Everyone is trying to circulate ideas for the construction of the Base in society, whether agreeing or questioning this movement. I think the dispute is not over yet. The federal government has privileged some sectors and considered some issues to be overdue, but I don't see things that way. I think we still have room for negotiations”, says Amorim.

The teacher informs that sectors that defend quality public schools are mobilizing and critically participating in discussions around suggestions that could make the document gain a different profile. The creation of the National Popular Education Forum (FNPE), which took place in June 2017, is an example of the actions of this movement, according to Amorim. “These entities will bring new proposals and concepts that have not yet been proposed. Next year, issues such as teacher training should be highlighted. The game tends towards a certain hegemony, but I insist that it is not finished yet”.

Photo: Scarpa
Leaving a municipal school in Jardim São Cristóvão, in Campinas

All this movement, which seems to have a more general character, continues the FE-Unicamp professor, has already caused repercussions in the school space. “Many reports come from educators. Some effects of the guidelines imposed on education can already be felt in the classroom, such as the constraint on teachers' work. In different ways, the proposed policies state that the teacher's place is not a place of freedom. This is not a specific result of the BNCC, but it comes to reaffirm this position. Teachers know that some of the proposals are related to the evaluation and certification process, which has generated insecurity among them, since they were barely able to participate in the creation of the document”.

Finally, Amorim briefly considers the possible impacts of the enactment of the BNCC on Youth and Adult Education (EJA). “EJA is not among my research topics, but in the conferences I have participated in, experts have drawn attention to the risk of this type of policy causing the education of young people and adults to disappear from the formal structure of education. It would continue to grant certificates, but without schooling experience. EJA brings with it the discussion about popular education, which has become a battle flag for some segments, as if the popular could not be considered in the context of the Base. The tendency, unfortunately, has been to leave everything that is identified as popular to the margins of public policies”, he laments.

 

 

JU-online cover image
Student during a state school in Jardim San Diego, in Campinas | Photo: Antonio Scarpinetti

twitter_icofacebook_ico