Abstract

This study aims at analyzing the elaboration, monitoring, and assessment of municipal education plans in the period from 2015 to 2020. The research is qualitative and quantitative carried out from data available on the National Education Plan (PNE) website. The findings made evident a high percentage of plans elaborated by municipalities (99%), to the detriment of monitoring and assessment reports, which have not overcome 35%. It is observed that adhesion of municipalities to the elaboration of plans was promoted by Ministry of Education induction, movement weakened due to the dismantling of national federative coordination structures from 2017, which directly impacted the educational planning at the local level.

Keywords
Educational Planning; Local Power; Federative Coordination; Educational Policy

Resumo

O objetivo deste artigo é analisar a elaboração, o monitoramento e a avaliação de planos municipais de educação, no período entre 2015 e 2020. Trata-se de uma pesquisa quanti-qualitativa desenvolvida por meio de dados disponibilizados na página eletrônica do Plano Nacional de Educação (PNE). Os resultados apresentados evidenciam um percentual elevado de planos elaborados pelos municípios (99%) em detrimento de relatórios de monitoramento e avaliação, que não ultrapassou os 35%. Observa-se que a adesão dos municípios à elaboração de planos foi promovida pela indução do Ministério da Educação, movimento enfraquecido em razão do desmonte das estruturas nacionais de coordenação federativa a partir de 2017, o que impactou diretamente no planejamento educacional em nível local.

Palavras-clave
Planejamento Educacional; Poder Local; Coordenação Federativa; Política Educacional

Introduction

An education plan aims to be the front line so that educational principles are translated into consistent policies based on a rigorous X-ray of education problems and, therefore, meets both principles and rules within a set legal normativity (Cury, 2013Cury, C. R. J. (2013). Planos Nacionais de Educação no Brasil. In E. B. Ferreira & M. Fonseca (Orgs.), Política e Planejamento educacional no Brasil do século 21. Liber Livro.).

The Federal Constitution of 1988 determined the requirement for a multiannual National Education Plan (PNE). Constitutional Amendment No. 59 of November 11, 2009 (Brasil, 2009Brasil. (2010). Documento Final da Conae. Ministério da Educação. https://bit.ly/45zDpjT
https://bit.ly/45zDpjT... ), in Art. 214 alters the condition of the plan, establishing a ten-year duration to articulate the national education system in a collaboration regime. It also sought to “define guidelines, objectives, goals, and implementation strategies to ensure the maintenance and development of education at its various levels, stages, and modalities through integrated actions by public authorities from different federative spheres (. . .)” (Brasil, 1988Brasil. [Constituição (1988)]. (1988). Constituição da República Federativa do Brasil. Diário Oficial da União. http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/constituicao/constituicao.htm
http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/con... ).

As a result of this legal provision, the PNE 2014-2024 derived from a collective construction carried out through the National Education Conference (CONAE) in 2010, preceded by municipal, state, and Federal District debates (Brasil, 2010Brasil. (2010). Documento Final da Conae. Ministério da Educação. https://bit.ly/45zDpjT
https://bit.ly/45zDpjT... ). This process, which comprised the participation of political society and organizations representing civil society in the processing of the project in the National Congress, favored the broad debate and confrontation of ideas, in addition to historically possible consensus, and was finally approved by the Law No. 13,005 (2014)Lei n° 13.005, de 25 de julho de 2014. (2014, 25 de julho). Aprova o Plano Nacional de Educação – PNE e dá outras providências. Casa Civil. http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_ 03/_Ato2011-2014/2014/Lei/L13005.htm
http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_ 03/_A... , without vetoes, in Dilma Vana Rousseff’s term (2011-2014).

Art. 8 of the said Law established that the federated entities that make up the political-administrative organization of the federative state – the states, municipalities, and the Federal District – must prepare their corresponding education plans, or adapt the plans already approved by Law, in line with the guidelines, goals, and strategies provided for in the PNE, establishing one year from the publication of Law No. 13,005 (2014).

A consultation on the PNE em Movimento website (Brasil, 2020Brasil. Ministério da Educação. (2020). PNE em Movimento. https://pne.mec.gov.br/
https://pne.mec.gov.br/... ) indicates that more than 99% of the municipalities approved the Municipal Education Plan (PME) by 2018, except for three towns in the state of São Paulo. This information leads to another essential element: monitoring and evaluating education plans to fulfill their goals and strategies. According to Art. 5 of Law No. 13,005 of June 25, 2014,

In line with this article, the Law establishes, in its Art. 7, Paragraph 3, that “The education systems of the States, the Federal District, and the Municipalities will create mechanisms for the local monitoring of the achievement of the goals of this PNE and the plans provided for in Art. 8” (Lei n^o 13,005, 2014).

In this context, the follow-up is based on monitoring a systematic set of data and information to fulfill goals and strategies of education plans, legal provisions, and the materialization of educational policies. Thus, “monitoring and evaluation become constant parts of a single process, i.e., distinct and complementary steps not carried out in isolation. From this perspective, the evaluation includes monitoring as a constitutive and constituent part,” as pointed out by Dourado, Grossi Junior, and Furtado (2016, p. 456)Dourado, L. F., Grossi Junior, G., & Furtado, R. A. (2016). Monitoramento e avaliação dos planos de educação: breves contribuições. Revista Brasileira de Política e Administração da Educação, 32(2), 449-461. https://doi.org/10.21573/vol32n22016.67198
https://doi.org/10.21573/vol32n22016.671... .

