The Brazilian Federal Constitution of 1988, assured – by article 206 – to all the students of public universities in the country the free access to them. In this context, a polemic debate was raised, since the parliamentary General Peternelli (União-SP) presented the PEC 206, which changes the current article. With the approval of this legislation, these universities could charge monthly payments.
On May 24, the parliamentarians decided to hold a public hearing before the beginning of voting for the future of this legislative measure. However, the ballot was postponed because Kim Kataguiri (União-SP) – the rapporteur of the PEC – was absent from the audience.
On May 31, in the parliament, an agreement suspended the voting until the hearing about the PEC was signed.
What does the PEC 206 defend?
The PEC 206’s project refers to a report disclosed by The Word Bank that endorsed the end of gratuitousness on the access to public institutions of education in the country, since research from The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) indicated, in 2018, that, between the 29 studied countries, 20 had settled some kind of charges at state universities.
According to Peternelli, the author of the project, this proposition is necessary because most students that attend these universities come from private schools, so they can afford the expenses. Furthermore, he also defends that the established gratuity set these high-income students in a place of privilege on the access to public education.
“Who pays more taxes are the poor people and salaried employees, then who pays for education? The public resources. This person pays to finance the Medicine course of the guy who will go to classes with a Mercedes car. It is incomprehensible that we have the opportunity to share financial resources and we are going to deny hearing this proposal”, he claimed.
If it is approved, the PEC will assure that public universities can start charging their student’s monthly payments. Besides that, these institutions will have to ensure gratuity to those students who are unable to pay the requirement. The project does not detail how the measures of incomes and the analysis of possible individualized payments will work.
Supporters X Opponents: the debate around the PEC
The main points discussed around the PEC are the accessibility to the public colleges in Brazil and the public spending on education.
Kim Kataguiri, the PEC’s 206 rapporteurs, has held in favor of the project’s implementation. “Brazilian education cannot continue to be a social inequality machine, taking away from the poor people and giving it to the rich ones. We have to invest in basic education to increase the access of the poor in universities”, he affirmed.
Many complaints were made about the proposals of the project, especially around the fact that the charges could be an excluding factor to the universities’ access. In his Instagram profile, Kataguiri argued that this would not be the case: “Who is unable to pay, won’t pay. And what is collected with those who are able, can be reverted in aids and scholarships.”
General Peternelli also used his social media to defend his position. In an Instagram post, he declared: “The gratuity in public institutions will be kept just for low-income students, defined by a university evaluation committee, based on the minimum and maximum values established by MEC (Brazilian Ministry of Education).”
In contrast, the ICTP.Br – an initiative for science and technology in the parliament composed of scientific entities – took a stand against the approval of the PEC. The enterprise, in a letter, called it a “project of a Brazil against ethical and political values that guide the Constitution of 1988”. And also affirmed that “it will create a big bureaucracy to identify the students that can pay the charges proposed by the universities and those who can’t.”
Also, the National Union of Students (UNE) made a note on Instagram stating that the Federal Government does not accept that, in recent years, the universities were occupied by the low-income population. According to research from ANDIFES that states that 70,2% of students from federal universities had a monthly income of up to 1.5 minimum wage per capita – that was R$ 1.431 in 2018 when the research was made.
The Union said: “We have the conviction that the right to a public education, free and of quality is inalienable”. They also believe that the monthly payments should not be a point of discussion, but the expansion of investments in this sector should.
Considering both placements around the PEC 206, we can understand the importance of debating this topic, due to its influences on the future of public education in Brazil.
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The article above was written by Isabela Munhoz and edited by Milena Casaca.
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