INTRODUCTION

Youth and Adult Education (YAE) is a Basic Education modality that offers learning to people excluded from the education system, usually due to socioeconomic problems or for not having completed schooling within the period established by the Brazilian Federal Constitution. According to the Law of Lines of Direction and Bases of the Education² (LDB- Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação) Law No. 9394/96, Youth and Adult Education is aimed at teenagers, from 15 years of age onwards, who have not completed Elementary School, and young people, from 18 years of age onwards, who have not completed High School.

The YAE appears in the history of Brazilian education with the perspective of attending the workers' class perceived as dysfunctional to the economic development and as a way to creating a demand-driven workforce system (^{CASTRO, 2020}). Aiming at the economic system interests, YAE Education was historically relegated as a possibility of access to education, because its funding was not considered as one of the relevant measures in educational policies (^{HADDAD; DI PIERRO, 2000}). (^{HADDAD; DI PIERRO, 2000}).

Indeed, it was only with the institution of the Basic and Elementary Education Maintenance and Development Fund and the Appreciation of Education Professionals (Fundeb-Fundo de Manutenção e Desenvolvimento da Educação Básica e de Valorização dos Profissionais da Educação ), in 2007, the YAE modality became part of the education funding policy, which led to the expectation that this measure would expand the offer, since the Fund for Maintenance and Development of Basic Education and the Appreciation of Teaching (Fundef-Fundo de Manutenção e Desenvolvimento do Ensino Fundamental e de Valorização do Magistério ), in force from 1997 to 2006, had discouraged the attendance of this modality, by prioritizing regular basic education (^{CASTRO, 2020}).

However, despite the legal advancement of the inclusion of YAE in Fundeb, it was limited by the definition that this modality could not appropriate more than 15% of the total resources of the Fund (system known as lock) and by the institution of the lowest weighting factor among the stages and modalities of basic education contemplated by this policy, equivalent, in 2007, to 70% of the value per student of regular urban primary education (^{BRASIL, 2007a}), a situation that prevailed in the first two years of Fundeb (^{CARVALHO, 2014}).

The restriction of the financing of YAE in Fundeb resulted in many criticisms because besides discouraging the offers, due to the lowered value per student and limit of 15%, which is the maximum effective spending of the modality participation in the Fund of each State (^{PINTO, 2007}; ^{MACHADO, 2009}; ^{CARVALHO, 2014}; ^{DI PIERRO, 2015}), did not consider the value effectively necessary for a quality offer, a general issue verified in the logic of Fundeb, based on the value per student and not in a cost-per-pupil-quality, as advocated by the National Campaign in Defense of Education (^{CARREIRA; PINTO, 2007}). This concept was incorporated into the National Education Plan Act (Law No 13005/2014 (^{BRASIL, 2014b}), as a possibility of compliance with the fourth section of the LDB Act, which deals with the minimum quality standards to be ensured in the educational offer in the country.

Despite the limit of suitability of YAE compared to the total of Fundeb Act (Law No. 11494/2007), the consequences for the federative entities in case of non-compliance with the 15% lock were not made explicit. Therefore, ^{Machado (2009}, p. 26) questioned: "What would it mean that the enrolment of EJA could not exceed 15% of all enrolment in the inland cities of the country in Fundeb in each system?". Likewise, ^{Carvalho (2014}, p. 639) indicated that "the limit of 15% of the YAE enrolments, [...] even if only in the symbolic aspect", could be a factor to inhibit investment in YAE.

The real consequences of exceeding the 15% lock can be observed in the analysis of the interministerial ordinances that define the enrollments and values considered in Fundeb, from 2017 to 2020. In them it was possible to verify that a Federated Unit that receives the federal supplementary allowance had different values from the national minimum for Youth and Adult Education, for Early Childhood Education and for High School. This fact raised the following question: what justifies the existence of annual values per Fundeb student for YAE lower than the minimum nationally defined in the Interministerial Ordinances that guide the implementation of the Fund?

The aforementioned unique situation among state funds during the term of Fundeb, as it ended in 2020, only happened in the state of Piauí. This was motivated by the significant increase in YAE enrolments in the state school network, which invested in expanding the offer for young people and adults, especially after 2016, resulting from the inclusive policy proposal and the considerable loss of resources in the Fund's internal redistribution, due to the accelerated municipalization of Basic Education. From 2015 to 2018, the state school network had a 225.4% increase in YAE enrolments, which went from 40,960 to 133,295 (^{BRASIL, 2016a}, ^2019a), which impacted on the following year's Fundeb values. From 2006 to 2019, because of the municipalisation policy, the state enrolments of regular Elementary Education decreased from 137,071 to 34,485, according to data published in the annexes of the Interministerial Ordinances of Fundeb, from 2007 to 2020.