If a plan presupposes a conscious and systematic effort of limits, possibilities, and resources (Cury, 2013Cury, C. R. J. (2013). Planos Nacionais de Educação no Brasil. In E. B. Ferreira & M. Fonseca (Orgs.), Política e Planejamento educacional no Brasil do século 21. Liber Livro.), each federal entity responsible for providing education should establish its own monitoring and evaluation structure to contribute to the greater organicity of educational policies. The hallmark of this proposal is the participation of those interested in its materialization, for example, social movements and other segments of organized civil society, in addition to the political organization through collegiate instances, such as education councils, among other spaces for participation and mobilization (Brasil, 2014Brasil. Ministério da Educação. Secretaria de Articulação com os Sistemas de Ensino. (2014). Planejando a próxima década: alinhando os planos de educação. SASE; MEC. http://pne.mec.gov.br/images/pdf/pne_alinhando_planos_educacao.pdf
http://pne.mec.gov.br/images/pdf/pne_ali... ).

Based on these considerations, this article analyzes the elaboration process, mainly the monitoring and evaluating of education plans in Brazilian municipalities between 2015 and 2020. The data was collected through the PNE em Movimento portal (Brasil, 2020Brasil. Ministério da Educação. (2020). PNE em Movimento. https://pne.mec.gov.br/
https://pne.mec.gov.br/... ), maintained by the Ministry of Education (MEC), making municipal education plans and monitoring and evaluation reports available for all municipalities. The Theses and Dissertations Library of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) was also used to identify theses and dissertations produced on the topic under discussion in this article.

Therefore, this quantitative and qualitative research seeks to identify the relationship between the number of elaborated plans and the monitoring and evaluation reports produced by the municipalities, analyzing these processes with the help of the concepts of federal coordination and local power.

Federative coordination is understood from the perspective of the Union’s role in inducing other federative entities to strengthen continuous educational planning, which is taken as a reference during the development of public policies at the local level. Therefore, local power is understood broadly, encompassing the participation of the most diverse social segments representing civil and political society in elaborating, monitoring, and evaluating plans at the municipal level. Referring to Dowbor (2016)Dowbor, L. (2016). O que é poder local? Ética., local power is a strategic axis for transforming decisions concerning local space’s economic and social development (Dowbor, 2016Dowbor, L. (2016). O que é poder local? Ética., p. 11). “These participatory processes that gradually build an anchor of common sense in the set of political processes, from the base of society, are at the center of what we call local power” (Dowbor, 2016Dowbor, L. (2016). O que é poder local? Ética., p. 24). However, this is a complex movement facing structural and conjunctural limits to which autonomy and local power are subject.

The methodological resource used consists of documentary research composed of primary and secondary sources. As primary sources, reports produced by the National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira (Inep) and by the commissions for monitoring and evaluating municipal education plans published on the PNE/MEC website were considered. Given the territorial dimension of this research, secondary sources composed of theses, dissertations, and articles dealing with social participation in the elaboration, monitoring, and evaluation of municipal education plans were also used. Therefore, a set of studies developed in municipalities of the five Brazilian regions was constituted after the approval of the plans.

Federal coordination and local power in the preparation of ten-year plans in Brazil (2014-2018)

Historically, in Brazil, local power has been associated with conservative practices governed by “coronelism, patrimonialism, and personalism in the exercise of political power,” as Vieira (2011, p. 78) analyzed. However, under democratic circumstances, this understanding “requires new perspectives to incorporate the participation of civil society and social movements, which reframe the forms of articulation with political society” (Vieira, 2011Vieira, S. L. (2011). Poder local e educação no Brasil: dimensões e tensões. Revista Brasileira de Política e Administração da Educação, 27(1), 123-133. https://doi.org/10.21573/vol27n12011.19972
https://doi.org/10.21573/vol27n12011.199... , p. 127).

This movement was significantly strengthened during the country’s democratic opening following the Civil-Military Dictatorship (1964-1985). By assigning municipalities the status of a federative entity, the Federal Constitution of 1988 changed the relationship between the federal sphere and the subnational spheres, as Souza (1996)Souza, C. (1996). Reinventando o poder local: limites e possibilidades do federalismo e da descentralização. São Paulo em Perspectiva, 10(3), 103-112. analyzes. For the author, “Brazilian politics and the federation, as well as intergovernmental relations, present today a diffuse character, generating a fragmentation of power” (Souza, 1996Souza, C. (1996). Reinventando o poder local: limites e possibilidades do federalismo e da descentralização. São Paulo em Perspectiva, 10(3), 103-112., p. 106). In this context, local power becomes one of the fundamental issues of social organization, as analyzed by Dowbor (2016)Dowbor, L. (2016). O que é poder local? Ética.. According to the author

Considering this meaning, the configuration of local power exercised in Brazilian municipalities and states becomes a fundamental element for understanding public policies, particularly education policies, without considering the strategic role of federative coordination. This is because, as established by the Law of Guidelines and Bases of National Education (LDBEN), Law No. 9,394 (1996)Lei nº 9.394, de 20 de dezembro de 1996. (1996, 20 de dezembro). Estabelece as Diretrizes e Bases da Educação Nacional. Presidência da República. Disponível em: http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/l9394.htm
http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/lei... , in Art. 8, Paragraph 1, it will be up to the Union to coordinate the national education policy to articulate the different levels and systems and exercise normative, redistributive, and supplementary functions concerning other educational instances. However, Paragraph 2 specifies that “The teaching systems will have freedom of organization under the terms of this Law” (Lei n^o 9,394, 1996).

