The dean of Undergraduate Studies at Unicamp, Eliana Martorano Amaral, took office at the São Paulo State Education Council (CEE-SP) on September 16th. Professor at the Faculty of Medical Sciences, Eliana has been a member of the CEE-SP Higher Education Chamber since August 2018, having now been reappointed. In total, in the Basic and Superior Chambers, there are 24 members, with three-year terms.
Normative, deliberative and consultative body of the state Education System, the Council it must issue regulatory acts and supervise educational institutions and the programs they offer. The EEC is responsible for establishing standards for state, municipal and private educational institutions, from basic education to higher education for the state of São Paulo. The body's main objective is to guarantee the quality of education in São Paulo, at all levels.
In an interview, Professor Eliana highlights the importance of taking the Unicamp experience to CEE-SP, whose composition is plural. For the dean, the main challenges of action refer to the implementation of the new São Paulo High School, its connection with the initial and continuing training of teachers and the maintenance and improvement of Undergraduate courses offered by higher education institutions under regulation sweet and.
How important is it to be part of the Council?
The State Education Council brings together a group of professionals who are recognized for their expertise in education and who must standardize, evaluate and monitor the education policies of the state of São Paulo, from basic education to higher education, in institutions regulated by the advice. This refers to state and municipal institutions. In basic education, it operates in the policy that guides basic education in the municipal and state systems, from the initial years to the final years of elementary and secondary education, including public and private schools.
The importance of the participation of a Unicamp teacher is that we can contribute by bringing our expertise in education to the reflection and decisions made by the Council, which brings together views and perspectives from various agents participating in the educational system. We have a recognized production of knowledge and experiences that add and offer a broadening of perspectives in the discussions and decisions deliberated by the CEE. And we must remember that we offer education at various levels at Unicamp, from pre-school to postgraduate studies.
What will be the main challenges for this period, in your opinion?
We have two very big challenges. One of them is the change of high school. The Council, in the previous administration, approved the new Paulista Curriculum for the High School stage. IThis will mean a whole process of discussion and standardization of how it will be implemented, and also how teacher training will be carried out with this focus. For higher education, one of the challenges is maintaining and improving the quality of training, as the higher education system in the state has expanded in state and municipal institutions. This expands the Council's role in monitoring, evaluating and qualifying our higher education. The CEE also regulates and supervises other types of courses, such as specialization courses offered particularly by government schools or other institutions linked to state or municipal public authorities. So it is important that it plays this role of helping to guide the quality of training, providing parameters not only for institutions, but also for society in general.
What are your guidelines for acting as a counselor?
Working on the state council is not a specific institutional representation, but my lines of action are those that we have and experience within Unicamp. One of the milestones is to bring a scientific approach that guarantees the quality of normative or regulatory decisions, with the experience of those on the other side of this system. It is true that my role in helping to develop the deliberations and their implementation processes creates a rapprochement with the university and its potential to contribute to the entire educational system. This approach to the entire scope of training in the state is very important, so this is another guideline: exchange of experiences with all possible educational agents in the state, in their different spheres of activity.
In relation to policies related to higher education, what are the prospects for action?
In relation to higher education, there is a project that has already started and which should be further developed in this next phase of action. Regulation, recognition and proposals for new courses are based on analyzes by experts, who are professors from different institutions who register and carry out visits and document analysis.
One of the important guidelines and contributions will be the qualification and review of this process, and preparing evaluators for a more homogeneous and updated look at what is meant by quality training in higher education and the necessary conditions of the institutions that offer it.
The second important action is to continue discussing and clarifying the role and place of different higher education institutions in the system, with emphasis on the specificities of state public universities. For us, this is important because the role that an institution like Unicamp plays in training prepared people in a scientific environment, with critical thinking and innovation is a different role from a municipal institution that has as its main focus more professional training, for example.
Still on higher education, as I am the only member of the Council with specific training in the medical field, and I am identified as a specialist in evaluating higher education in the health field, I have already worked a lot on preparing regulations, specific deliberations, for example , for new Medicine courses. We have the challenge of monitoring and seeking to guarantee training quality for those approved and initiated in municipal higher education institutions over the last 10 years. Now, there is a new process to monitor the implementation of these courses and correct routes, if necessary. And when the time comes, take the assessment for course recognition. This will be a very specific contribution as she is a specialist in the health field.
What about basic education?
We will have a very strong focus on the issue of new secondary education, which was a very bold, even disruptive proposal, which includes several training itineraries. This has been organized and proposed by the Department of Education. The Council was responsible for approving the proposal and now monitoring this process, within its competence.
Along with this comes the great challenge of continuing education or initial training for teachers who will work in this secondary school. It's an issue that aligns perfectly with the Forum we're going to hold and which starts in October, aimed at teacher training [Permanent Forum: Teacher training cycle]. At Unicamp, we are concerned with understanding and discussing the challenges that these changes will bring.
No less important, we will have the great challenge of monitoring the resumption of activities in schools after the pandemic, with all its variables. This is a big issue: monitoring and regulatory support for this process.
It will be a very intense and relevant period of activities, for sure. This makes my responsibility as a professor at Unicamp and member of the CEE even greater.
