To situate the study

The career of the teaching professionals in the State Education Network of Rio Grande do Sul (REE/RS) was established amid the civil-military dictatorship, in a context of repression of teachers and of freedom in teaching. In contrast to this scenario, the career plan established in 1974 was considered an important instrument of teacher valorization by the professional community, which has defended its maintenance in recent decades.

The significant difference in percentage between the initial and final salaries provided in 1974 to the members of the REE/RS was seen, over the years, as the main point of conflict, by the Center of Teachers of the State of Rio Grande do Sul (CPERS),¹ to attempts to change the legislation then existing. It was also seen as a central justification, by state governments, for non-compliance with the value of the National Professional Minimum Wage (PSPN).

The present text deals with a scenario of non-compliance by the state executive branch, not only with the main national normative framework that deals with teacher remuneration but also with the career plan for the teaching professionals of the REE/RS, established in 1974. It is a study that originates from qualitative research, based on documentary analysis from the perspective of André ^{Cellard (2012}), entitled “Carreira e remuneração docentes: a Rede Estadual do Rio Grande do Sul e a Rede Municipal de Porto Alegre em foco” [Teachers’ career and remuneration: the State Network of Rio Grande do Sul and the Municipal Network of Porto Alegre in focus”] (^{Trein, 2020}).

The study presented analyzes the teaching career and remuneration in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, focusing on the period from 2010 to 2019. This time frame comprises the ten years that preceded the study, covering a period of four terms of the state Executive and Legislative branches, and was considered appropriate for the collection of data and information necessary for the study. The investigation is developed from a characterization of the composition of the members of the teaching profession and an analysis of the dynamics of the salaries provided to such professionals during the period in question. Therefore, it mobilizes theoretical, normative and contextual elements in order to build a well-defined understanding of the theme. The data were collected throughout 2019 from the State Department of Education of Rio Grande do Sul (Seduc).² They were analyzed taking into account the legislation that deals with the career of teachers in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in force at the time³, as well as national normative documents that deal with the teaching career and remuneration. Thus, dialogues on the theme of the valorization and professionalization of teachers were established with the literature.

The next sections will present elements of the theoretical framework of the study, structured around the process of the professionalization of teaching conceptualized as an inseparable part of the search for the valorization of teaching. They will also include an overview of the main national normative documents that deal with the career and remuneration of teachers; a characterization of the REE/RS and of state finances. Finally, the study findings are organized into two axes of analysis: characterization of the career and of the teaching professionals, and considerations about the remuneration provided to them.

Valorization and professionalization of teaching: concepts and discussions

The role currently attributed to the teacher includes recognition of their importance for quality education and for the education of the population in general, since “without the work of teachers in basic education, no other category of professionals could be trained” (^{Gatti et al., 2011}, p. 138). The devaluation of the profession, with regard to its remuneration and working conditions, however, is still a major challenge for the educational policies of the country, reflected in the low attractiveness of teaching and even in its social image. In this context, teaching is still considered as a “gift” or “vocation”, a profession to which great importance is usually attributed, although continually neglected as work.

The situation of devaluation experienced by teachers means that the value socially attributed to teaching still does not give the teacher the status of a professional, whose skills are acquired only through specific training and classroom experience. This social representation is explained by the lack of a professionalization of teaching:

Professionalization is understood as the systematic development of the profession, based on practice and the mobilization/updating of specialized knowledge and the improvement of skills for the professional activity. It is a process not only of rationalization of knowledge, but also of growth from the perspective of professional development. Professionalization brings together all the acts or events related directly or indirectly to improving the performance of professional work. Professionalization is a socializing process of construction of characteristics of the profession . . . . (^{Gauthier et al., 2004}, p. 50).

In general terms, according to ^{Gauthier et al. (2004}), the process of professionalization of teaching requires obtaining an autonomous space and the recognition, by society, of the value and importance of the teaching work as well as its specificity. Within this framework, only those who are prepared and have the necessary skills should exercise the profession.

Considering the importance of the teacher’s role, and seeking a reversal of the mischaracterization of the professional teaching career in Brazil, it is urgent that an effective professionalization of the teaching profession be established. This professionalization must include prospects for good working conditions, initial and continuing quality training, a worthwhile career offer and remuneration consistent with the training and the demands of the work. These are the four dimensions considered essential in the search for the achievement of teacher valorization. However, given the scope of this article, career and remuneration are discussed below.