Considering the recent educational planning process analyzed in this article, we can observe that the municipalities’ preparation of ten-year education plans occurred in a scenario of strengthening the coordinating role of the Union. This movement was enhanced in the first decades of the 2000s by formulating national policies, programs, and plans to integrate the actions of different government entities (Lotta, Gonçalves, & Bitelman, 2014Lotta, G. S., Gonçalves, R., & Bitelman, M. F. (2014). A Coordenação Federativa de Políticas Públicas: uma análise das políticas brasileiras nas últimas décadas. Cadernos Gestão Pública e Cidadania, 19(64), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.12660/cgpc.v19n64.5817
https://doi.org/10.12660/cgpc.v19n64.581... ).

The PNE (2014-2024), established by Law No. 13,005/2014 (Brasil, 2014Brasil. (2010). Documento Final da Conae. Ministério da Educação. https://bit.ly/45zDpjT
https://bit.ly/45zDpjT... ), is an example of federative coordination of the Union since it attributed to the other Brazilian federative entities the obligation to prepare or reformulate their respective state and/or municipal plans, aligned with the national program with the help of a participatory methodology. Such induction was made explicit through actions ranging from the creation of a specific secretariat within the MEC, the Secretariat for Education Systems Articulation (SASE), to the elaboration of support texts, norms, and manuals, in addition to the guarantee of financing of actions developed by states, municipalities, and the Federal District to fulfill this purpose.

This federative coordination movement resulted in the approval of ten-year education plans in more than 99% of Brazilian federal entities, between 2014 and 2018, with records of crucial social participation, following the guidelines issued by the Union, as evidenced by studies conducted about the subject.

In a study on the Municipal Education Plan of Rio Claro – SP, Silva (2015)Silva, M. A. (2015). Plano Municipal de Educação de Rio Claro – SP: desafios e perspectivas na garantia do direito à educação [Dissertação de mestrado, Universidade Estadual Paulista]. Repositório Institucional UNESP. https://repositorio.unesp.br/handle/11449/139303
https://repositorio.unesp.br/handle/1144... addressed the broad participation of society in preparing the plan through the mobilization developed by the Municipal Education Department. However, “subsequent periods represented a setback in this regard” (Silva, 2015Silva, M. A. (2015). Plano Municipal de Educação de Rio Claro – SP: desafios e perspectivas na garantia do direito à educação [Dissertação de mestrado, Universidade Estadual Paulista]. Repositório Institucional UNESP. https://repositorio.unesp.br/handle/11449/139303
https://repositorio.unesp.br/handle/1144... , p. 179).

Analyzing the preparation of the PME in the municipality of Marília – SP, Benicasa (2019)Benicasa, E. I. (2019). Elaboração do Plano Municipal de Educação de Marília como elemento para a gestão democrática [Dissertação de mestrado, Universidade Estadual Paulista]. Repositório Institucional UNESP. https://bit.ly/3MDCoPe
https://bit.ly/3MDCoPe... pointed out a broad and democratic participation process.

When analyzing the creation of the PME in two municipalities in São Paulo, Nascimento (2018)Nascimento, T. O. S. (2018). O Plano Nacional de Educação e os desafios para a elaboração dos Planos Municipais de Educação [Dissertação de mestrado, Universidade do Oeste Paulista]. Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações Unoeste. bit.ly/3WGE5zP considered it participatory and autonomous, highlighting the “expressive and important democratic experience of the union members in this process” (Nascimento, 2018Nascimento, T. O. S. (2018). O Plano Nacional de Educação e os desafios para a elaboração dos Planos Municipais de Educação [Dissertação de mestrado, Universidade do Oeste Paulista]. Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações Unoeste. bit.ly/3WGE5zP, p. 99).

Braga (2019, p. 66)Braga, M. S. (2019). O Planejamento educacional em Mazagão-AP: um olhar sobre o Plano Municipal de Educação no triênio (2015-2017) [Dissertação de mestrado, Universidade Estadual do Ceará]. Biblioteca Digital Brasileira de Teses e Dissertações. https://bdtd.ibict.br/vufind/Record/UECE-0_b3802b227bde1aa3f4cbc47b5d2b2bd6
https://bdtd.ibict.br/vufind/Record/UECE... , whose research covers the municipality of Mazagão (Mz) – AP, considers that the PME/Mz “was built democratically, involving the most diverse actors. Thus, there are representations in these institutions’ participation, deliberation, and effectiveness.”

