Quotas: Lula sanctions update of the law that makes permanent vacancies for black and indigenous people in federal institutions

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) sanctioned this Monday (13) the reformulation of the Quota Law that makes permanent the reservation of places in universities and federal public institutions for black, brown and indigenous students and for people with disabilities.

Ministers Camilo Santana (Education), Anielle Franco (Racial Equality), Silvio Almeida (Human Rights and Citizenship), Sonia Guajajara (Indigenous Peoples) and Márcio Macêdo (General Secretariat of the Presidency) participated in the event.

Video: Lula sanctions project that expands Quota Law

Law review

The first version of the law, sanctioned in 2012, established a review of the system ten years later to correct distortions and improve access to higher education in Brazil.

This review should have been completed in August 2022, but the National Congress resisted approving the changes in an election year for fear of possible setbacks. The project was then approved by the Senate in October this year, after passing through the Chamber of Deputies.

With the reformulation of the law, the evaluation of the quota system must continue to occur every ten years, as it currently works. However, it should become an assessment, not a review, generating less legal uncertainty.

Reservation of vacancies

The law also guarantees reservation of places for those who completed high school in public schools and establishes the guarantee of student assistance services for those who need assistance to complete the course.

The maximum per capita family income requirement of the student applying for admission through quotas for having completed secondary education in public schools will decrease from one and a half minimum wages to one minimum wage.

The text also determines that, in the mechanism for admitting students to universities or federal institutes, firstly, grades due to broad competition will be considered and, subsequently, reservations for quota places.

Furthermore, if a black student achieves a sufficient cut-off score, he will pass through the broad competition, and not through the quota group.

The text also improves the Quota Law to:

  • Establish priority for quota holders in receiving student aid;
  • Expand affirmative policies for postgraduate studies;
  • Include quilombolas in the quotas of federal educational institutions;
  • Establish that places reserved for unused sub-quotas will be passed on, first, to other sub-quotas and then to public school students;
  • Allow the use of other IBGE surveys, in addition to the Census, to calculate the proportion of quota holders in the states.

Source: CNN Brasil

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