The prospect of a worthwhile career is an important step towards the valorization of the profession and the guarantee of a stable group of teachers, without the risk of discontinuities which are harmful to the functioning of educational systems (^{Vieira, 2016}). For ^{Noronha (2016}), the connection of a teacher to a given school is instrumental for the continuity and qualification of the institution’s pedagogical project. This could be enabled through a career plan that encouraged full-time employment exclusively in a single school.

In addition to encouraging full-time employment in a single school unit, ^{Noronha (2016}) also argues that the career plans of public basic education professionals must provide salaries with different values according to the teacher’s qualification, as well as the possibility of progression depending on the length of service and professional merit. Such possibilities for career movement contribute to the attainment of a standard of educational quality for all. This differs from evaluation systems that link salary development to the individual merit of teachers measured by the performance of their students, which results in competition, fragmentation of the school team, and individualization of the pedagogical work (Noronha, 2016).

When dealing with teachers’ remuneration, we may face different results, given the various contexts in the country. Despite the plurality, teachers’ remuneration conditions, in general, “do not correspond to their level of education, the working hours they have and the social responsibilities they carry in their performance” (^{Gatti et al., 2011}, p. 144). They also tend to be lower than those of other professionals with the same level of education. Gatti et al. (2011) also draw attention to the inconsistency between the role of basic education teachers in overcoming the inequalities and exclusion in the schools, and the fact that these professionals are at a social disadvantage.

The dimensions of the career and remuneration of the teaching profession, as already noted, are essential to the process of the valorization of teachers. It should be pointed out, however, and following the considerations of ^{Monlevade (2000}), that high wages alone do not value teachers, unless combined with their training, career and working hours. Likewise, high qualification training is lost if the teacher experiences exhausting workdays, or if this training is merely an incentive for the basic education professional to migrate to other occupations with better remuneration. This is the case of the “drainage” of the most qualified teachers to work in higher education. Therefore, the dimensions of remuneration and career need to be combined with good working conditions and quality training, an essential connection to policies aimed at promoting teacher professionalization and offering a quality education for all.

Teaching career and remuneration in Brazil: legal demarcations

This section gives a brief description of the main national normative documents that have provided for the career and remuneration of teachers in force in the country, until the year 2018.⁴ This systematization helps in the contextualization of the normative documents specific to the teaching career, in the State Education Network of Rio Grande do Sul, as well as underpinning the analyses presented later.

We begin with the period of redemocratization of Brazil, during which the valorization of teaching professionals was established in the Federal Constitution of 1988, in article 206 (later amended by Constitutional Amendment n. 19/1998), as one of the principles of teaching:

Art. 206. Education shall be provided on the basis of the following principles:

. . .

V - valorization of teaching professionals guaranteed, in the form of the law, career plans for the public teachers with professional minimum wage and admission exclusively by public examination of tests and titles . . .

Law n. 9.394/1996, the Law of Guidelines and Bases of Education (LDB), also states the “valorization of the school education professional” as one of the principles according to which teaching should be provided (article 3, item VII). This principle is further elaborated in Article 67, which establishes the elements that must be guaranteed in the statutes and career plans of public teachers:

I - admission exclusively by public examination of tests and titles;

II - continuous professional improvement, including periodic paid leave for this purpose;

III - professional minimum wage;

IV - functional progression based on title or qualification, and performance evaluation;

V - time reserved for studies, planning and evaluation, included in the workload;

VI - adequate working conditions.

It is noteworthy that the professional minimum wage, established by item III of article 67 of the LDB as well as by the 1988 Constitution, does not include the term “national”, leaving room for its definition to be the responsibility of each education network. According to ^{Vieira (2013}), it was the Fund for the Maintenance and Development of Basic Education and Valuing Basic Education Professionals (Fundeb), established through Constitutional Amendment (EC) n. 53/2006 and regulated by Law n. 11.494/2007, which ultimately enabled the debate around the national minimum wage with the representations of the states and municipalities.