Silva (2020)Silva, K. H. S. R. (2020). Plano Municipal de Educação de Bragança-PA: o trabalho do Conselho Municipal de Educação na efetivação da meta 19 [Dissertação de mestrado, Universidade Federal do Pará]. analyzed the elaboration of the PME of the municipality of Bragança in the state of Pará. She identified the indication of holding conferences and municipal education forums in the plan’s text. For the author, although the text records “the intention of the proposal to be built with the participation of the various segments of Bragança society” (Silva, 2020Silva, K. H. S. R. (2020). Plano Municipal de Educação de Bragança-PA: o trabalho do Conselho Municipal de Educação na efetivação da meta 19 [Dissertação de mestrado, Universidade Federal do Pará]., p. 67), the research showed primarily representatives of the executive branch in the composition of the organizing commission. For the author, this “represents the weakness in mobilizing more civil participation associations” (Silva, 2020Silva, K. H. S. R. (2020). Plano Municipal de Educação de Bragança-PA: o trabalho do Conselho Municipal de Educação na efetivação da meta 19 [Dissertação de mestrado, Universidade Federal do Pará]., p. 70).

Ens, Costa, Bueno, and Nagel (2016)Ens, R. T., Costa, C. S., Bueno, E. D. L., & Nagel, J. S. O. (2016). Política Educacional: Participação Democrática no Plano Municipal de Educação de Curitiba. Interacções, 40, 89-109. https://bit.ly/3qiNfGH
https://bit.ly/3qiNfGH... researched democratic participation in the PME of Curitiba, concluding that “democratic participation through representativeness was the path chosen by the municipal government to give voice to entities in the education segment and of the civil society sector” (Ens et al., 2016, p. 106).

A study developed in five municipalities in the state of Goiás by Alves (2020)Alves, E. F. (2020). Estado e planejamento educacional no contexto do federalismo: o processo de elaboração dos planos municipais de educação em Goiás [Tese de doutorado, Universidade Federal de Goiás]. Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da UFG. https://repositorio.bc.ufg.br/tede/handle/tede/10416
https://repositorio.bc.ufg.br/tede/handl... indicated that the “cooperative action undertaken by the Secretariat for Education Systems Articulation/Ministry of Education (SASE/MEC) was the motivator for municipalities to elaborate their PMEs” (Alves, 2020Alves, E. F. (2020). Estado e planejamento educacional no contexto do federalismo: o processo de elaboração dos planos municipais de educação em Goiás [Tese de doutorado, Universidade Federal de Goiás]. Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da UFG. https://repositorio.bc.ufg.br/tede/handle/tede/10416
https://repositorio.bc.ufg.br/tede/handl... , p. IX). However, regarding the methodology used in the municipalities, the author identifies the following:

Silva (2018)Silva, A. V. (2018). O Plano Municipal de Educação e sua repercussão em escolas públicas de Recife e Olinda [Dissertação de mestrado, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco]. Repositório Digital da UFPE. https://repositorio.ufpe.br/handle/123456789/30009
https://repositorio.ufpe.br/handle/12345... examined the collective construction of the municipal education plans in Recife and Olinda, pointing out different forms of participation in the municipalities surveyed, with a more effective social involvement in Olinda, where “The participating professionals signaled that this moment occurred democratically, listening to all the members, and discussing the ideas and proposals for the plan” (Silva, 2018Silva, A. V. (2018). O Plano Municipal de Educação e sua repercussão em escolas públicas de Recife e Olinda [Dissertação de mestrado, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco]. Repositório Digital da UFPE. https://repositorio.ufpe.br/handle/123456789/30009
https://repositorio.ufpe.br/handle/12345... , p. 96). In Recife, the interviewed managers considered the participation limited. While the Municipal Education Forum (FME), public and private education professionals, and the various movements and social entities had been registered, approval by the legislative power occurred through many conflicts, clashes, discussions, obstacles, and disagreements, preventing the participation of education professionals.

A similar process was recorded in Dourados – MS, whose text sent by the PME drafting commission, approved after extensive discussions with the participation of the most diverse social and educational segments, was completely changed in the bill sent by the Mayor to the City Council. Scaff, Oliveira, and Aranda (2018)Scaff, E. A. S., Oliveira, M. S.,; & Aranda, F. P. N. (2018). Planejamento educacional e poder local na elaboração dos planos municipais de educação. Quaestio, 20(1), 133-147. https://doi.org/10.22483/2177-5796.2018v20n1p133-147
https://doi.org/10.22483/2177-5796.2018v... recorded that the executive branch withdrew 20% of the approved proposals and modified 80% of the others, generating protests by the community involved during the session when the City Council approved the Law. However, they were unable to reverse the established setback. The authors concluded that

Also, in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, in the municipality of Corumbá, Monje (2019)Monje, M. A. O. (2019). Plano Municipal de Educação de Corumbá, MS: o processo de materialização da Meta 7 – qualidade da educação básica (2015-2018) [Tese de doutorado, Universidade Católica Dom Bosco]. https://redeplanejamento.wixsite.com/replag/dissertacoes-e-teses
https://redeplanejamento.wixsite.com/rep... recorded a commission appointed by decree of the municipal government to adapt the PME since the last plan was approved in 2009-2015. This commission comprised representatives of the government apparatus, including the Municipal Education Department, the Mayor’s office, other departments and sub-secretariats of the municipality, the Police Department for Children and Youth, the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Children and Adolescents, councils, and foundations. There was also participation from civil society, such as the Union of Workers in Education of Corumbá, the Municipal Education Forum, and public and private educational institutions, “a mostly governmental composition” (Monje, 2019Monje, M. A. O. (2019). Plano Municipal de Educação de Corumbá, MS: o processo de materialização da Meta 7 – qualidade da educação básica (2015-2018) [Tese de doutorado, Universidade Católica Dom Bosco]. https://redeplanejamento.wixsite.com/replag/dissertacoes-e-teses
https://redeplanejamento.wixsite.com/rep... , p. 92).

