Specialist in Educational Law and Management details points of the revised legislation; changes to the law are aimed at Federal public education.
A year late, the law on quotas was updated on Wednesday by the Chamber of Deputies. The 2012 legislation, which allocates half of the vacancies in federal institutes and universities, foresaw a review of affirmative action within 10 years, which only happened a year after the deadline.
The text now includes new points. Among them, the inclusion of quilombolas in the reservation of places; a reduction in the maximum per capita family income of the candidate for quotas; inclusion policies in postgraduate courses aimed at blacks, browns, indigenous people, quilombolas, as well as people with disabilities; and evaluation of the results of the quota program every 10 years, in addition to annual monitoring cycles.
Ana Claudia Ferreira Julio, a specialist in educational law and management at Barcellos Tucunduva Advogados, explains that although some groups consider affirmative action to be "unfair" and "segregating", the law uses social and economic parameters.
"The issue of race is one of the parts of what we call the 'sub-quotas' provided for in the law, but it is not at the heart of it. So, in my opinion, this type of criticism reveals a superficial reading of the issue and of the rule itself."
Another substantial change pointed out by the expert has to do with competition in the selection processes for federal higher education institutions. "With the new provision, candidates will now take part in the general competition and, only if they do not achieve sufficient marks for admission, will their marks be used to compete for the places reserved for their sub-group, within the overall quota of 50%," she pointed out.
One topic that has been widely commented on is the family income of the candidate who wishes to apply for the quota system for entry to higher education. "The per capita income to be proven, which used to be one and a half minimum wages, is now one minimum wage," explains Ana Claudia, stressing that university students now need to prove a ceiling of up to R$1,320.00.
If the vacancies are not filled, the priority provided for in the updated law will be given to candidates from other 'sub-quotas' and only then to public school students in general.
"It's worth emphasizing that the idea of periodic evaluations when updating the Quotas Law is precisely to make the necessary adjustments between the provisions laid down and the factual reality of the moment, so I believe that the proposals are positive and meet this intention."
Source: Migalhas