Introduction

The purpose of this article is to present the contributions of the Institutionalization and Management Program for Municipal Educational Systems (PRISME), engaged by the Tocantins CollaborAction Network (RCT) on the effective process of institutionalization of the Municipal Educational Systems (SME) at State of Tocantins. The motivational core of this process is the National Education Plan (PNE), whose 19th Goal, about the democratic management of public teaching and how to achieve it, is the focus of the actions of the program addressed here in the context of construction and improvement of the Municipal Education Plans.

The methodology used in this work comes from the empirical-documental technique, supported by bibliographical research. Inspired by the historical-dialectical materialist method, the study starts from the analysis, interpretation and knowledge about the concrete object in question, as warn Frigotto (2000):

In the dialectical process of knowledge of reality, what fundamentally matters is not criticism for the sake of criticism, knowledge for knowledge’s sake, but criticism and critical knowledge for a practice that alters and transforms reality at the knowledge and at the historical-social levels .

(FRIGOTTO, 2000, p. 81)

The course will reveal to the readers that the actuation of the PRISME constitutive subjects contribute with the effective process of institutionalization and management of the Municipal Education Systems participating in the program, with factual implications for the guarantee of an educations that is public, laic, inclusive, participatory, emancipatory, and of socially referenced quality, under a public and democratic management.

Pondered Saviani:

Although the term “system” is commonly used in different contexts, leaving the impression that it is something previously given that we can identify externally, it is necessary to keep in mind that the system is not a natural given, but is always a product of human action.

(^{SAVIANI, 2014}, p. 1)

The educational systems are a relatively new theme in the brazilian context, when considered as initial comparisons mark the first actions of institutionalization of national education, performed yet at the Jesuit period (^{PILLETI, 1991}). However, it’s problematization has been guided in an intensive way in the educational praxis scope, at both Basic and College Education, since 1970’s decade (^{LAGARES, 2015}).

From that time, systems have been understood by brazilian intellectuals as an “articulated ordination of several elements necessary to the consecution of the educational goals preconized for the population towards whom it’s destined” (^{SAVIANI, 1999}, p. 388), “the unity of several elements intentionally gathered, meaning to compose a coherent and operant group” (^{SAVIANI, 2018}, p. 80), “group of education institutions and rules attached to a determined sphere of the administration” (^{BOAVENTURA, 1994}, p. 41) or “group of competences fields and attributions oriented to the scholar education development that materialize itself in institutions, executive and normative agencies, resources and means articulates by the competent public administration [...]” (CURY, 2000, p. 13). The conjunctive character of an education system is recurrently present on the actions around its conceptualization, meanwhile the existence of effective conjunction of the current organizations nominated here by system is widely scrutinized.

In educational organization, structure and management terms, Brazil’s history informs us that, since the colonial Jesuit education period, through the Pombal’s reforms and the Empire, educational initiatives have found polarized situations: sometimes completely free, due to a lack of State intervention over them, sometimes subjected to a centralizing power that promoted education aimed at small groups holding material and symbolic power. From that point, it is possible to infer that the concern with an democratic management policy was not even suggested among those who could advocate for it. About the organization of education in the imperial period, ^{Piletti (1991)} states that

[...]Instead of seeking to set up a national education system, integrating all its degrees and modalities, the authorities were more concerned about creating some higher schools and regulating access routes to their courses, especially through secondary education and entry exams to higher education studies

(^{PILLETI, 1991}, p. 41).

The situation has changed according to the fall of the empire and the approximation of independence, with successive progress and resurgence movements regarding the Crown articulation with multiple provinces. At the first Constitution - yet imperial - promulgation, in 1824, mention was made of the universalization of education, followed by the October 15th, 1827 law, normative that “Orders the creation of primary schools in all cities, towns and most populous places in the Empire” (^{BRASIL, 1827}). At the beginning of the New Republic, our first Federal Constitution (1891) proposed decentralization in teaching organization, but did not guarantee strategies for its implementation, thus, did not consolidate any significant action towards a national system. From that occasion and the present days, 152 years had passed by, after which we face this work’s theme: the National Education System as a process of institutionalization still in development - what makes licit the affirmation that what we call by mentioned denomination is not in its great operation.

