National Education Council (Consejo Nacional de Educación).

It was published on November 13, 2020 and entered into force on December 1, 2020.

To guarantee the enrollment of migrants, refugees, stateless persons, and asylum seekers in the Brazilian public education system, without discrimination on grounds of nationality or migration status.

On December 14, 2018, the Public Defender's Office of the Union (DPU), through the National Working Group on Migration, Statelessness, and Refugees, sent a Request for Recommendation to the National Council of Education (CNE) and to the state, municipal and district secretariats of education in order to regulate the inclusion and registration of migrants, refugees, and stateless persons who intend to attend basic education in the public education system in Brazil.

This request was motivated by the complaints made by migrants residing in Brazil to the DPU agencies, with a presence throughout the national territory. These complaints showed difficulties for educational inclusion in the public system, mainly due to the need to present documentation proving previous schooling along with a sworn translation as a requirement for school enrollment, in addition to the inadequate application of equivalence assessments for the grade assignment of children and adolescents on the move.

Based on the lawsuit filed by the DPU, a collective discussion was initiated within the Chamber of Basic Education of the National Council of Education (CEB/CNE), which took place for almost 12 months and involved different actors, including the General Defense of the Union itself, Legal Consultancy with the Ministry of Education (CONJUR) and the Articule Institute (civil society organization). This process culminated in the preparation of an opinion as an institutional response to the request (Key Informant 2, 2021).

Opinion CNE/CEB 1/2020, which analyzes the request for recommendation of the DPU, was approved on May 21, 2020. The rapporteur Ivan Cláudio Pereira Siqueira (counselor of the CEB/CNE) states that the standardization of the registration of migrant children and adolescents, refugees, stateless persons, and asylum seekers in the public educational system is a commitment to human rights and solidarity and that this duty is widely supported by the Federal Constitution, international treaties, and extensive national legislation (p. 8). It also asserts that prior documentation, a sworn translation, registration, evaluation, and classification are means for order purposes - means, not ends. The ‘principles and ends’ of education take precedence over the ways in which it is organized (p. 8).

In this way, the National Education Council, through its Chamber of Basic Education, edited Resolution No. 1 of the National Education Council of 2020 (Resolution CNE/CEB 1/2020).

The resolution provides for the right of enrollment of migrants, refugees, stateless persons, and asylum seekers in the Brazilian public education system, without the requirement of documentation proving previous schooling and without discrimination on the grounds of nationality or migration status. Among other points, it is established that:

• Enrollment, once demanded, will be guaranteed immediately in compulsory basic education, including youth and adult education and, subject to the availability of vacancies, in day-care centres (art. 1, para. 1);
• The absence of sworn translations of the documentation proving previous schooling, personal documentation of the country of origin, National Migration Registry (RNM) or Provisional Document of the National Migration Registry (DP-RNM) will not constitute an obstacle to enrollment (Article 1, § 3, I);
• Enrollment in educational institutions for migrant, refugee, stateless, and asylum-seeking students should be facilitated, taking into account their situation of vulnerability (art. 1, para. 4);
• In the absence of school documentation proving previous schooling, migrant, refugee, stateless, and asylum-seeking students will be entitled to an assessment/classification process, allowing enrollment in any year, series, stage or other form of organization of basic education, depending on their development and age group (Article 1, § 5);
• The assessment/classification process must be carried out in the pupil's mother tongue and the educational systems are responsible for ensuring this service (Article 1, § 6); equivalence and classification assessments must take into account the trajectory, language and culture of the pupil and encourage their admission (Article 5);
• Schools should organize the procedures for the reception of migrant students, based on the following guidelines: I - non-discrimination; II - prevention of bullying, racism, and xenophobia; III - non-segregation between Brazilian and non-Brazilian students through the formation of common classes; IV - training of teachers and personnel on inclusion practices for non-Brazilian students; V - practice of activities that value the culture of non-Brazilian students; and VI - provision of teaching of Portuguese as a host language, with a view to the social inclusion of those who have little or no knowledge of the Portuguese language (article 6).

This Resolution CNE/CEB 1/2020 is a national standard that establishes a unit of understanding on the educational inclusion of migrants, refugees, stateless persons, and asylum seekers in the Brazilian public education system, facilitating the reception of this population. The function of the resolution is operational: to collect in a single document the guidelines aimed at the Brazilian educational system to facilitate operations in daily school life (Key Informants 2 and 6, 2021).

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Migrants, refugees, stateless persons, and asylum seekers.

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National legislation does not consider gender variables in its design or implementation.

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Interview with key informants conducted on March 4, 2021:

• Key informant 1: Alexandre Anselmo Guilherme – General Coordinator of Teacher Training of the Secretariat of Basic Education (SEB/MEC)
• Key Informant 2: Ivan Cláudio Pereira Siqueira – Counselor of the Chamber of Basic Education of the National Council of Education/ Rapporteur of the resolution
• Key Informant 3: Mauro Rabelo – Deputy Secretary of Basic Education, Ministry of Education
• Key Informant 4: Roseli Teixeira Alves – Ministry of Education International Advisory
• Key informant 5: Sérgio de Oliveira – General Coordinator of Indigenous Education - Secretariat of Specialized Modalities of Education (Semesp)
• Key Informant 6: Suely Melo de Castro Menezes – President of the National Education Council's Chamber of Basic Education

http://portal.mec.gov.br/conselho-nacional-de-educacao

CNE/CEB Resolution 1/2020. Diário Oficial da União, Brasília, 16 November 2020, Seção 1, p. 61. (Resolution CNE / CEB 1/2020. Official Gazette of the Federation, Brasília, November 16, 2020, Section 1, p. 61). Available at:

http://portal.mec.gov.br/index.php?option=com_docman&view=download&alias=165271-rceb001-20&category_slug=novembro-2020-pdf&Itemid=30192

Opinion CNE/CEB 1/2020, approved on May 21, 2020.
http://portal.mec.gov.br/index.php?option=com_docman&view=download&alias=147031-pceb001-20&category_slug=junho-2020-pdf&Itemid=30192

Request for Recommendation to the National Council of Education (CNE) and the state, municipal and district secretariats of education with the recommendation for the regulation of the inclusion and registration of migrants, refugees and stateless persons who intend to attend basic education in the public education system in Brazil. Defensoría Pública de la Unión (DPU), 14 December 2018.
https://escola.mpu.mp.br/h/rede-de-capacitacao-a-refugiados-e-migrantes/atividade-em-curitiba/apresentacoes-oficinas/recomendacao-dpu-ao-cne-e-secretarias-inclusao-de-imigrantes-no-sistema-escolar.pdf

Given that the resolution entered into force on 1 December 2020, the short time that has elapsed makes it difficult to assess the impact of its implementation. In any case, it seems to be a consensus among the actors in the field of education, the importance of a resolution that establishes a unit of understanding in the field of educational inclusion of migrants, to fully guarantee access to education. It should also be noted that the drafting of the resolution allowed the issue of the right to education of people on the move to be included in the agenda of debates on education in Brazil, involving different actors at the national level.

Finally, it is important to mention that in a federative system such as the Brazilian one, the resolution of the CNE has an indicative, guiding, rector character. In order for it to be fully implemented, it is desirable that it be regulated at the state and municipal levels. It is important that state and municipal education councils make the necessary adjustment for its operationalization (Key Informant 6, 2021).

Good practices of educational inclusion of migrants

Author: UNESCO IIEP Buenos Aires, Oficina para América Latina; Education Cannot Wait; United Nations Children's Fund.

Year of publication: 2021.