The ascertainment of this anomaly in the tables published annually in the Interministerial Ordinances that define the annual national minimum value per student of the Fundeb led to the development of this study, which aims to analyse the financing of YAE under the Fund, by discussing the limits of this education financing matrix to ensure the right of the young and adult population excluded from Basic Education. It is based on quantitative and qualitative research and documentary approach, taking as a basis the legislation that established and regulated the Fundeb, since its inception, and the Interministerial Ordinances that establish the operational parameters for it, published from 2007 to 2020. The central references that contributed to the construction of the study are from the field of education financing and public policies for YAE (^{HADDAD, DI PIERRO, 2000}; ^{PINTO, 2007}; ^{MACHADO, 2009}; ^{CARVALHO, 2014}; ^{CASTRO, 2020}).

The article is divided into four sections. The first consists of this introduction, which contextualises the theme and presents the objective and methodology of the research. The second section addresses key issues related to YAE and its financing. The third deals with the financing of YAE under the Fundeb in the investigated reality. The fourth and final section consolidates the final considerations of the study.

YEA AND ITS FINANCING IN THE CONTEXT OF THE FUNDS POLICY

Youth and Adult Education is a modality of educational offer aimed at the population between 15 and 17 years of age who have not completed primary schools and those over 18 years of age who have not completed high school. The Brazilian Federal Constitution of 1988 establishes that education is a right of all and obligation of the State, based on both the principles of equal conditions of access to and permanence in school and of compulsory education, including for those who "did not have access at the appropriate age" (^{BRASIL, 1988}). This age-appropriate idea is contested by movements in defence of YAE because they understand that education is a right regardless of the age group of the citizen (^{CONFINTEA, 2010}) and that learning occurs throughout life.

The policy of funds has a dubious relationship with YAE, since Section 60 of the Transitional Constitutional Provisions Act (ADCT), in the text approved in 1988, stated that in the first ten years after the promulgation of the Brazilian Constitution, the National Government should develop "efforts, with the participation of all organized sectors of society and with the application of at least fifty percent of the resources referred to in Section 212 of the National Constitution, to eliminate illiteracy and universalize Basic Education" (^{BRASIL, 1988}). However, in 1996, when approved the Constitutional Amendment No. 14 (^{BRASIL, 1996a}), which established the Fundef, there was a turnaround, rescaling responsibilities of the federated entities with the financing of the universalization of Elementary Education, omitting the YAE. ^{Carvalho (2014}, p. 636) argues that the "Fundef further marginalized the education offered to the young and adult population, maintaining the neglect with which this teaching modality has been treated by the public authorities".

The LDB/96 also contemplates Youth and Adult Education, according to the Federal Constitution, including establishing the offer of regular school education, with characteristics, modalities and conditions "appropriate to their needs and availability, ensuring to those who are workers the conditions of access and permanence in school" (^{BRASIL, 1996b}). Besides the LDB Act, the National Education Plans, the Curricular Guidelines for Youth and Adult Education (^{BRASIL, 2000}) and the Operational Guidelines for Youth and Adult Education (^{BRASIL, 2010a}), among others, also guide the policies for the sector.

Section 214 of the Brazilian Federal Constitution established a national plan of education, lasting ten years, aimed at articulating the national system of education in a collaborative regime and defining guidelines, objectives, goals and implementation strategies to ensure the maintenance and development of education in its various levels, stages and modalities, through integrated actions of the public authorities of the different federative spheres that lead, among others, to the eradication of illiteracy. After an intense process of negotiation in which two different bills clashed, one materialized in the proposal of the National Forum in Defense of Public School and another of the federal government's initiative (^{BOLLMANN, 2010}), the National Education Plan ("Plano Nacional de Educação" - PNE- Law No. 10. 172/2001) was approved (^{BRASIL, 2001}) - despite starting from diagnosis, goals, objectives and strategies, it did not provide resources for its implementation, since it was vetoed by the President of the Republic, at the time Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the goal concerning the financing of education (7% of GDP). In relation to the YAE, the PNE/2001 informed a rate of illiteracy of 14.7% in Brazil, but, due to intense regional inequalities, the Northeast emerged with the rate of 1996, 28.7% (^{BRASIL, 2001}). This PNE was relegated by the public power as a planning instrument, not being a reference for the development of educational policies in the period.

Regarding the PNE Act of 2014 (Law No. 13005/2014), its process was based on education conferences that occurred since 2009, covering preparatory stages at the municipal, inter-municipal and state levels, culminating in National Education Conferences ("Conferências Nacionais de Educação" - Conae), held in 2010 and 2014, through a process of intense society involvement and discussion in the Brazilian parliament. With back and forth related to the performance of different political forces and interests present in the dispute for a new PNE a conception about the role of the State, "the relationship between society and education; public and private; quality, evaluation and regulation; diversity and education" (^{DOURADO, 2016}, p. 21), the process culminated in the current PNE, which brings important advances to ensure the right to education.

