Elisa Martins
Journalist, special for Yvirá
Teachers need to be among the elite of Brazilian professionals.
We understand that teacher training requires not generic in-person attendance, but interaction and collaboration, in a strong integration between theory and practice.
The country suffers greatly from the discontinuity of educational policies. This doesn’t mean that changes or improvements aren’t necessary. But this should be done with due respect for the policies under development, so that they are not simply eliminated because someone won the election.
Our guiding principle is that the use of technological resources, including AI, should always be ethical, responsible, and intentionally pedagogical, never aimed at replacing humans, teachers or students.
Elisa Martins
Journalist, special for Yvirá
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2026 | n.º 8 | President of the National Education Council César Callegari defends the training of a new generation of teachers and an end to the discontinuity of educational policies tied to electoral cycles PHOTO: PERSONAL ARCHIVE
The main regulatory body of the Brazilian educational system, the National Education Council (CNE), linked to the Ministry of Education (MEC), produces the sub-legal guidelines that organize the educational system. With the approval of the National Education System at the end of last year, its responsibility has increased. The CNE will now preside over the Forum of Councils, composed of representatives from state and municipal education councils, in the task of outlining a strategic agenda of educational issues that require normative recommendations – a mission that gains even more strength in an election year.
In an interview with YVIRÁ, sociologist, educator and president of the CNE César Callegari discusses the challenges facing the body and the country in transforming the variety of diagnoses produced about Brazilian education into concrete advances. And it suggests the educational priorities and goals that politicians and candidates should have, regardless of the election results and the length of their terms. Check it out.
What would be the three major priorities for Brazilian education in the coming years, regardless of the election results?
CC: It’s difficult to list just three. But, if we take from preschool to postgraduate studies, education goals can only be truly met and implemented when we have qualified professionals, supported by a career structure that values them, with adequate remuneration. The first should be building a new generation of teachers in Brazil. This doesn’t mean neglecting the 2,300,000 teachers who work in basic education. But we need to make significant progress in continuing education, strengthening careers, working conditions, development in schools, and remuneration. Working with teachers who are already working is very important, but beyond that, we need a political and strategic decision to train a new generation of teachers. We need an advanced teacher training curriculum that responds to the challenges of the 21st century and to the economic, social, climatic, and cultural challenges already projected for the coming years. Therefore, I advocate that teacher training should be full-time and in-person, lasting four years, with stipends to ensure students dedicate themselves to their training. Linked to this, it is necessary to create a benchmark for the teaching career that values not only time and qualifications, as is currently the case, but above all, values the creative and innovative development so necessary for all professionals, and especially for education professionals. This would also include remuneration that attracts the best of the best to the teaching profession. It must be this way; teachers need to be among the elite of Brazilian professionals.
Teachers need to be among the elite of Brazilian professionals.
The quality of teacher training is related to the quality of teaching for students. How should the remote modality of teacher training be balanced with the in-person workload?
CC: We have just approved the new guidelines for initial teacher training in Brazil. We have made progress, and the main one is the vehement prohibition of initial teacher training being done 100% remotely, as has been happening on a large scale in our country. We understand that teacher training requires not generic in-person attendance, but interaction and collaboration, in a strong integration between theory and practice. Of course, it must be considered that many people who want to be teachers are workers, have other activities in their daily lives, or live in distant locations. Hence the admission that part of the training workload can be done remotely. But moving forward so that in this remote learning we have what we call mediated synchronous learning, that is, even if students and teachers are not in the same physical space, they can be together remotely, with the mediation of an education professional. The science of education shows and demonstrates that we learn when we create. We learn much more when we do this in a collaborative way. It’s not just about providing content. Obviously, there are some parts of teacher training that involve more reading of texts and can be done individually and asynchronously. But this cannot happen on a large scale. It is not possible to train a teacher 100% through distance learning.
We understand that teacher training requires not generic in-person attendance, but interaction and collaboration, in a strong integration between theory and practice.
Brazil produces many diagnoses about the biggest bottlenecks in Brazilian education. What still prevents these diagnoses from being transformed into concrete solutions and advances?