Among other changes, EC n. 53/2006 amended item V of article 206, providing for the valorization of “school education professionals” (replacing the expression “teaching professionals”) as one of the principles of education in Brazil. The EC also included item VII in the same article, which provides the guarantee of a “national professional minimum wage for public school education professionals, under the terms of federal law” as a principle.

Law n. 11.494/2007, in turn, states, in article 22, the constitutional determination of reserving at least 60% of each Fund for the payment of basic education teaching professionals in active service. In its articles 40 and 41, it addresses the duty of the states, Federal District and the municipalities, in relation to the implementation of career plans and teacher remuneration, to ensure decent remuneration. It also set the deadline of August 31, 2007 for the establishment, by law, of the National Professional Minimum Wage for public basic education teaching professionals.

However, the law instituting and regulating the PSPN (Law n. 11.738/2008) would only be enacted in July 2008. The PSPN was defined as the value below which the federated entities “cannot set the starting salary for public teaching careers in basic education, for the maximum workload of 40 (forty) hours per week”.

The minimum wage established in this Law was R$ 950.00 per month for professionals, with a weekly workload of 40 hours and mid-level training at the Normal level. This amount is to be updated annually, using the same percentage of growth as the annual per-student minimum value, within the scope of Fundeb, referring to the initial years of urban elementary school. Law n. 11.738/2008 also addresses the schedule of the teaching day, determining, in article 2, paragraph 4, a maximum limit of two thirds of the workload for activities related to interaction with students.

The Minimum Wage Law established the deadline of December 31, 2009 for the incorporation of financial advantages to reach the value of the PSPN, as well as for all governments to adapt their career and remuneration plans for the teaching profession, in order to comply with the minimum wage set. However, in 2008, the constitutionality of the law was challenged before the Supreme Court (STF) by the governors of five states (Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, Mato Grosso do Sul and Ceará). The Direct Action of Unconstitutionality (ADI) n. 4.167/2008 challenged the establishment of a 40-hour maximum working week, the schedule of the working day, the linking of the PSPN to the starting salary of the careers of teaching professionals (excluding the incorporation of financial advantages, such as bonuses and additional benefits) and the deadlines for implementation provided for by the law. The STF, in 2011, declared the constitutionality of the law, considering the PSPN to be the value referring to the basic salary for teachers of basic education. More recently, in 2020, it took a favorable position regarding the use of at least one third of the workday of teaching professionals for extra-curricular activities.

In 2009, the Basic Education Chamber of the National Council of Education (CNE/CEB) approved Opinion n. 9, which revised CNE/CEB Resolution n. 3/1997 and established new guidelines for the career and remuneration plans for teaching professionals in the states, Federal District and municipalities. Based on this opinion, Resolution n. 2/2009 of the CNE/CEB was also published. This resolution provides, in its article 4, the duty of the spheres of public administration in relation to the establishment of career plans for teaching professionals, to follow principles such as: decent remuneration, with salaries never below the value of the PSPN; development of actions aimed at salary equalization between teachers and other professionals with similar training; salary progression; valorization of the length of service as an evolutionary component; workload of a maximum of 40 hours per week, with progressive increase in the workload destined to extra-curricular activities; incentive to full-time employment in a single school unit.

Article 5 of the resolution also established specific guidelines to be followed by career plans, such as: differentiated salaries according to the qualification levels of the professionals, any differentiation in relation to the stage or modality of activity of the teacher is prohibited; annual review of compensation provided for in the career plan; promotion of an appropriate numerical ratio of students in the classroom, in order to raise the quality of education and ensure good working conditions for educators; establishment of mechanisms for progression by qualification of professional work and by length of service.

In 2012, CNE/CEB Opinion n. 18/2012 was approved. This opinion regulates, in a more in-depth manner, paragraph 4 of article 2 of Law n. 11.738/2008 which addresses the composition of the workload of public teaching professionals. The opinion further provides guidance on the applicability of the law to the teacher’s workload, regardless of how the school organizes the duration of its class hours, and that one-third of the teacher’s workday should be dedicated to extra-curricular activities that do not involve interaction with students. In addition, it summarizes what is already stipulated in item V of article 67 of the LDB, that the statutes and career plans of the public teaching profession must ensure, within the teacher’s workload, a time reserved for studies, planning and evaluation - activities that do not involve interaction with students, whose character is explained by the opinion.