The research results listed above allow us to consider, in general, that the elaboration of municipal education plans in most different Brazilian regions followed guidelines issued by SASE/MEC to bring together the participation of various social segments, but with specific local arrangements whether more centralized in the executive branch, or with significant changes in the text of the Law that would be approved, among others. In this scenario, the federative coordination exercised by the federal government through SASE/MEC was essential in the participatory configuration of this process, fulfilling an important role in the Brazilian federative system. As stated by Souza (1996)Souza, C. (1996). Reinventando o poder local: limites e possibilidades do federalismo e da descentralização. São Paulo em Perspectiva, 10(3), 103-112., this process “implies political and financial cooperation between the federal government and the other spheres of the federation (...) without, however, meaning the loss of individual identities” (Souza, 1996Souza, C. (1996). Reinventando o poder local: limites e possibilidades do federalismo e da descentralização. São Paulo em Perspectiva, 10(3), 103-112., p. 104).

If, on the one hand, these movements signal the fragility of social participation in the local scenario, on the other hand, they show the implicit complexity in the processes of elaboration of public policies, which cannot be reduced to localized participation in specific meetings and dynamics officially established. Still, it needs to be structured permanently to support such policies. In this context, participation in the preparation of ten-year plans requires monitoring the construction of the text of the Law, its approval by the legislature, and the policies implemented to meet its goals and strategies. This is essential for maintaining participatory methodologies in monitoring and evaluating plans.

Federal coordination and local power in the monitoring and evaluation of ten-year plans in Brazil (2016-2020)

Concerning monitoring and evaluating municipal plans, the PNE website indicates that the first reports were deposited in the system in 2017, albeit timidly. However, in 2018, they increased substantially, falling sharply in 2019 and 2020.

The data in Figure 1 municipalities had PME monitoring reports, which correspond, in absolute numbers, to 2009 municipalities. Concerning the evaluation reports, 20% of them, i.e., only 1180, had prepared this document, a number that dropped dramatically between 2019 and 2020.

An essential element of the data presented is that they only sometimes refer to the year of preparation of the report since the electronic page records the posting date of the plans, regardless of the year of elaboration. It is also important to point out that quantity does not always translate into quality since many reports filed by the municipalities only indicate the absence of data to substantiate the report.

Given the scenario presented, the possibility that other municipalities performed the monitoring and evaluation processes and did not file them in the PNE/MEC system was considered. To clarify this issue, we consulted the websites of the education secretariats and municipal councils of education in some municipalities, such as Curitiba, Belém, and Recife, and it was not possible to identify any action in this direction.

The data in Figure 2 shows that only five Brazilian states had more than 50% of municipalities with reports posted on the PNE website – Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, Mato Grosso do Sul, Santa Catarina, and Tocantins. Among them, the state of Mato Grosso do Sul (MS) stands out, with more reports posted than municipalities. The hypothesis for such a discrepancy lies in the duplicity of publication of the reports, an aspect to be investigated in greater detail in other studies. In addition, three municipalities with the most significant number of inhabitants in the state held public hearings in 2018 coordinated by the monitoring and evaluation commissions of the PME (Oliveira, 2020Oliveira, R. T. C. de. (2020). Planos de Educação: direito à qualidade da educação e gestão democrática [Relatório de pesquisa]. CNPq.).

Also, Rio de Janeiro, the only state with no state plan approved by Law, registers more than 50% of municipalities with reports submitted in 2017. This fact can reinforce SASE’s role in guiding these municipalities in a direct relationship with the federative coordination of the Union.

It is possible to understand that this coordination consists of the procedure that seeks a typical result, despite recognizing the independent and separate action of the federal entities (Araujo, 2018Araujo, G. C. (2018). Federalismo cooperativo e educação no Brasil: 30 Anos de omissões e ambivalências. Educação & Sociedade, 39(145), 908-927. https://www.scielo.br/j/es/a/VD5yTPBvV3Hbpgn9STMzKYP/?format=pdf⟨=pt
https://www.scielo.br/j/es/a/VD5yTPBvV3H... ), whose bases are the concurrent competencies of Article 24 of the Federal Constitution of 1988, among others, that of legislating on “IX – education, culture, teaching, sports, science, technology, research, development, and innovation” (Brasil, 1988Brasil. [Constituição (1988)]. (1988). Constituição da República Federativa do Brasil. Diário Oficial da União. http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/constituicao/constituicao.htm
http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/con... ).

As basic guidelines for monitoring and evaluating the results obtained, SASE presented the following guidelines: creation, in each federative entity, of a monitoring and evaluation system of the education plan and establishment of the necessary mechanisms for its execution; establishment of its structure for the systematic production of indicators in conjunction with the monitoring and evaluation system provided for in the plan, and with the evaluation mechanisms of the PNE; performing periodic assessments of the goals and strategies contained in the plan; and forwarding monitoring reports on the execution of the program to the Legislative power, through its commissions, and to the Public Ministry, through its structures and agents (Brasil, 2014Brasil. Ministério da Educação. Secretaria de Articulação com os Sistemas de Ensino. (2014). Planejando a próxima década: alinhando os planos de educação. SASE; MEC. http://pne.mec.gov.br/images/pdf/pne_alinhando_planos_educacao.pdf
http://pne.mec.gov.br/images/pdf/pne_ali... ).