Concerning the YAE, the PNE/2014 has three goals related to the educational right of young people and adults: expansion of the average schooling of the population aged 18-29 years old (( Goal 8); raising the literacy rate of the population aged 15 years old and eradication of illiteracy ( Goal 9); and YAE offer integrated to vocational education ( Goal 10). However, despite the progress of the insertion of the YAE in the PNE, the financing of policies for this modality remains a bottleneck, as pointed out by ^{Pinto (2007}), ^{Machado (2009}), ^{Carvalho (2014}) and ^{Di Pierro (2015}).

The Brazilian Federal Constitution establishes a minimum of 18% ( Federal Government) and 25% ( states, Federal District and municipalities) of the taxes and transfers to be applied to the Maintenance and Development of Education. In the Federal Constitution, there are no provisions establishing how much of these resources should be invested in each stage and education modality. The Fundeb, although it also does not establish how much should be invested, advances by determining the participation of the enrolments, including YAE, in the amount to be distributed within each state, between it and its municipalities, instituting the so-called weighting factors.

The Fundeb is a statewide fund of an accounting nature that concentrates most of the taxes linked to the maintenance and development of education, with the contribution of 20% on: I -Brazilian tax on transmission causa mortis and donation of any goods or rights (ITCMD); II -Brazilian tax on the circulation of goods, interstate and intercity transportation and communication services; state value-added tax on the circulation of goods, interstate and intercity transportation and communication services; state excise tax (ICMS); III -Brazilian tax on the ownership of motor vehicles (IPVA); IV - part of the proceeds of the collection of the tax on rural territorial property, in relation to properties located in the municipalities (ITR-M); V - Participation Fund of the States and the Federal District (FPE); VI - Participation Fund of the Municipalities (FPM); VII - part of the proceeds of the collection of the tax on industrialized products due to the States and the Federal District (IPI-Exp); VIII - financial resources transferred by the Union to the States, the Federal District and the Municipalities, as provided in Law Complementary No. No. 87, of September 13, 1996 (^{BRASIL, 2007a}).

In addition to the aforementioned resources, Fundeb also includes: part of the proceeds of the tax collection that the Union may eventually institute, revenues from the active tax debt related to taxes included in the Fund, as well as interest and fines eventually incurred and the Union's supplement, which should be equivalent to at least 10% of the total Fund, being directed exclusively to the states and municipalities whose per capita value does not reach the national minimum annual value per student set for the whole country. The revenues of Fundeb are also composed of any resources from financial income from investment of the amounts of the Fund (BRASIL, 2007a).

The redistribution of Fundeb is based on the number of municipal enrollments in early childhood education and primary schools and enrollments in the state network in elementary and secondary education in person, according to data from the School Census of the previous year of the National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira (Inep). The annual values per student consider the differences by stage and modality of Basic Education, by means of weighting factors, defined by an Intergovernmental Commission for Quality Basic Education, composed of one member of the Brazilian Ministry of Education (MEC), five representatives of the National Council of Secretaries of Education (Consed) and five representatives of the National Union of Municipal Directors of Education (Undime), one from each region of the country.

The aforementioned Commission has several attributions, but, regarding the objectives of this article, it stands out the definition of "the weighting factors applicable to the different stages and modalities of basic education" (^{BUENO; PERGHER, 2017}, p.6), which will guide the "proportional limits of application of resources used as operationalization parameters of FUNDEB" (BRASIL, 2007a). In short, the calculation of the annual value per student to be executed, under each State and the Federal District, involves considering the total resources linked to the Fund and the number of in-person enrollments effected in the scope of priority action of each entity (in the municipalities: early childhood education and primary schools; in the states: high school and primary schools). The result of the value for each stage and modality, also considering urban and rural locations, is reached by multiplying the value stipulated for the initial years of urban elementary education by the weighting factors defined by the Commission.

^{Bueno and Pergher (2017}) report that, in the first year of Fundeb, as the Commission was not yet established (which occurred only when Law No. 11.494, of June 20, 2007, was approved), the weighting factors were defined by the Funds Monitoring Board, composed of the MEC, Undime and Consed. After that, with the Board transformed into an Intergovernmental Commission, the factors began to be deliberated within its scope, with changes over the years, especially in early childhood education.

Regarding Youth and Adult Education, the object of this article, despite the progress of its inclusion in the Funds policy, repairing, to some extent, the exclusion made in Fundef, other factors reiterated the exclusion. ^{Carvalho (2014}, p. 636) reports that the Fundeb brought a new boost for YAE, arising from the expectation that it would ensure resources so that states and municipalities could "meet their obligations and maintain or open new YAE courses throughout the country". However, the author himself highlights the mechanisms by which Fundeb reiterated the historical unequal treatment in the financing of the modality:

1) the limitation of a maximum percentage of fifteen percent of Fundeb resources for this modality of education and 2) the establishment of the weighting factor attributed to YAE, of 0.7 of the reference value established for the initial series of "regular" urban fundamental education, in the year of the implementation of Fundeb, the lowest among all the stages and modalities of Basic Education (^{CARVALHO, 2014}, p. 637).