The most recent national normative document addressed here, considering the time frame for the period from 2014 to 2024, is the National Education Plan Law n. 13.005/2014. Among the goals that address the valorization of education professionals, numbers 17 and 18 refer specifically to the career and remuneration of teachers. These goals aim at equating the average income of basic education professionals in public teaching with other professionals having equivalent education, as well as the development, within two years (until mid-2016), of career plans for professionals in basic education and public higher education (taking the PSPN as a reference for the former).

Among the national regulations presented, we highlight the requirement to develop career plans that include, among others: admission by public examination; functional progression, with respective salary increases; a minimum wage and decent remuneration; a workload that includes time for extra-curricular activities; conditions for professional development; and, adequate working conditions. Based on this scenario, the present study analyzes the effectiveness of such determinations through the characterization of the career and remuneration of teachers in the State Education Network of Rio Grande do Sul.

Rio Grande do Sul state network: scope and financing

In 2019, REE/RS had 2,471 educational institutions - 25% of the 9,946 schools in the state with 838,776 students. Considering the years 2010 and 2019, as shown in Table 1, state enrollments decreased 28%, with 319,707 fewer enrollments in 2019. The percentage of decrease in the state network, 28%, was much greater than that of the total enrollment decrease of 7%. In other words, it was a period of decline in enrollment, mainly due to demographic transition. However, the state enrollment decreased more sharply as a consequence of the policy of reducing state enrollment in preschool and primary school. In proportional terms, there was a drop in enrollments in REE/RS from 47% in 2010, to 37% in 2019.

Table 2 shows data on the distribution of basic education enrollment in 2019 in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The comments allude to the representativeness of REE/RS.

The REE/RS is well known for the proportion of service provided to high school, 82%, as well as for the provision of service to elementary education, 37%. If we consider public enrollments exclusively, the proportions of attendance at REE/RS are as follows: 45% of basic education, 42% of elementary education and 93% of high school.

According to the data provided by Seduc, while it had a total of 42,441 active teaching employment relationships in January 2019 (accounting only for statutory professionals), REE/RS had more than twice as many inactive teachers in the career framework created by the 1974 legislation, totaling 90,265 employment relationships.

The significant increase in the number of inactive teachers in the network over the years is also observed by ^{Mello (2010}), in an analysis of the evolution of the number of active and inactive teachers in REE/RS between 1994 and 2001. Among his research findings, he observed that, in 1994, 31% of all teachers were retired, a number that would rise to 44% in 2006. When comparing the data presented by the author of the present study with the information provided by Seduc, for the month of January 2019, we verified that the growth trend in the number of inactive teachers persists, corresponding to 68% of the total number of statutory teachers.

The huge difficulties in Rio Grande do Sul’s long-standing fiscal situation are partly explained by the use ordinary resources for the payment of inactive personnel and pensioners in the public sector. According to Santos (2018), in 2017 the payment of state public service personnel represented 77.3% of the state government’s net current revenue. In the same year, out of a total of R$24.6 billion in personnel payments, R$10.1 billion were spent on the remuneration of active civil servants and R$14.5 billion on inactive personnel and pensioners. The main reason for the growth in the number of inactive personnel and pensioners is the increase in longevity, which is a very positive aspect. Even so, what compromises state finances is the payment of expenses of a social security nature with ordinary resources; that is, insufficient social security funds generated by management problems, that have accumulated over the years, to cover this type of expense.

Without going into the merits of how the state arrived at this contingency, the fact is, in the area of education, resources from tax revenue linked to the maintenance and development of education (MDE) are used to pay pensions, considerably reducing the availability of funds for the payment of active teaching staff, among other impacts. It is noteworthy, however, that retirement with full benefits, equivalent to those of active professionals, has been an attractive factor for the career of the state public teachers of Rio Grande do Sul. This fact, however, does not eliminate the problems of insufficient social security resources and the consequent use of MDE resources for the payments of retirees and pensioners.