Despite these referrals, the states of Amapá, Rondônia, and Roraima had derisory participation of municipalities in the monitoring and evaluation of their plans, which reinforces the argument of the administrative fragility of small cities, which constitute 93% of the state of Roraima, 68% of the state of Amapá, and 67% of the state of Rondônia. This hypothesis, however, does not hold if we consider Tocantins among the states with the highest number of reports presented, consisting of 92% of municipalities with less than 25,000 inhabitants.

Also significant is the number of small municipalities with records of monitoring and evaluation reports on their plans, such as Buriti dos Montes (PI), Chopinzinho (PR), Aparecida do Rio Doce (GO), Aral Moreira (MS), and Jordão (AC), among dozens more, in opposition to the big capitals, such as Belém, Recife, and Curitiba, which did not present any report.

These data show that the discontinuity of policies at the municipal level is linked to issues related to local power dynamics and the relationship between it and central power (Vieira, 2011Vieira, S. L. (2011). Poder local e educação no Brasil: dimensões e tensões. Revista Brasileira de Política e Administração da Educação, 27(1), 123-133. https://doi.org/10.21573/vol27n12011.19972
https://doi.org/10.21573/vol27n12011.199... ). Therefore, it is subject to contradictions, which may be associated with centralizing economic and political power, such as organizing the representative sectors of local society (unions, professional representations, associations, and councils) aimed at public interests and social control. Surveys on the monitoring and evaluation of ten-year education plans developed in Brazilian municipalities also help to elucidate this issue.

Analyzing the monitoring and evaluation of the ten-year education plans of seven municipalities in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Corrêa (2019) pointed out that the guidelines of the technical support commission and guidelines from SASE/MEC were essential in the organization of work in these municipalities. However, the lack of technical personnel, when added to the complexity of working with indicators, made it impossible to complete the reports in most of these municipalities, and only one of them filed a report with the Integrated System of Monitoring, Execution, and Control (SIMEC). The research also recorded low social participation and little involvement of the municipal administration in the surveyed municipalities.

In a documentary survey of the 142 (one hundred and forty-two) municipalities belonging to the Zona da Mata of Minas Gerais, Santos and Scaff (2021)Santos, R., & Scaff, E. A. S. (2021). Monitoramento e avaliação dos planos decenais de educação dos municípios da zona da mata mineira. Revista Exitus, 11, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.24065/2237-9460.2015v1n1ID1659
https://doi.org/10.24065/2237-9460.2015v... identified that all of them prepared their municipal education plans within the period established by the PNE, i.e., one year after approval of the said plan. Concerning the preparation of monitoring and evaluation reports, the authors identified, as of 2019, on the PNE/MEC electronic platform, reports from 37 municipalities, of which 31 (PNE) used some legal instrument to establish the Coordinator Commission and Technical Team.

Such data indicate that 26% of the surveyed municipalities filed monitoring and evaluation reports of their plans with Simec, and just over 20% explained information about the commissions set up to prepare these reports. The authors also noted the discontinuity of monitoring and evaluation activities in these municipalities from 2017 onwards, with a 25% drop in the reports. They also showed the discrepancy between the participation of the public power and civil society in the commissions set up in the municipalities analyzed. Finally, they concluded that,

When investigating the monitoring and evaluation of ten-year education plans in seven municipalities on the coast of Paraná, Bizzon (2021)Bizzon, C. A. M. C. (2021). Planejamento educacional nos municípios do litoral paranaese: o poder local e a participação da sociedade no monitoramento e avaliação dos PME [Dissertação de mestrado, Universidade Federal do Paraná]. https://redeplanejamento.wixsite.com/replag/dissertacoes-e-teses
https://redeplanejamento.wixsite.com/rep... identified that all approved their respective municipal programs in the period defined by the PNE 2014-2024 and present a work agenda related to the processes of monitoring and evaluation. However, three of the seven municipalities investigated had no monitoring and/or evaluation reports (Bizzon, 2021Bizzon, C. A. M. C. (2021). Planejamento educacional nos municípios do litoral paranaese: o poder local e a participação da sociedade no monitoramento e avaliação dos PME [Dissertação de mestrado, Universidade Federal do Paraná]. https://redeplanejamento.wixsite.com/replag/dissertacoes-e-teses
https://redeplanejamento.wixsite.com/rep... ).

All reports identified by the author are from 2018, four monitoring reports and one evaluation report. Concerning social participation, the legislative power is represented as the leading member of the commissions for preparing reports on monitoring and evaluating PME, being the only instance mentioned in two municipalities.