The first aspect highlighted by ^{Carvalho (2014}) was expressed in Section 11 of Law No. 11.494/2007, which regulated the Fundeb, providing that "the appropriation of resources according to the enrolments in the modality of youth and adult education [...] will observe, in each State and in the Federal District, a percentage of up to 15% (fifteen per cent) of the resources of the respective Fund" (^{Brazil, 2007a}). The annex Explanatory Note of the referred Law, which details the way of calculation for the distribution of resources of Fundeb, determines, as a last step, the "verification, in each State and in the Federal District, of the compliance with the provisions of § 1 of art. 32 (" Elementary Education ") and in art. 11 (" Youth and Adult Education ") of this Law, proceeding to possible adjustments in each Fund" (^{BRASIL, 2007a}). In this way, there was in the Law a clear indication that States that invested in the expansion of the right to education of the public population of YAE would be penalized if they exceeded the margin of 15% in total enrollments, although it was not clear how this would occur.

^{Sena (2008}, p. 333) points out a "normative antinomy" in the legislation of Fundeb, because he detects that the Law 11.494/2007, infra-constitutional norm that fixed the lock of 15% for EJA, is in contradiction with the objective provided in Section 214 of the Federal Constitution, to eradicate illiteracy, present in the guidelines for the preparation of the PNE (BRASIL, 1988).

Regarding the weighting factor, according to data organised by the National Confederation of Municipalities (2019), since the first year of the Fundeb, the lowest weighting factor has been reserved for YAE: 0.7 (in 2007 and 2008) and 0.8 (from 2009). YAE integrated to professional high school education with assessment in the process, in 2007 and 2008, had the same weighting of 0.7. However, this value was raised to 1.0 in 2009 and 2010, reaching 1.2 from 2011, denoting greater appreciation. This increase possibly occurred as a policy to encourage states to expand the supply of professional education, although the weighting is still lower than that ensured for high school integrated to professional education, which, since the first year of Fundeb, was 1.3.

The limits imposed on the Fundeb for the supply of EJA culminated in criticism from social movements, such as the Youth and Adult Education Forum and the National Campaign for the Right to Education (2007), and the academic community (^{PINTO, 2007}; ^{SENA, 2008}; ^{GOUVEIA, 2008}; ^{MACHADO, 2009}; ^{DI PIERRO, 2015}, ^{DAVIES, 2021}), without any attitude from the public power to reverse this discrimination..

Pinto discusses that there is no justification that supports the definition of values of youth and adult education lower than those directed to basic education, "unless it is intended to offer a low quality education" (2007, p. 892). Thus, one should not disconnect the discussion of the factors of weighting of the effective conditions of quality educational offer, what seems not to have been horizon of the policy developed in the scope of the Fundeb until the year 2020, although the section 13 of the Law No. 11494/2007 has guided that the Intergovernmental Commission should take into account, when specifying the weights, "the correspondence to the real cost of the respective step and modality and type of establishment of basic education, according to cost studies conducted and published by Inep" (^{BRASIL, 2007a}).

Despite the fact that the legislation explicitly refers to the need to observe the real cost of each stage and modality in the definition of weighting factors, there was arbitrariness in this definition by the Commission, and the deliberations were much more related to the pressures of states and municipalities (^{PINTO, 2007}), resulting from the correlation of forces between interests of these two federated entities in the distribution of resources (^{GOUVEIA, 2008}), than in the consideration of studies on the cost per pupil available in that period, such as those developed by ^{Farenzena (2005}), ^{Verhine (2006}) and Camargo et al. (2006).

Furthermore, ^{Davies (2021}) points out, as one of the weaknesses of the Fundeb, the lack of definition of criteria to determine the weighting factors, since it was up to Inep to carry out studies on cost that could support the Commission in this task. The author exposes that the minutes of the meetings of the referred Commission, during the term of the Fundeb, did not inform the criteria for setting and changing the weighting factors, leaving the decisions far from the legal determinations related to the institution of quality standard based on minimum cost per student, as provided in the LDB Act, in Law No. 9424/96 (^{BRASIL, 1996c}) and PNE/2014, revealing that the definition had a more accounting character than pedagogical, exposing the federal commitment with the financing of educational services with quality (^{DAVIES, 2021}).

The limitations of the Fundeb format resulted in a 28.9% drop in YAE enrolments between 2006 and 2017 (^{CASTRO, 2020}, p. 58). However, unlike most states of Brazil, in Piauí, a significant increase in the offer of YAE was detected, which resulted in consequences for funding under Fundeb. In the analysis of the Interministerial Ordinances that define the annual values per student, it was identified, as of 2017, that the State of Piauí, one of the Federated Unit that receive the Fundeb complementation, had annual values per student lower than the nationally defined, subject of the next section of this article.

