Lula government ends program of civic-military schools created by Bolsonaro

The federal government will close the National Program of Civic-Military Schools (Pecim) established in 2019, one of the main Education proposals during the management of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

In the letter obtained by CNN, signed by the Secretariat of Basic Education and sent to the state secretaries of Education this Wednesday (12), the maintenance of the program is not recommended.

“The characteristics of the Program and its execution so far indicate that its maintenance is not a priority and that the objectives defined for its execution must be pursued by mobilizing other educational policy strategies”, says the text.

The following reasons for terminating the Program are listed:

• there are problems of normative cohesion/coherence between its structure and the normative foundations of the Brazilian educational system;
• the program induces a deviation from the purpose of the activities of the armed forces, invoking its performance in an area that is not its expertise and is not consistent with its institutional place in the Brazilian legal system;
• the budget execution of the financial assistance resources destined to the Program’s schools throughout the years 2020, 2021 and 2021 was negligible, compromising investments that could be mobilized in other priority fronts of the Ministry of Education and, unless better judgment, indicating inefficiency in the process of implementation;
• the justification for carrying out the program is problematic, assuming that the educational management model, the didactic-pedagogical model and the administrative management model of the military colleges would be the solution for facing the issues arising from the social vulnerability of the territories in question. that public schools are inserted and that they would have the necessary characteristics to achieve the type of universal service foreseen for regular basic education, ignoring that military schools are structurally, functionally, demographically and legally different from regular public schools.

The document recommends the repeal of Decree 10,004/2019, which established Pecim, and the ordinances and rules linked to it.

The budget resources made available to the public network through the Program may be maintained, “provided that the entities assume the commitment to redesign and execute the physical and pedagogical infrastructure improvement plan”.

In addition, the Ministry of Education may require the Ministry of Defense to dismiss the reserve military personnel who work in schools linked to the Program and request the release of the budget destined to remunerate these professionals, so that the Ministry of Finance returns the amounts to the budget of the Education.

The document also adds that the recommendation refers only to the civic-military schools in Pecim, and does not cover similar initiatives proposed by state governments and executed between the State Departments of Education and their public security forces.

Pecim

When it was launched, in 2019, the National Program of Civic-Military Schools (Pecim) provided for the installation of 200 schools in this model by 2023.

The civic-military model is different from the model of military schools maintained by the Armed Forces. According to the previous government, the state secretariats of Education would continue to be responsible for school curricula, which is the same as for civilian schools.

The military, who may be members of the Military Police or the Armed Forces, would act as monitors in educational management, establishing coexistence norms and applying disciplinary measures.

*With information from Agência Brasil