Teachers and students held a demonstration in the capital of São Paulo later this afternoon (22) against the current high school policy, implemented by Law 13,415, of 2017, known as the new high school. The act took place in front of the São Paulo Museum of Art (Masp), on Avenida Paulista. All vehicle traffic lanes at the site were occupied by protesters. The act was organized by the Union of Teachers of Official Teaching of the State of São Paulo (Apeoesp) and had the participation of the Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT), the Union of Professionals in Education in Municipal Teaching of São Paulo (Sinpeem), the National Confederation of Workers in Education (CNTE), the Paulista Union of Secondary Students (UPES), and the Brazilian Union of Secondary Students (UBES). PT and Psol deputies were also present. “Our agenda is, above all, for the repeal of the farce of the new high school. Because we understand that, in practice, it meant the fragmentation of disciplines that are curricular components that give us general education, that provide a solid basic education”, highlighted the president of Apeoesp, Maria Izabel Azevedo Noronha, to Bebel. “In fact, this new high school says the following: you are a student, you study what you like. If you like this then you choose this here to study. But life is not like that. Life is made up of challenges and a big challenge is having this general education”, she added. According to the state deputy of São Paulo for the PT, Beth Sahão, the new secondary education will have to be revoked in its entirety since, according to her, it cannot be partially “patched”. “It’s no use patching up a law that has already been implanted inappropriately, incorrectly, harming public school students.” For her, teenagers often do not yet have the capacity to choose the appropriate subjects that they should or should not study. “They, in a way, will be influenced to choose what capital wants them to choose. We know that young people aged 15, 16 or 17 often do not have the training to make their choice properly”. Student Luiza Martins, from the Paulista Union of Secondary Students (Upes), said that the new high school reduces the quality of school education and does not provide complete training for students. “We want to fight for the immediate repeal of the new high school. It ends our dream of going to university, it ends our perspective of a quality school that offers us complete training as human beings. Inside the school we learn to revolutionize our society”, she said. The demonstration also demanded that the national base for teachers be implemented in São Paulo; the repeal of the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC); and the completion of pedagogical work classes in a free choice location. The new secondary education The current secondary education policy was approved in 2017, during the Michel Temer government, with the aim of making the stage “more attractive”, implementing full-time education and preventing students from dropping out of school. With the model, part of the classes should be common to all students in the country, guided by the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC). In the other part of the training, the students themselves will be able to choose the disciplines to deepen their learning. Last week, the Minister of Education, Camilo Santana, recognized that the new secondary education needs to be corrected. “We have already identified that there is a need for corrections, a need for a good debate. However, I think it is part of the democratic process, because secondary education is already in progress in its implementation, [acho que] it is important to listen to entities, specialists in the area, students, teachers, so that we can take decisions with great responsibility. Our main objective is to guarantee quality, a good secondary education for young students in Brazil”, he said.
Agência Brasil
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