YOUTH AND ADULT EDUCATION AND THE APPLICATION OF SECTION 11 OF LAW N.º 11.494/2007 IN PIAUÍ - THE YAE LOCK

Piauí is a northeastern State that has low socioeconomic development indexes. In the educational sphere, it has the third lowest literacy rate of the population aged 15 years or more in Brazil (84%), above only Alagoas and Paraíba, according to the Evaluation Report of the third cycle of the PNE, published by Inep (BRASIL, 2020d). The same document indicates that Piauí has the second highest rate of functional illiteracy (26.4%) of the population in that age group. According to ^{Castro (2020}), illiteracy in the State corresponded, in 2018, according to data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), to 16.6% of the population aged 15 years or more, a percentage well above the national average (6.8%) and Northeastern (14.5%), being the second highest in Brazil. By themselves, these data justify strong policies for the inclusion of the young and adult population in the education system, aiming to ensure their right to education.

The state school network invested in expanding enrollments, especially after 2016, as shown in Figure 01, below, in which the Education Department (Seduc) of the period carried out a campaign to expand the attendance of YAE, presenting as a goal to reach 200,000 enrollments.

In the articles published, it is evident the determination of the Piauí Education Department to expand YAE enrolments. Despite the failure to reach the stated goal, the political decision to significantly expand the attendance of the target audience of YAE had a great impact, which can be seen in the Graphic 01 below, which shows the evolution of the enrollments in YAE in the state network.

Graphic 01shows that one year before the beginning of Fundeb (2006), the number of YAE enrolments in the state network did not reach 20,000. There was an increase in the two following years (2007 and 2008) and a stabilisation of enrolment until 2012, when there was a reduction until 2015, reaching 29,554 enrolments. The significant growth in enrolments begins in 2016, continues in 2017 and reaches its peak in 2018, when it reaches 133,295 enrolments, representing a significant growth of 225.4% in just three years (2016 to 2018).

The management's need to expand Fundeb revenues and the political will to expand enrollments in YAE may have been the main factors for the significant growth in enrollments in the state network. However, in 2019, a sharp drop in enrolments (50,225) is observed, probably due to the perception of the managers of the State Education Department of the harmful economic effects of the YAE lock contained in the Fundeb Act, which, in practice, changed the annual values per pupil in Piauí, from the significant growth in youth and adult enrolments started in 2016.

The fact that the State Network has excluded, from one year to the next, more than 50,000 students from YAE, represents the denial of the guarantee of the right to education and the impossibility of young people and adults to access other rights due to lack of knowledge, as ^{Silva points out (2020}):

YAE is [...] a Human Right. It is Human because when it is denied to the subject, other rights are also denied and the enjoyment of Education strengthens and enables the practice of other rights... Knowing how to read, write, interpret text and context is a right, since, without these tools, the right to health is not effective (if I do not read the prescription, I can buy wrong drug), to food (if I do not read the expiration date, I can eat spoiled food)... Finally, without reading the world and the word, all other social rights are not effective, such as housing, transportation, leisure, social security, maternity protection, child protection and social assistance (^{SILVA, 2020}, s/p, emphasis added).

The author well locates the meaning of YAE as a human right and her words lead us to question, in the reality of Piaui state network: is it fair that an inclusive educational policy is penalized, resulting in the retreat of the public power in the actions of expansion of youth and adult care?

This withdrawal by Piauí's Education Department, which was expressed in the reduction of enrolments, started when the problem was identified. This led the managers of the body to seek information and arrangements with the National Fund for Education Development (FNDE), questioning the reasons why the YAE student value with assessment in the State process, in the Interministerial Ordinance No. 7, of 28 December 2018 (^{BRASIL, 2018c}), "has suffered a reduction of more than 40% of the value used as a parameter for calculating the national value of the YAE student" (^{PIAUÍ, 2019a}, p. 2). The situation was verified in the ordinances published from 2017 to 2020, leading to Piauí being assigned a lower value per YAE student than other Federated States that also receive the Federal Supplementation to Fundeb.

Seduc argued for the importance of expanding the YAE offer to ensure the education right of the modality public and to achieve the Goal 9 of the PNE, related to the expansion of schooling and the eradication of illiteracy.