According to the 2019 State Balance Sheet (Treasury Department, 2020), in that year the net revenue from taxes and transfers totaled R$34.9 billion, with an investment of 27.32% in “maintenance and development of education”; that is, R$9.53 billion, of which R$1.9 billion was transferred to municipalities under Fundeb. There would be, then, R$7.63 billion left for education in the state network. According to the same document, the expenses related to the Education Function - Special Charges (which includes retirement and pensions) - were R$4.5 billion, of which R$4.1 billion was used as a financial complement to the Social Security System. If this amount is subtracted from the MDE expense (R$9.53 billion), R$5.43 billion remains. This is equivalent to only 15.5% of the net revenue of taxes and transfers, which is well below the minimum defined in the Federal Constitution (25%) for investment in the MDE and the maintenance needs of the state network. The effects of this situation on the remuneration of the teaching profession will be discussed later in this article.

Characterization of the career and teaching professionals at REE/RS

The teaching career at REE/RS was governed, in the period covered by this article, by Law n. 6.672/1974, which establishes the “Statute and Career Plan of the Public Teachers of Rio Grande do Sul”. The legislation, approved in 1974, established the first exclusive plan for the “public teaching staff of the State”, defined in its article 2 as the group of teachers and education specialists who perform teaching or specialized activities, occupying positions or functions in school units and other organs of the State Education System (Lei n. 6.672, 1974). Initial admission into the position of the State Public Teachers, in accordance with the provisions of article 11 of Law n. 6.672/1974, depends on passing a public qualifying examination. Between 2010 and 2019, only two qualifying examinations were held for the position of teacher, in 2012 and 2013, to fill 10,000 vacancies (distributed between different stages and modalities of Basic Education).⁵

The lack of new qualifying examinations in the network since 2013 is “compensated” by the constant choice of the employer for temporary hiring to meet the demands of human resources of the network. Regarding this strategy, ^{Noronha (2016}) points out that it is understandable that education systems need to maintain a certain number of temporary teachers to cover absences resulting from diseases or retirements that arise throughout the year; however, “in a proportion that does not compromise the quality of teaching and the valorization of its professionals” (p. 65). In the case of REE/RS, the high number of temporary hires ends up producing a significant precariousness of teaching employment relationships - as almost one third of their total is for temporary contracts, as shown in Table 3.

The lack of qualifying exams since 2013 may both reflect a budgetary difficulty on the part of the state government, as well as express a political choice for the precariousness of employment relationships, since a hired teacher has the same responsibilities as a qualified teacher but receives a lower salary and is not entitled to certain guarantees and benefits of the career plan (such as additional bonuses or pay increases based on time of service). The absence of new qualifying exams, combined with the instability brought about by the extensive hiring of temporary teachers, causes a worrying shortage of teachers in the network - accounted for by more than 1,400 educators in a study conducted by CPERS (2019).

In 2019, the career of the state public teachers was structured into six classes gradually achieved by the teacher (horizontal movement), and six levels of qualification to which the professional was allocated according to their training (vertical movement).

The horizontal movement was in classes designated by the letters A to F - each containing a certain number of positions, established by law. The historically consolidated “bottleneck” process in this distribution is noteworthy: there was a limited number of vacancies for classes B to F - a number that decreased the more advanced the class. A minimum period of three years of effective service in one class was required for a member of the teaching profession to be promoted to the next one. Merit and seniority were the criteria for such promotion, evaluated according to indicators established in decrees⁶ containing the regulations of functional progression.

To evaluate seniority, the effective service time of the teachers in the class to which they belong was established as a factor to be considered in the score. To determine merit, different aspects such as evaluation of the performance of duties, contributions to the area of activity, and continuing education of the employee were taken into account.

The vertical movement in the career of the state public school teachers of Rio Grande do Sul consisted of levels which made up the qualification line of teachers and education specialists. Six different levels were established in the career plan of the category, from which salaries were awarded according to the training of professionals:

The original text was prepared in accordance with Law n. 5.692/1971, which established the guidelines and bases of teaching for primary and secondary education. It provided for some levels of qualification no longer consistent with the minimum training required by the legislation in force for teaching.⁷ In the last qualifying exams analyzed in the present study, the qualifications represented by levels 2, 3 and 4 were no longer foreseen as a possibility of training for the candidates.

Once the different classes and levels that made up the teaching career in REE/RS are contextualized, we will begin to analyze the distribution of teaching employment relationships at these different stages. According to the data provided by Seduc, the 42,441 active and effective teachers were organized as shown in Table 4.

