President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stated, this Monday (25), that Brazil has an eternal debt with education and has been slow to advance policies in the area for the entire population. He participated in an event at Palácio do Planalto to mark the beginning of payments for the Pé-de-Meia Program, from the Ministry of Education (MEC), a type of savings account for low-income high school students.
For Lula, the children “of the most humble people, of workers, of people who earn less in this country, must have the right to be a doctor, to train in whatever they want.”
Pé-de-Meia aims to reduce dropout rates and promote retention and completion of school for people enrolled in secondary education in public schools. The event was attended by students from all regions of the country. Lula asked them to never give up, “because giving up can be a path of no return.”
“A young man who gives up going to school because he has to help his father, he has to help with the family budget, he has to help his mother, in other words, this young man is throwing away the prospect of a bright future, a promising future, of having a career at a university, becoming an intellectually important, professionally important figure”, said the president.
By encouraging school retention, the federal government wants to reduce social inequality among young people in high school, in addition to promoting greater social inclusion through education, stimulating social mobility.
“I always say, people often don’t like to hear, that the economic and political elite that ran this country for 500 years never liked the Brazilian people to study. Because the rich man’s son went to study abroad, in France, in England, in the United States, in Spain, in Germany, and the poor man’s son stayed here, because the motto was that the poor man’s son had to work, work and work”, added Lula, remembering educators who fought for the democratization of public education in the country and educational policies that he implemented in his previous mandates.
The deposit of the R$ 200 portion of the Nest Egg, related to the Enrollment Incentive, begins tomorrow (26th) and will occur staggered until April 3rd, depending on the month of birth of the students.
The annual investment is R$7.1 billion, and the program is estimated to serve around 2.4 million students. The policy provides for the payment of annual incentives of R$3,000 per beneficiary, reaching up to R$9,200 in the three years of high school, with an additional R$200 for participation in the National High School Examination (Enem) in the last series.
The law that created Pé-de-Meia was sanctioned by Lula in January of this year. The program was well received by students and civil society as an action to combat the high dropout rates in secondary education, by students who abandon their studies mainly to work.
For the Minister of Education, Camilo Santana, Pé-deia could have a great impact on the lives of millions of young Brazilians. Citing data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), he highlighted that 41.5% of the Brazilian population aged 25 to 64 did not complete secondary education in Brazil.
“In the last School Census, almost 480 thousand young people, in just one year, in Brazil, left high school. If we imagine that we have 6.7 million young people in Brazilian public schools, it is almost half a million young people who “They leave school after one year in the country. And the biggest reason is financial issues, it is often the need to help the family, help at home. Sometimes, it is not an option that the young person makes, sometimes it is a necessity” , said Santana, also remembering that Pé-de-Meia comes together with other programs that the federal government has implemented, such as the National Literacy Child Commitment and the Full-Time School Program.
“All the evidence has already shown that, when a child does not learn to read and write at the end of the second year of elementary school, [a] Each year that passes, the age-grade distortion increases, failure rates increase, the incentive to be in school decreases, dropouts increase; and when it reaches high school, it is the biggest dropout and the biggest dropout of all Brazilian basic education”, he added.
During the event, President Lula spoke to students from all regions of the country, who told the stories of their families. From Duque de Caxias, in Rio de Janeiro, student Mateus da Silva Souza said that the incentives will be of “extreme importance” for all students.
“Many do not have this choice, this option [de continuar os estudos]so I believe that [o Pé-de-Meia] It is a completely necessary initiative. I say for myself, my parents, unfortunately, did not have the opportunity or the opportunity to finish their studies. So, I’m here to be able to try to make them and myself proud; I’m also here for myself, I want to be able to achieve my dreams, accomplish what I want,” he said.
First payment
No student needs to register to receive the Nest Egg, just be regularly enrolled in public high school, be between 14 and 24 years old and be a member of families registered in the federal government’s Single Registry for Social Programs (CadÚnico). At the beginning, beneficiaries of the Bolsa Família Program will have priority.
To deposit this first incentive, the MEC was based on information sent by the education networks of municipalities, states and the Federal District between February 29th and March 8th of this year. The ministry informed that, if corrections and updates to information relating to enrollment are made between March 9th and June 14th, payment of the Enrollment Incentive can be made until July 1st.
Through the free Jornada do Estudante app, high school students enrolled in the public network can find out if they have been included and have more information about the program. Students with questions about Pé-de-Meia can access a Frequently Asked Questions section about the program on the MEC portal. Other channels are MEC’s Contact Us (phone 0800 616161) and the service portal, through option 7.
The amount will be deposited into digital accounts automatically opened by Caixa Econômica Federal, in the names of the students themselves.
If the public high school student covered is a minor, their legal guardian will need to authorize them to operate the account, to withdraw money or use the Caixa Tem app. This consent can be made at a Caixa bank branch or via the Caixa Tem app. If the student is 18 years old or over, the account will already be unlocked to use the amount received.
Incentives
The Enrollment Incentive is paid only once a year, even if the student transfers enrollment between schools or education networks in the same academic year. However, the student who left school and returned to study or who failed in that grade will be entitled to the Enrollment Incentive for the respective grade only once more, during the period of their stay in high school.
The Nest Egg is made up of three other financial-educational incentives. One of them is the Frequency Incentive, worth R$200 per month, paid in nine periodic installments. To be eligible, the student must have a minimum monthly attendance of 80% of teaching hours or an average attendance of 80% of teaching hours in the year, until the date of collection of information by the education network.
The amounts of enrollment and attendance incentives can be used freely by students, as they are received in their bank accounts.
The Completion Incentive, worth R$1,000 per year, can only be withdrawn by the student after completing high school. To be entitled to it, the student must complete the series in which they are enrolled with approval and, when applicable, with participation in the Basic Education Assessment System (Saeb) exams, as well as in exams administered by external assessment systems. of federative entities for secondary education.
Finally, the 3rd year high school student who registers and participates in the two days of the National High School Examination (Enem) will be entitled to the Enem Incentive, worth R$ 200. Possible reapplication of tests in situations exceptional conditions must also be met by the student.
Editing: Juliana Andrade