CC: We do indeed have a lot of information produced about education in Brazil, and it underpins the National Education Plan itself. We also have a lot of accumulated knowledge, whether in universities, institutions, and especially in the schools themselves, which needs to be mobilized. What is lacking is a political and strategic decision. The National Education Plan contributes to a strategic policy, but there is a decision-making process that needs to be established, monitored, and implemented with strong participation not only members of the educational field but the whole society. The data on basic education in Brazil are alarming. More than a third of children reach the end of the literacy cycle without being literate. And the results of this on a child’s educational progression are already known. They will face increasing difficulties throughout their educational trajectory and life itself if they are not literate when they have the right to be literate. Regarding the end of basic education, only 5% of young people who complete high school in Brazil have elementary proficiency in mathematics. This is a catastrophe that reverberates at other levels of education, such as higher education. There is an 80% dropout rate among students entering engineering courses because they cannot keep up. After all, Calculus is the first subject in the course. All of these are data that imply fundamental measures. One of them is what we have discussed: the general guidelines for initial teacher training. Furthermore, in its strategic planning, the National Education Council establishes that, based on these general guidelines for initial training, we will deal with and work on an in-depth update of the specific guidelines for each of the teaching degrees, starting with mathematics and pedagogy. Teachers with a degree in pedagogy are literacy teachers. If, in their initial training, they do not receive knowledge not only of content but also of methods and techniques for literacy, they will hardly be able to teach a child to read. The same applies to teachers who teach specific subjects, such as mathematics. Without learning in their training what to teach and how to teach mathematics, students will not be able to achieve the learning objective. We return, then, to priority number 1, which should be to train a new generation of teachers, without neglecting the appreciation and support of those who are already working in the basic education system.
For all of this to be possible, it’s important to talk about public policies for education, a topic that always comes up in election campaigns. What educational commitments and proposals do you consider essential for any candidate who intends to govern the country?
CC: The first commitment is to safeguard the strategic objectives and goals already established in education plans, whether national, state, or municipal. The second should be to escape the Penelope complex, that mythological figure who at night unraveled the fabric she produced during the day while waiting for her companion to return from the war. This means carefully analyzing the policies that are already underway in the candidate’s municipality or state, and even in the country, and evaluating them with respect, because they were all produced with public resources, by Brazilian society, and not discarding them just because someone took on a new position. The country suffers greatly from the discontinuity of educational policies. This doesn’t mean that changes or improvements aren’t necessary. But this should be done with due respect for the policies under development, so that they are not simply eliminated because someone won the election. Escaping the Penelope complex is a responsible attitude for any public manager and parliamentarian, who must be very careful in their legislative proposals regarding what the country has been doing over the years. There are many international agreements, including those to which Brazil is a signatory, that must be respected. It is also necessary to integrate early childhood education as a policy for early childhood, also involving the areas of health, social promotion and assistance, security, and food security. These policies, which are often distributed across different ministries and secretariats, need to be integrated.
The country suffers greatly from the discontinuity of educational policies. This doesn’t mean that changes or improvements aren’t necessary. But this should be done with due respect for the policies under development, so that they are not simply eliminated because someone won the election.
The use of artificial intelligence in education is a topic that has mobilized the entire school community. How does the CNE address this issue, and what actions have been developed in recent months in relation to the topic?
CC: We are about to approve the guidelines on the use of artificial intelligence in the educational environment at the CNE (Art/Interactive Store: insert link here to the “Interval” section of this section, written by Raquel), not only in basic education, but also in higher education. Our guiding principle is that the use of technological resources, including AI, should always be ethical, responsible, and intentionally pedagogical, never aimed at replacing humans, whether teachers or students. The fundamental point is that in educational activities themselves, the use of AI and other recent educational technologies should always foster the development of critical thinking. We want to cultivate good questioners, effective thinkers. This promotes human presence and ensures that these technologies serve education and development, rather than being controlled by them. We should be the pilots.
Our guiding principle is that the use of technological resources, including AI, should always be ethical, responsible, and intentionally pedagogical, never aimed at replacing humans, whether teachers or students.
Considering the work of the CNE (National Education Council) over the years and the challenges facing the country in education, how can Brazil improve access to school and ensure better learning, thinking about the future of Brazilian students?
CC: Public policy makers must be deeply aware that, at this moment, we are producing a generation that will be active in the 22nd century. This vision of the future needs to be very present, whether from the point of view of the Executive or the Legislative branch. It is no longer possible to look back. We have an immense stock of educational resources to overcome, but, at the same time, also the great challenge of investing more and better in education. It is, after all, the future of a present that is already very challenging. The climate crisis will displace millions of humans from their habitat, producing even greater food, housing, and security emergencies. New technologies will eliminate thousands of professions and create thousands more. Democratic regimes are at risk, which requires greater efforts to form a global citizenry. All of this requires strong educational investments that promote civilization against barbarism.