In a study on the monitoring and evaluation of the PME of Taubaté – SP, Castilho (2021)Castilho, E. (2021). Planejamento educacional em contextos municipais: o monitoramento e a avaliação do Plano Municipal de Taubaté [Dissertação de mestrado, Universidade Cruzeiro do Sul]. https://redeplanejamento.wixsite.com/replag/dissertacoes-e-teses
https://redeplanejamento.wixsite.com/rep... identified the publication of reports in 2017 and 2018. However, these reports do not contain the forms of action and participation of the members of the Municipal Education Council and of the Municipal Education Forum, which indicates the lack of “consolidation of participatory spaces that promote a qualified discussion on the data contained in the reports, aiming at the continuous reassessment of goals and strategies” (Castilho, 2021Castilho, E. (2021). Planejamento educacional em contextos municipais: o monitoramento e a avaliação do Plano Municipal de Taubaté [Dissertação de mestrado, Universidade Cruzeiro do Sul]. https://redeplanejamento.wixsite.com/replag/dissertacoes-e-teses
https://redeplanejamento.wixsite.com/rep... , p. 125).

Considering the municipality of Jataí – GO, Raimann (2020)Raimann, E. G. (2020). Avaliando o Plano Municipal de Educação: monitoramento e controle social. Revista Ibero-Americana de Estudos em Educação, 15(1), 810-824. https://doi.org/10.21723/riaee.v15iesp.1.13351
https://doi.org/10.21723/riaee.v15iesp.1... reported difficulties of the PME monitoring and evaluation commission in accessing the municipality’s statistical data. According to the author,

When analyzing the actions of the Municipal Education Council (CME) of Campo Grande – MS in the process of materializing the PME, specifically of Goal 19, Conde (2021)Conde, E. I. L. M. (2021). Movimentos do Conselho Municipal de Educação no processo de materialização da meta 19 do Plano Municipal de Educação de Campo Grande/MS (2014-2018) [Tese de doutorado, Universidade Católica Dom Bosco]. https://redeplanejamento.wixsite.com/replag/dissertacoes-e-teses
https://redeplanejamento.wixsite.com/rep... identified monitoring and evaluation reports disclosed by an officially designated commission in 2017 and 2018, made up of representatives of political society and representative segments of civil society. However, in the 2016/2017 cycle, according to the position of a member of the commission, the CME had little space and opportunity for deliberations proposing democratic management “due to the technical and sometimes authoritarian characteristic present in the dynamics of the Commission, by providing the monitoring and evaluation reports ready for conference, without propositions to educational policies” (Conde, 2021Conde, E. I. L. M. (2021). Movimentos do Conselho Municipal de Educação no processo de materialização da meta 19 do Plano Municipal de Educação de Campo Grande/MS (2014-2018) [Tese de doutorado, Universidade Católica Dom Bosco]. https://redeplanejamento.wixsite.com/replag/dissertacoes-e-teses
https://redeplanejamento.wixsite.com/rep... , p. 228).

The distance between the number of ten-year plans approved and the monitoring and evaluation reports filed makes it possible to analyze that if, on the one hand, the inducing action of the Union can be questioned due to the limitation to municipal autonomy, on the other hand, it supports the construction of more homogeneous policies between subnational entities, as stated by Lotta et al. (2014)Lotta, G. S., Gonçalves, R., & Bitelman, M. F. (2014). A Coordenação Federativa de Políticas Públicas: uma análise das políticas brasileiras nas últimas décadas. Cadernos Gestão Pública e Cidadania, 19(64), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.12660/cgpc.v19n64.5817
https://doi.org/10.12660/cgpc.v19n64.581... . In an analysis of the relationship between centralization and decentralization in the Brazilian federal state, Abrucio (2002)Abrucio, L. F. (2002). Descentralização e coordenação federativa no Brasil: lições dos anos FHC. In L. F. Abrucio & M. R. Loureiro (Orgs.), O Estado Numa Era de Reformas: Os Anos FHC. MP; SEGES. https://acervo.enap.gov.br/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=37076
https://acervo.enap.gov.br/cgi-bin/koha/... claims that

In this scenario, federative coordination constitutes a critical element of the construction of public policies, which depends a lot on the action of the Federal Government (Abrucio, 2002Abrucio, L. F. (2002). Descentralização e coordenação federativa no Brasil: lições dos anos FHC. In L. F. Abrucio & M. R. Loureiro (Orgs.), O Estado Numa Era de Reformas: Os Anos FHC. MP; SEGES. https://acervo.enap.gov.br/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=37076
https://acervo.enap.gov.br/cgi-bin/koha/... ). Dealing mainly with education, Saviani (2010)Saviani, D. (2010). Sistema Nacional de Educação articulado ao Plano Nacional de Educação. Revista Brasileira de Educação, 15(44), 380-412. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1413-24782010000200013
https://doi.org/10.1590/S1413-2478201000... considers the federative coordination of the Union as an essential element in articulating federative entities toward consolidating the national education system. The author defends an intrinsic relationship between planning and the system. For him, “(. . .) the educational plan is exactly the instrument that aims to introduce rationality into educational practice as a condition for overcoming spontaneity and improvisations that are the opposite of systematized education and its organization in the form of a system” (Saviani, 2010Saviani, D. (2010). Sistema Nacional de Educação articulado ao Plano Nacional de Educação. Revista Brasileira de Educação, 15(44), 380-412. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1413-24782010000200013
https://doi.org/10.1590/S1413-2478201000... , p. 389).