In response, after explaining the operational system of the Fund, the FNDE highlighted the existence of limitation provided for in Constitutional Amendment No. 53 (^{BRASIL, 2006}), which establishes the appropriation of up to 15% of resources related to enrollments in YAE in each State or Federal District ( subsection c of III of Section 60 of the Act of Transitional Constitutional Provisions - ADCT), setting out the procedures adopted for the lock to be respected, under the Annex of Law No. 11494/2007:

For the adequacy of the second filter (15%), the financial resources to be made available to Youth and Adult Education (YAE) are calculated separately by Federated Unit and, when there are situations in which the revenues to be made available to YAE exceed the limit set of 15% of the total financial resources of the Federated Unit, the value per student/year of the YEA teaching segments is adjusted so that the 15% ceiling is not exceeded, and the exceeding financial resource is distributed to the other teaching segments, except for Elementary Education (whose value serves as a reference to the national minimum value per student/year) (^{BRASIL, 2019b}, p. 3).

Thus, the FNDE argued that the YAE lock and the need to adapt to the 15% limit imposed the decrease in the value per student, resulting in the decrease of resources for the modality in Piauí. However, the difference, treated as "surplus financial resource", was redistributed to the other levels of education, except elementary education (whose value serves as a reference to the national minimum per pupil) "so that the financial resources provided are sufficient" (^{BRASIL, 2019b}, p. 3).

However, it is important to note that, in order to better illustrate this phenomenon not yet addressed in the literature that deals with the financing of education, Chart 01 was elaborated, which presents the historical series of annual values per student (the one practiced in Piauí, VAA PI, and the National, VAA NAC), referring to the modalities EJA with Assessment in the Process and YAE integrated with Vocational Education (2007-2020). The table highlights the reduction in the weighting factors practiced in Piauí in relation to the national ones, as well as the difference (DIF) between the value per student/year practiced in Piauí (VAA PI) and that defined nationally (VAA NAC).

Chart 1 shows that the national weighting factors for the YAE modality with evaluation in the process practically did not vary in the period analysed, rising from 0.7 in the first two years of the Fundeb (2007 and 2008) to 0.8 in 2009, and maintaining this value until 2020. Nationally, the YAE modality integrated to professional education obtained a substantial increase in its weighting, going from 0.7 in 2007 to 1.00 in 2009 and to 1.2 from 2011, remaining at this value until 2020.

The weightings are used in the redistribution of Fundeb resources, considering the differences between stages, modalities and types of educational establishment, whose values are defined nationally by the Intergovernmental Commission for each financial year and published in Interministerial Ordinances with the Fundeb resource forecasts for states and municipalities.

The national weighting factor values for the YAE modalities with in-process assessment (0.7 and 0.8) and for the YAE integrated to professional education (0.7, 0.8, 1.00 and 1.2) are observed in Chart 1. The factors used in Piauí from 2007 to 2016 are the same as those defined nationally. However, from 2017 to 2020, the VAA values of the PI of these two modalities of YAE were reduced and, consequently, the same occurred with the weighting factors, a situation perceived by the managers of Piauí State Education Department (Seduc) only in 2018.

The aforementioned reduction in the YAE with in-process assessment began in 2017 and continued in the following years until 2020. All the Piaui values per student year (VAA) of the modality in this period were below the national VAA and the weighting factors were below 0.8 (national factor), being 0.71 in 2017, 0.6 in 2018, 0.57 in 2019 and 0.77 in 2020.

In Piauí, the YAE integrated to Vocational Education, the reduction also starts in 2017 and continues until 2020. All the weighting factors for this period were below 1.2 (national factor), being 1.07 in 2017, 0.9 in 2018, 0.86 in 2019 and 1.16 in 2020.

This reduction in the factors harmed the school networks that invested the most in expanding the services in these two YAE modalities in Piauí, as they meant financial losses, which are measured, according to Chart 01, in the DIF columns, during the period from 2017 to 2020. It is worth noting that the DIF column was calculated by subtracting the VAA PI (value per student/year in Piauí) and the VAA NAC (value per student/year national). The negative values in the DIF column represent the losses. Therefore, from 2017 to 2020, the annual value per student paid for the Piauí education networks that had students enrolled in the YAE modalities (with an Education Assessment in the Process and Integrated to Professional Education) was lower than that practiced nationally, a possibility that had not been ventured under the Fundeb, even though the 15% discriminatory lock for the YAE established in Law No. 11494/2007 was clear.

Among the networks that presented most losses in YAE of Piauí in this period, the state network stands out. However, even receiving complementation from the Federal Government, the YAE deficit was associated with the increase in values per student in the other stages and modalities contemplated in the Fund, with the exception of Elementary Education, through the redistribution of resources lost with the YAE lock.

To illustrate the situation, the year with the greatest loss (2019) was chosen. Chart 2, below, presents the gains/losses of the state network with the annual values per student (VAA NAC and VAA PI) by stage and modality of Basic Education, as well as enrollments and revenues (gain/loss) of the state school network.