Most teachers had specific postgraduate qualification: in total, 29,444 employment relationships (equivalent to 69.37% of the total) were allocated to level 6. There is still the possibility that this number is higher, due to possible unmet requests for level changes. The second largest group of teachers (11,317 employment relationships) was allocated to level 5, equivalent to training in full degree courses. When totaling the faculty employment relationships allocated at levels 5 and 6, we verified that, in 2019, more than 96% of the REE/RS faculty had higher education, and most of the faculty had already completed one or more postgraduate courses.

The low number of employment relationships allocated at levels 2, 3 and 4 is also shown in Table 4 since, as previously mentioned, they were disappearing in the network. However, they occur frequently in the initial classes of the table above (such as A and B), where teachers not yet promoted would be allocated, or would be promoted only once through the criteria of seniority and merit. Assuming that such teachers would have entered the career in years prior to or near 1996 (due to the promulgation of the current LDB), such occurrences could be justified by a possible non-processing of promotions of this class of these professionals.

In relation to horizontal movement, the high incidence of professionals allocated to class A (total of 28,656 employment relationships) is noteworthy. The career of the state public school teachers underwent a process of “bottlenecking”, with a limited number of vacancies for classes B to F - a number that decreased the more advanced the class. Considering, however, that the last qualifying exam held by the network was in 2013, ending its term in 2017, a greater dispersion of teachers was expected in other classes of the career, based on promotions by seniority and merit. It turns out that, at the time the allocation of teachers’ employment relationships, shown in Table 4, were recorded, the state public school teachers had already gone nearly five years without new promotions. All teachers in the network had been in the same class since 2014.

Remuneration of teaching professionals of REE/RS

Between 2010 and 2019, the remuneration of the teachers of the REE/RS consisted of their salary plus other payments such as bonuses. This salary was based on two different calculations (both provided for by Law n. 6.673/1974, repealed in 2020).

For horizontal movement, salaries corresponding to the classes were calculated by multiplying the basic career salary (class A, level 1) by the following coefficients: 1.10 (class B), 1.20 (class C), 1.30 (class D), 1.40 (class E) and 1.50 (class F). When progressing to class B, a teacher would receive the basic salary of the table multiplied by the coefficient 1.10, equivalent to a 10% higher value. The salary attributed to professionals allocated to class F, in turn, was 50% higher than that attributed to class A.

Salaries attributed to vertical career movement, according to the qualification of the teaching professional, were calculated by multiplying the salary of each class by the following coefficients: 1.00 (level 1), 1.15 (level 2), 1.30 (level 3), 1.50 (level 4), 1.85 (level 5) and 2.00 (level 6). Therefore, in comparison to the salaries granted to level 1, professionals allocated to level 6, equivalent to postgraduate qualification, should receive 100% more.

Based on these provisions, it is worth noting the large percentage range, provided for in the legislation, between the initial and final salaries of the career of state teachers in Rio Grande do Sul. When considering the salary received by a teacher or education specialist allocated to level 6, class F, compared to that allocated to level 1, class A, the difference reaches 200%. This significant variation supports the large number of graduate professionals presented in Table 4 (equivalent to 69.37% of the total number of teachers of REE/RS), reinforcing that the current career structure served as a stimulus to continuing education. In addition, the incentive to progress based on length of service and merit, as provided for in the legislation, would guarantee teachers the conditions to reach higher salary levels without having to leave the classroom to take on other functions in school (^{Noronha, 2016}). It is also worth mentioning that the significant variation among salaries, mainly due to the qualification of teachers, has always been one of the main points supported by CPERS for maintaining the original career plan. The fear was that normative changes could reduce the variation between levels and cause a flattening of salaries.⁸

The aforementioned percentages of difference, between the levels and classes, is better explained by Table 5. This table shows the dynamics of the salaries of the teaching professionals of the REE/RS, based on the corrected values for the initial (level 1, class A) and final (level 6, class F) salaries for the career framework during the years 2011 to 2019. For a greater standardization of the information, the values established for the month of May of each year were used as a reference.

There was an increase in salaries until 2015, then there was a decrease. This decrease, as of 2016, was due to the wage freeze in teachers’ salaries from November 2014, the time of the last adjustment granted to the teachers, during the government of Tarso Genro of the Workers’ Party (PT), lasting the entire year of 2019.