The federative coordination of the Union in the elaboration of ten-year education plans in the second decade of the 2000s incorporates the precepts defended by Saviani, when he determined the construction of the Articulated National System of Education as the guiding theme of the debates (Brasil, 2010Brasil. (2010). Documento Final da Conae. Ministério da Educação. https://bit.ly/45zDpjT
https://bit.ly/45zDpjT... ). The Federal Government defined the methodology for organizing such debates through national conferences, constituting Brazil’s most essential and comprehensive participatory policy after CF/1988, as indicated by Avritzer (2012)Avritzer, L. (2012). Conferências nacionais: ampliando e redefinindo os padrões de participação social no Brasil. IPEA. https://www.ipea.gov.br/participacao/images/pdfs/td_1739.pdf
https://www.ipea.gov.br/participacao/ima... .

Such organization seems to be constituted in response to the conservative practices that characterize local power in Brazil, enabling the effectiveness of social control through the representation of different instances in elaborating, monitoring, and evaluating plans in all Brazilian federative entities.

Another aspect worth mentioning in Figure 2 is the more significant number of monitoring reports than the evaluation reports, which allows us to infer that the filling in of tables with monitoring data has been carried out with greater diligence than the analysis of these data, through evaluation, with inferences and suggestions for policies and actions that give materiality to the measures proposed in the goals.

While the municipalities register difficulties in collecting data, the analysis requires, in addition to technical capacity, the autonomy of the monitoring and evaluation team of the plans, with the participation of instances such as councils, universities, education forums, city council, Order of Attorneys of Brazil (OAB), and the community in general. With the guarantee of a certain distance from established local authorities, such configuration is fundamental for these steps to be carried out in an integral, critical, and purposeful way.

This observation leads to the reflection of Fernandes (1992)Fernandes, A. T. (1992). Poder local e democracia. Sociologia: Revista da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto, 2, 29-59., when analyzing the issue of local power in Portugal, that “Knowing how the local community can expand the social space and convert it into a democratic space and the basis of an extended political participation is a question that is up to the community to answer” (Fernandes, 1992Fernandes, A. T. (1992). Poder local e democracia. Sociologia: Revista da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto, 2, 29-59., p. 46). When addressing the Brazilian case, Secchin and Caliman (2008, p. 4) considered that the articulation of local social forces is a great challenge launched to municipalities since “local power has been seen as a privileged space for the realization of democracy, which can bring equity in the results of public policies and citizen participation.” This scenario is about rescuing public management’s political functionality and rationality.

Final Considerations

The federative coordination movement developed while preparing the 2014-2024 PNE triggered a mobilization in all Brazilian states and municipalities around the approval of ten-year education plans. However, considering planning as a process, monitoring, and evaluation constitute fundamental elements for the achievement of goals and strategies, especially with the participation of political society and different segments of civil society, within the scope of a normative and political, plural, and decentralized regime, in which new mechanisms of social participation intersect, an option of the Federal Constitution of 1988 (Cury, 2002Cury, C. R. J. (2002). Gestão democrática da educação: exigências e desafios. Revista Brasileira de Política e Administração da Educação, 18(2), 163-174. https://doi.org/10.21573/vol18n22002.25486
https://doi.org/10.21573/vol18n22002.254... ).

The data collected in this research indicate, given the heterogeneity of Brazilian municipalities, on the one hand, the absence of monitoring and evaluation reports of municipal education plans in more than 2/3 of the cities, which represents a serious risk to the achievement of goals at the local level. On the other hand, it is essential to consider the existence of such reports in more than 1/3 of Brazilian municipalities, which makes it possible to verify the materialization of monitoring and evaluation of plans at the local level, a process that, in most cases, does not require social participation.

The research carried out on the subject is emphatic in evidencing the social participation that marked the development of the plans by the municipal federative entities through a rigorous mechanism of induction, orientation, and financing of the MEC, executed mainly through SASE. Social participation was mobilized when the National Education Forum (FNE) and state and municipal forums were configured as essential for formulating education plans in Brazil, as highlighted by Scaff and Oliveira (2019)Scaff, E. A. S., & Oliveira, R. T. C. (2019). Fóruns de educação: instrumentos de participação e representação na gestão educacional brasileira. In R. T. C. Oliveira (Org.), Educação e democracia: políticas e direitos sociais. Oeste.. On the other hand, the research on monitoring and evaluation processes shows the opposite movement of concentrating on preparing these reports in the municipal education departments, with the possible participation of some social representations.

The extinction of SASE in 2018 and the dismantling of the National Education Forum (Scaff & Oliveira, 2019Scaff, E. A. S., & Oliveira, R. T. C. (2019). Fóruns de educação: instrumentos de participação e representação na gestão educacional brasileira. In R. T. C. Oliveira (Org.), Educação e democracia: políticas e direitos sociais. Oeste.) point to the Federal Government’s reduction of the federative coordination movement concerning the educational planning of local federative entities. The expression of this movement can be identified in January 2022, when the PNE/MEC website accused the lack of communication with SIMEC data, extinguishing the publication of the data that guided this research.

In this scenario, the dismantling of national federative coordination structures, such as SASE and FNE, seems to have a decisive impact on the demobilization of local federative entities, which implies considering the fragility of the organization of local power as a structured instance of participation and social control to be exercised by the various segments that make up education in states and municipalities. The strengthening of such instances still presents a challenge for consolidating their role in the elaboration and follow-up processes of public policies, particularly in education.

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