| Hello, *|NOME|* The Ministry of Education (MEC) recently changed the curricular guidelines for the higher education of basic education teaching professionals. The main change is in the establishment of a minimum limit of 50% of the workload in the face-to-face modality, in all degree courses. This was done through CNE/CP Resolution No. 4/2024 (read here), published on June 3 in the Official Gazette. This resolution will be used to guide all evaluations, both of the courses already in operation and of the new requests of the HEIs (Higher Education Institutions), which will have a period of two years to adapt the courses in operation. The MEC also announced the change in the periodicity of evaluation of graduates of these courses. The National Student Performance Exam (Enade) for undergraduate courses will be held annually, instead of the current 3-year interval. In addition, the supervised internship, which should start in the first semester of the courses, will be incorporated into the new annual evaluation of students carried out by the National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira (INEP). Regarding this recent movement by the MEC, it is worth remembering that IMDS has provided subsidies for the decision-making process of public and private agents, based on evidence. This is done by conducting studies, publicizing programs on our Impact Platform, or even by systematizing indicators for state governments with programs focused on this segment. Some examples of these initiatives: • Literature review on the impact on learning of different forms of online and face-to-face education (read here), a partnership with Professor Michel Szklo (FGV); • Technical Cooperation Agreement (TCA) with the government of Rio Grande do Sul for the development of a monitoring and evaluation system for the Teacher of Tomorrow program; • Development of a "dashboard" with information contemplating the following dimensions that affect the teacher: - dimensioning of students: freshmen, courses, completion rates;
- training process: monitoring of indicators of graduates who take Enade;
- exercise of the function: adequacy of training;
- remuneration: remuneration indicators (to be published soon);
- results: performance of basic education students on national exams. The challenges of providing quality education to all Brazilians necessarily involve ensuring that teachers are adequately trained to meet contemporary challenges and providing them with the necessary tools for the development of lifelong learning. It is undeniable that the expansion and democratization of access to higher education, through distance learning, represents a huge advance in the inclusion of young people and adults from different realities and regions of the country. China, for example, has invested a lot in distance learning. However, it is essential to ensure that students in this modality develop the same skills as students in the face-to-face modality. In the last Enade, held in 2021, 13.9% of the graduates of the distance learning pedagogy course reported not having received adequate monitoring from the institution's teachers during the internship. In contrast, in the face-to-face modality, this percentage was only 5.7%. If we also consider that, according to the 2022 Higher Education Census, 89% of the 420,417 (see here) freshmen opted for the distance modality and that, even with the dropout rate higher than the face-to-face modality (60% against 47%), soon most teachers will be graduating in this teaching modality. With the changes proposed by MEC, which made the evaluation of graduates annual, it will be possible to monitor the evolution of the adequacy provided for in the resolution and its impact on the performance of teachers. A somewhat worrying fact is the performance of teachers in the Portuguese language discursive test. Just over 22% obtained a score higher than 60. In this sense, MEC has the opportunity to build a system of evaluation and monitoring of future teachers in order to stimulate the training of professionals with the necessary qualifications to boost the learning and performance of students in basic and secondary education. We also consider it appropriate to include periodic evaluations for current teachers, in order to identify possible gaps and develop qualification plans aimed at the continuous improvement of education in the country. See you at the next “Letter from IMDS”! Paulo Tafner CEO | 
