After a difficult government negotiations, the rapporteur of the National Education Program (PNE) in the House of Deputies, Angelo Vanhoni (Workers Party - Paraná), defined 8% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the target for public investment in the area of education, to be accomplished within ten years. The text was filed today (December 5) by Vanhoni. This increases the forecast for investment in education in relation to the initial proposal presented by the government, which contemplated application of 7% of GDP in the education sector. Brazil currently invests 5% of GDP on education.

With the conclusion of the report, a period of five parliamentary sessions commences to allow presentation of new amendments to the text. As of last week, several legislators who are members of the special commission created to evaluate the plan predicted that if the target set by the rapporteur was less than 10% of GDP, then more amendments would be presented to try to increase the level of investment. If a request is made for a review of the report, approval of the project could be put back to 2012, since the parliamentary recess begins on December 22.

The PNE sets out 20 educational targets to be achieved by the country within 20 years. These include an increase in vacancies in nursery schools, expansion of the number of full-time schools, and increase in enrollment in technical courses. The previous PNE ended in December 2010, and at present there is no education plan in place.

06 December 2011