📋 Tender Overview
The date of January 24th was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly as International Education Day. The theme of UNESCO -- the UN agency specializing in education, science and culture -- in 2026 is The power of youth in co-creating education. In the Senate, debates on public educational policy projects, such as the new National Education Plan (PNE), new subjects in the curriculum and the guarantee of places in rural daycare centers are analyzed in bills that have already advanced in processing or in recently presented proposals.
According to UNESCO, 250 million children and young people in the world are out of school and 763 million adults are illiterate. In Brazil, the most recent data indicates around 993 thousand children and adolescents are out of school, according to the United Nations Childrens Fund (Unicef). The IBGE registered 9.1 million people who abandoned their studies before completing basic education in 2024.
Advancement in educational legislation
Given this scenario, parliamentarians celebrate progress with the creation of the National Education System (SNE) at the end of last year. Sanctioned on October 31, Complementary Law 220 of 2025 establishes a legal framework for cooperative governance between the Union, states and municipalities to reduce regional inequalities.
It took almost ten years to wait, since the SNE should have been implemented by 2016, as established in the 2014 National Education Plan (PNE). But now the law materializes ambitions to universalize quality standards and integrate public management.
-- We want the full realization of the right to education for all people, located in every corner of the national territory -- said senator Flavio Arns (PSB-PR), author of the project (PLP 235/2019) that gave rise to the new law.
Projects in the Plenary
There is also an expectation of voting on two bills that are ready in the Plenary. The first, by deputy Renata Abreu (Podemos-SP), incorporates the subject of political education and citizenship rights into the mandatory basic education curriculum. The text received a favorable opinion from the Education Committee (CE) and reached the Plenarys agenda, but the vote was recently postponed due to the discussion that the matter raised.
The second project deals with the first years of training. PL 4,012/2024, by deputy Damiao Feliciano (Uniao-PB), obliges municipalities to offer places in early childhood education in a quantity proportional to the population of urban and rural areas. The proposal was approved by the EC in December and, if it passes the Plenary, it will go to presidential approval.
Both projects amend the National Education Guidelines and Bases Law (LDB).
Guidelines at the EC
The Senate Education Committee (EC) analyzes 30 proposals for voting in 2026, focused on school security and regional benefits. Among the projects is PL 2,870/2023, which includes notions of civil defense as mandatory content for elementary and secondary education. The author of the proposal, senator Wilder Morais (PL-GO), states that the objective is to enable young people to act as agents of change in risk situations.
Another measure is the granting of bonus scores to candidates who live in the state where the federal university campus is located. PL 490/2020, by senator Styvenson Valentim (PSDB-RN), aims to prevent vacancies in the most desired courses from being occupied mainly by students from abroad.
At the same time, the commission discusses regularizing degree diplomas issued by non-accredited institutions or relating to courses not authorized by the Ministry of Education (MEC). PL 2,992/2019, by senator Eduardo Gomes (MDB-TO), seeks to support thousands of victims who suffered scams, especially in distance learning. This possibility should not prevent administrative and judicial measures against the institutions responsible for dispatch.
PNE
This year, the Senate must approve the new National Education Plan (PNE), which is one of the priorities in the context of strengthening educational policies. PL 2,614/2024 was approved in December by the Chamber and sent for analysis by the Senate, where it awaits dispatch to the committees.
The text establishes guidelines, goals and strategies to guide Brazilian educational policy in the next decade, replacing the previous PNE that expired at the end of last year. Among the main goals is ensuring full literacy until the 2nd year of elementary school.
The version approved by the Chamber organizes the plan into 19 strategic objectives, ranging from early childhood education to higher education, indicating goals and deadlines. It is based on the PNE that governments structure their specific plans, decide on purchases and direct investments, according to the local context and reality.
One of the highlights of the text under discussion is the expansion of public investments in education to 7.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) in seven years, reaching 10% at the end of the decade. Today, the index is around 5%.
Lurya Rocha, under the supervision of Patricia Oliveira.
Agencia Senado (Reproduction authorized upon citation from Agencia Senado)