Charts 1 and 2 presents all the stages and modalities of Basic Education, specifying the annual value per pupil (VAA NAC) defined nationally for each one. The fields in the column VAA PI and VAA NAC were filled based on data from the Interministerial Ordinance No. 3, of December 13th, 2019. It is worth noting that there should be no difference between the VAA PI and VAA NAC values, because Piauí is a state that receives supplementation, with values at the limit of what is defined nationally. This difference only occurred, exceptionally, because the value allocated to the YAE modality in Piauí exceeded the limit of 15%, set by Section 11 of Law No. 11494/2007, called in this text as the "lock of the YAE". I.e., the growth in EJA enrolments in the state network had repercussions on the amount destined to this modality. The FNDE, without legal basis located in the scope of this study, reduced all values corresponding to the YAE modality and increased the values of the other stages and modalities of Basic Education, with the exception of all the Elementary Education and of the YAE integrated to the Vocational Education attended by means of Training by Alternating Cycle (composing school time and community time), corresponding, in Chart 2, to the items of the DIF column, with a value of 0.00 (zero).

From the DIF (difference) column, it was possible to fill in the WIN/LOSS column by multiplying the values in the DIF column by the values in the MAT (enrolments) column. The WIN/LOSS column presents, in each row, the value that the education network gained or lost due to the YAE lock. It is verified that the values corresponding to attendance in YAE are negative, therefore, refer to losses. The others are positive, and the sum of the data in the column corresponds to the gain or loss of the education network.

The result of the sum of the data in the gain/loss column shows that the state school network lost BRL 36,471,914.00 in 2019. It is worth noting that the losses with the YAE lock did not occur in all municipal networks, as many have gained. In this case, who invested more in care in YAE modality and did not perform care in early childhood education showed greater losses. Chart 3, below, shows the city with the most gains (Teresina) and the township with the most losses (Campo Maior) with the YAE lock.

Chart 3 is like Chart 02, with the addition of data from Teresina and Campo Maior cities, which correspond, respectively, to the school education networks with higher gains and higher losses with the YAE lock.

The gain of Teresina (BRL 12,763,049.17) is related to the fact that the city hall has invested little in the attendance in Youth and Adult Education and prioritized the attendance in infant education, as well as in special education once the losses provoked in the attendance in YAE were much lower than the gain with the attendance in early childhood and special education. It is worth noting that Teresina had, in 2018, the total of 90,756 enrolments, and the attendance in YAE corresponded to only 3.9%. The attendance in early childhood education corresponded to 26.9% in the same year, which came to impact positively on the values of Fundeb in 2019.

Campo Maior had the largest loss in Piauí with the lock of EJA, with a loss of BRL 1,394,610.92. Such loss is associated with the fact that the city, with 9,291 registrations in Basic Education, in 2018, has prioritized the attendance in YAE, corresponding to a rate of 34.4% of the total, over Teresina (3.9%). On the other hand, Campo Maior invested relatively little in early childhood education, since the percentage of enrolments in this stage of attendance was 17.1%, below that of Teresina (26.9%).

To better illustrate the impact of the YAE lock in Piauí, Chart 4, below, presents the 16 education networks that had the greatest gains and the 16 with the greatest losses with Fundeb in 2019.

Chart 4 shows that the municipalities with the largest gains with the YAE lock correspond, for the most part, to the largest cities of Piauí, except for Parnaíba, which occupied, in 2019, the 16th position in losses, being the second largest municipality in the State, considering GDP and population.

In relation to the state networks with the highest losses with the YAE lock, the state one appears in first place, followed by Campo Maior, a city with 46,833 inhabitants, according to IBGE's 2019 estimate, occupying the seventh position in number of inhabitants among Piauí municipalities. The other school networks belong to small cities.

The networks with the greatest gains, in their majority, are those of municipalities with the largest population; and the networks with the greatest losses refer to the smallest cities. It is observed, however, exceptions that deserve further studies, as is the case of Parnaíba and Campo Maior. The state network losses are related to the fact that its managers have prioritized the attendance in YAE, which even exceeded, in 2018, the attendance in high school: 133,295 registrations in YAE and 114,247 in high school, being high school a priority for state networks, according to the Federal Constitution. Another factor that contributed to the state losses was the fact that the State does not operate in early childhood education, since, if there was supply, it would not count in the distribution of resources from Fundeb.

It is also important to highlight that the total resource of Fundeb, to be apportioned in the scope of each State, does not change with the YAE lock, that is, it remains the same. What happens is a change in the amounts allocated to each stage or modality of education, resulting in gains and losses, according to the characteristics of the service in each school network.

Graphic 2and 3 present the percentage of enrolments in YAE in the 10 municipalities that lost the most and the 10 that gained the most, in 2019, with the YAE lock, based on the enrolments considered in the Inter-ministerial Ordinance No. 03/2019.

The Ordinances adopted in the section, the last published for each year, still consist of a projection, and the consolidation occurs in an annual adjustment made by April of the following year. However, new values per student are not published, only the amount of adjustment, which does not impact on the defined values.

