pillar of democracy, Federal Constitution of 1988 He turned 35 on October 5. Brazil, a country of continental dimensions, assumed with this document a bold commitment to guarantee the right of everyone to free education. In other words, as in health, universal access became the responsibility of public authorities, becoming an important and indispensable instrument for citizens.
On this topic, in the first edition of the Education program, Sagres listened to Professor Salomão Ximenes. He is part of the working group on educational policies and the right to education in the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO).
“Education is considered the first of the social rights guaranteed to the Brazilian population. In other words, this constitutional provision, this promise of the 1988 Constitution has to do with the idea of affirming the role of the State as a Social State that guarantees the basic rights of citizenship of the Brazilian population. The Constitution predicted that Brazil would move towards guaranteeing conditions of greater equality, equity, non-discrimination, reduction of federal disparities and discrimination. This is the draft of the 1988 Federal Constitution,” says Ximenes.
For the postdoctorate in Education and former president of the Anísio Teixeira National Institute of Educational Studies and Research (Inep), José Francisco Soares, there is still much to do to ensure full guarantee of access to education. “We are moving forward in a way that we should celebrate, but it is not enough. The country, for many years, was not very careful with the right to education. We spent many years, in a way, denying children the possibility of an education, of quality learning. There is still a lot to do,” says Soares.
Inequality
Among all the aspects that can be attributed to citizenship, education is perhaps one of the most obvious. Salomão Ximenes emphasizes that there are challenges to achieving full access.
The professor analyzes that there has been progress in the last three and a half decades. However, he adds that there is still a long way to go for the country to achieve a condition of equality in relation to free, quality education for all.
“Generally speaking, today we have more access to daycare and access to school. Schools today in Brazil, compared to what they were in the 70s and 80s, have better quality infrastructure conditions and serve more children, young people and adults. The law on the national minimum salary for Basic Education teaching professionals is also provided for in the Constitution; Teachers today have a much better salary than before the constitutional provision. So I would say that as a general balance we have made a lot of progress, although it is essential to recognize that there are many challenges, inequalities, a lot of difficulty in accessing quality,” Ximenes reflects.
Another issue highlighted by Ximenes is the Expenditure Ceiling, which caused a drop in resources for education. The budget of the Ministry of Education, which had been growing between 2004 and 2018, began to show a continuous decline starting in 2018. “Constitutional Amendment 95/2016 of the Expenditure Ceiling, a process of social investment in the public sector is interrupted. The schools, at the public university, we had some setbacks. But in a general balance of 35 years, the balance is positive,” he assesses.