From 2011 to 2019, the highest salaries, both initial and final, paid to teachers and education specialists were in 2015. This took place during the Sartori government, of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), as a result of the salary adjustment approved by his predecessor. At the time, the initial salary of the career was equivalent to R$770.10, and the final salary, in turn, was R$2,310.29.

The lowest salaries were in 2011 (first year of the Tarso Genro government), equivalent to R$622.90 (beginning of career) and R$1,868.71 (end of career). It should be noted that, with the freezing of salaries since the end of 2014, the values established for 2019 were already very close to those established in 2011. The wage loss, from 2016, with the lack of new adjustments, can be exemplified, comparing Tables 6 and 7.

The career starts from a basic salary (fixed for the initial class at the lowest qualification level) of R$630.10, and increases to a final value (fixed for the highest class at the highest qualification level) of R$1,890.30 - both calculated for a work load of 20 hours per week.

Considering the value stipulated for the PSPN in 2019 (R$2,557.74 for a 40-hour work week), and calculating the proportional value for a 20-hour work week (the teaching work-load in the state network), we reached R$1,278.87. We can observe, therefore, that this value was attained neither in the basic salary (equivalent to Medium Level training in the Normal modality), as provided for in Law n. 11.738/08, nor at several other stages of the career.

Considering that, in 2019, such salaries had not been adjusted since 2014, it is urgent to think about the salary loss. If the established values were only corrected by the National Consumer Price Index (INPC), we would reach an adjustment of about 29.74% in the salaries in 2019, the estimated values of which are shown in Table 7.

In practice, the non-adjustment of salaries since November 2014 represented a significant salary loss for the teachers of the network. Merely correcting the values would not guarantee the payment of the PSPN value at various stages in the career.

Table 7 shows that teachers from the state network whose salary did not reach the value stipulated as PSPN received a salary supplement, thus reaching the amount of R$1,278.87. The amount paid in the form of a supplement, however, did not affect the calculation of salary increases due to career progression and bonuses.

In addition, the way in which the payment of the minimum salary was guaranteed, through salary supplements, leveled the salaries. That is, the differences in salaries between classes and career levels were not observed. A teacher from class A, level 1, for example, received a salary of R$1,278.87 (with the supplement) in 2019. This amount was identical to that received by a teacher at level 6 of the same class (also with supplement), and not far from the salary received by a teacher in class F, level 6 (R$1,890.30), at the end of the career.

Table 8 shows another estimate of the salaries of teachers working in the State Education Network of Rio Grande do Sul, based on the PSPN. For this estimate, the value of the PSPN in 2019 was considered proportional to a work-load of 20 hours per week as a basic career salary (class A, level 1), as provided for in Law n. 11.738/2008, with the coefficients for the calculation of the other salaries as provided for in State Law n. 6.673/74.

When comparing the values in Table 8 with the values in Table 6, we find an increase of 102.96% in the expected salaries in the latter in relation to the former. If the table of salaries of the state public school teachers of Rio Grande do Sul were calculated from the coefficients in force at the time, respecting the value of the PSPN, the value would be double the salaries paid in 2019, with significant differences at the different stages of the career.

For a more in-depth analysis of the history of non-compliance with the PSPN law by the state network, we proposed the comparison in Table 9. This table compares the initial salaries of the teaching professionals according to their qualification, from the different adjustments granted between the years 2010 to 2019, and the value of the PSPN, proportional to a 20-hour work week. We took as a reference the values attributed to professionals with medium level (level 1), undergraduate degrees (level 5) and those with graduate degrees (level 6) in the different salary tables in force during the analyzed time frame. Although no new adjustments were granted between 2015 and 2019, the salaries established in those years were also included. For a standardization of the information, all values were corrected by the INPC for the month of May 2019.

The value of the PSPN was not paid to qualified professionals at the middle level (as provided for in Law n. 11.738/2008) in any of the salary tables in force between the years 2010 to 2019. In September 2010, the value of the PSPN, proportional to a work-load of 20 hours per week, was 46.54% higher than the basic salary of the table. In November 2014, when the last salary adjustment was made, these values were the closest, considering the time frame analyzed: the value of the PSPN was 34.66% higher than the basic salary. In May 2019, due to the salary freeze of the category and the PSPN adjustment criterion (above inflation), the minimum wage of R$1,278.87 was 102.96% higher than the basic salary of R$630.10, of the members of the teaching profession.