Observing Graphic 2and 3, it is possible to see that the municipalities that lost the most were those that presented high attendance in YAE and low in early childhood education. The municipalities that most gained with the YAE lock in Piauí, in 2019, were those that presented low attendance in YAE and high in early childhood education.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

The recognition of the right to education of those who did not have access or even to those young people and adults who, for some reason, needed to stay away from school, is a permanent agenda of those who fight for education as an inalienable human right, and should be a priority of any government, despite the discouragement imposed by the YAE lock in Fundeb, from 2007 to 2020.

Youth and Adult Education is a type of Basic Education that aims to ensure the educational right of the population that, for many reasons, has not been included or has been excluded from the educational system before completing compulsory education in Brazil. Historically, this modality has been linked to the interests of the labour market, according to the demands of the economic system. Due to the exclusionary nature of educational policies, the issue of financing EJA has always been treated as something specific, including its exclusion from Fundef.

The implementation of Fundeb in 2007 ensured the inclusion of YAE, but the discrimination of this modality was reiterated due to the definition that it could not appropriate more than 15% of the total Fund and the determination of the lowest weighting factor among the 19 existing in Fundeb, leading to systematic criticism from the scientific community and social movements that defend education as an inalienable human right.

However, there was no notion of what would happen if any state exceeded the appropriation limit for YAE in relation to the total Fundeb, which did not prevent the education systems, discouraged by the 15% limit and the low weighting factor, from declining to offer the modality, despite the high illiteracy rate in the country and the goal of its eradication in the PNE requires the expansion of access policies for young people and adults.

Piauí is a federate unit with the worst illiteracy rates in the country, the materialization of the consequences of overcoming the 15% lock was observed through the reduction of the annual value per pupil in the YAE, defined in the tables of the Interministerial Ordinances from 2017 to 2020, in a percentage lower than the minimum nationally defined, although it is a state that receives the federal supplementation.

Piauí was penalised for having invested, significantly, in increasing EJA enrolments, having considerable losses of resources in the internal redistribution of the Fund, especially for the state network, due to the accelerated change of management of elementary education. From 2016 to 2018, the state network had a 225.4% increase in YAE enrolments. In 2019, however, there was a sharp drop (50,225), probably due to the perception of the harmful economic effects of the YAE lock contained in Law No. 11494/007.

The management's necessity to increase Fundeb revenues and the political will to expand the attendance in YAE may have been the main factors that contributed to the growth of YAE enrolments in the state network, but which was later interrupted due to the significant loss of resources from the Fund by decreasing the annual amount per student. This reality, unique among the 27 Fundeb state funds, revealed the coercive logic of the 15% lock. In the operational system to impose the consequences of the lock, there was the redistribution of resources that would be for the YAE to the other stages of Basic Education, except for primary schools (whose value serves as a reference to the minimum per student national).

In Piauí, the implementation of the 15% discriminatory lock has harmed the networks that invested the most in expanding the attendance of YEA, during the period from 2017 to 2020, mainly the state one, raising the values of the other stages and modalities of Basic Education, with the exception of all the Elementary Education and of the YEA Integrated to Vocational Education, attended by means of Formation through Alternating Cycle.

The phenomenon was not restricted to the state network, making it evident that winning or losing, in the logic of the Fundeb lock for YAE, is related to the priority given by the network to the stages and/or modalities impacted by the problem. The state governments that invested more in YAE and less in early childhood education had greater losses, a fact that occurred mainly in the smaller municipalities of the state.

The study concluded that the YAE lock puts in opposition the stages and modalities present in Fundeb and disregards the local realities, denoting perversity in the financing policy and denial of constitutional principles that ensure that education is a right of all and duty of the State and should be offered based on the principles of equal conditions for access and permanence in school, including for those who were excluded from the system. In this way, the justification of the existence of annual values per pupil of Fundeb for YAE lower than the nationally defined minimum explicitly reveals the denial of the educational right of the young and adult population.

The permanent Fundeb, established by Constitutional Amendment No. 108/2020 (BRASIL, 2020a) and regulated by Law No. 14.113/2020 (^{BRASIL, 2020b}), brought expectations of advancement in the right to education. However, it was found that there was no improvement regarding the criteria for defining the weights, which still do not express the differences in actual costs for the offer of the various stages and modalities of basic education, an advance that would require the adoption of the Cost Pupil Quality (CAQ), matrix contemplated in the current National Education Plan. Thus, in the permanent Fundeb, the current weighting of 0.80 for YAE evaluation in the process and 1.20 for YAE integrated to professional education was maintained. However, the lock was removed from YAE, a great advance to stimulate the offer in the country, raising new hopes for the young and adult population that their human right to education is assured.

Preprint

DOI: https://preprints.scielo.org/index.php/scielo/preprint/view/1901