As of May 2018, it is observed that not only the salary paid to qualified professionals at the middle level, but also that paid to qualified professionals at the higher level, did not comply with the minimum wage. In 2019, in turn, the salary supplement was not being paid even to the professional with a graduate degree, at the beginning of the career, whose salary was also lower than the PSPN. In that same year, in a survey conducted by the GaúchaZH site, 47.5% of the teachers received the additional amount - a percentage that, due to the lack of salary adjustments, has increased since 2015 (^{Bublitz, 2019}).

From 2015 on, in addition to the erosion in purchasing power, the state civil service began to pay salaries in installments. In the first year of José Ivo Sartori’s government (2015-2018), the payroll was paid in installments between July and August. Furthermore, from February 2016, facing the worsening financial crisis in the state, the practice was maintained uninterrupted until April 2021.

Final comments

The career plan of the public school teachers of REE/RS, established in 1974, was considered an important instrument of teacher valorization by the teachers, who defended its maintenance in recent decades. The remuneration of teachers and education specialists of the state network, as originally established, presented a significant variation between the initial and final salaries established for the professionals. This variation served both as the main point of support of the legislation by CPERS, and as the main justification for non-compliance with the value of the PSPN by the last governments.

In addition to the aforementioned variation, the various stages of the 1974 career plan that also were not fulfilled should be taken into account. In 2019, the teachers found themselves stagnated for years in the same classes, with their promotions delayed and without any indication of new processes since 2014. The value established as a PSPN was not reached either by the basic salary of the staff (professionals with high school degrees) or at several other stages of the career, including the salaries of professionals with postgraduate degrees at the beginning of their careers in REE/RS.

An adjustment of more than 29% was due to state teachers in 2019, referring to the inflationary correction by the INPC, of their salaries, frozen since November 2014. An even greater adjustment, however, would be due to the teachers when the proper payment of the PSPN amount, corresponding to an increase of more than 102%, was considered. In addition to the lack of adjustments, the constant salary installments as of 2015 resulted in a drop in purchasing power and in the indebtedness situation of the teachers, who often resorted to loans in order to receive the full amount of their salaries.

The vast majority of postgraduate teachers in the network no longer received the salary incentive for training, originally provided for by the 1974 plan, due to the leveling of salaries led by the payment of the minimum wage in the form of a supplement. This supplement, in turn, was already received by 47.5% of the professionals in 2019.

Despite the large number of vacancies, the two qualifying exams held by the state network over the time period analyzed proved to be insufficient. This is evidenced by the large contingent of temporary teachers, who totaled 31.40% of the teachers of the REE/RS in December 2018. This significant portion reveals the constant option, on the part of the sponsor, for temporary hiring to meet the demands for public school teachers. This is an option that, in turn, generates an excessive “turnover” in the functional staff of schools, leading to instability (^{Gatti et al., 2011}).

As it was conceived, the career plan of the state public school teachers (Law n. 6.672/1974) constitutes an important instrument of teacher valorization. The way it was implemented, or even not complied with in some of its provisions, led to losses of guarantees originally established and even of rights that should be ensured to all teaching professionals working in public education networks.

Such non-compliance ends up constituting obstacles to teacher professionalization, based on the understanding of it as “a social and historical process given by the group that wants the professionalization, as well as by the context that offers the necessary conditions for this process” (^{Gauthier et al., 2004}, p. 64). It is urgent, therefore, that professionalization is conceived as a claim of the teachers themselves, aiming at the construction of their professional identity, but without losing sight of the necessary role of the State to ensure effective changes in their living and working conditions.

Thus, it is possible to understand the reasons that lead the teachers, weakened by their precarious working conditions, to defend the original career plan as one of their few guarantees, fearing that possible changes would mean even greater losses of acquired rights.

With the approval of the Amendment to the Constitution n. 108/2020, the use of revenue resources resulting from taxes linked to the MDE for retirement and pension payments is prohibited. Thus, in addition to the requirement to invest 70% of Fundeb’s resources in the remuneration of education professionals, there are great expectations that the remuneration of the state public school teachers will significantly improve. According to the data presented, this is extremely urgent.