Focusing on the first National Education Bases and Guidelines Law, promulgated in 1961, ^{Saviani (2018)} asked himself: is the referred law about an objective expression of a National Teaching System? Facing the observation that the author presents to us - stating that, on the occasion of the first LDB, “the truth is that there is no educational system in Brazil. What exists is structure” (^{SAVIANI, 2018}, p. 148), aiming to begin our contemporary reflection, it is worth returning to one of the questions raised by the researcher on his journey: what is the influence of the society’s structure in which we live on the observed difficulties in the effective institutionalization of education systems?

Asking this question is particularly productive in our intents, because in the Municipalities of the State of Tocantins - empirical field of the present investigation - despite the significative advances in the last years, there is a lot more to be done, either on the institutionalization widely comprehended , or in the effective institutionalization, which means in the form of the complex and contextualized comprehension placed on the term. One hypothesis of answer to our question, borrowed from Saviani, is raised in this work, founded on the concreteness that shows itself to the researchers and subside their analysis: just as the fragmentation of education at the municipal level “[...] puts cooperation between federated entities on the priority agenda” (^{LAGARES, 2008}, p. 207), it is also up to the university to collaborate with Basic Education, in an intentional, joint and coherent way, in order to achieve the effective institutionalization.

In the matter of the possibility of a national systematization of the brazilian education, ^{Saviani (1994)} points that the human being can act on the teaching and education in means to favor it when accomplishing seven elementary actions, namely: when becomes aware of the educational structure ; when capture its problems, when reflects about them and formulate them in tangible objects; when organizes means to achieve the objectives and, finally, when establishes a concrete process that accomplishes said objectives and keep uninterrupted the action-reflection-action dialectical move. (^{SAVIANI, 1994}, p. 12).

Concrete subjects are the promoters of an effective institutionalization, teaching workers together with the other education professionals. But, if, according to the same author (^{SAVIANI, 2018}), there is a difficulty of having the educators formed at the counterweight of the liberal order so they can dispose of these actions possibility conditions casted by him, and is said formation is not being offered to the professionals during their formation at college, it means that is the portion of the university agents oriented to the effective institutionalization fight who are going to focus, in the form of extracurricular programs in basic formation, on the purpose of promoting them. And, in this sense, the program about we’re going to discuss along this text demonstrates having as its fundamentals of acting the awareness of the concrete situation of national education among its subjects - municipal public education managers and other workers on the education management - as well as the knowledge of reality and its structures, formulating, for this purpose, a pedagogy seeking for integrate “both problems and knowledge [...] in the totality of historical praxis in which they will receive their full human meaning”. Theory [...] should “[...] indicate the goals and means that make the common intentional activity possible” (^{SAVIANI, 2014}, p. 14).

Regarding the idea of effectiveness - in this case, effective institutionalization -, we get from Lagares (2008; 2015) our assumptions. The author expresses that the current legal texts determine the Municipalities as holders of the education systems, allowing its organization and autonomy in terms of planning, but doesn’t satisfactorily support the implementation of their own systems. And, aiming to be possible advancing in this sense, the author points, among other urgent actions, the necessity of “discussions converging towards the identification of favorable conditions for municipalities to opt for the institutionalization of their own education systems, always in conjunction with state and national policies.” (^{LAGARES, 2015}, p. 15). In the same way, Abicallil affirms that

The process(es) of delegation of powers and representation in the system’s agencies, at school, municipal, state and national levels, must be clearly defined so as not to generate disputes over representation of the various segments involved, with express mandates and conditions of explicit cessation”.

(^{ABICALIL, 2015}, p. 251)

This is how we can focus our emphasis, in this writing, on the relationship between Municipal Education Systems and Municipal Education Plans (PME). As ^{Saviani (1999)} stated, there is a close relationship between education systems and education plans, both of which are effects of an intention to rationalize means-operations that are oriented towards end-operations, that is, teaching and learning.

The 2014-2024 PNE, according to 1988 Federal Constitution Article 214, has as goal, following what the document says, “articulate the national education system on a collaborative basis and define guidelines, objectives, goals and implementation strategies to ensure the maintenance and development of education at its various levels, stages and modalities[...]” (^{BRASIL, 1988}). The same law asserts that, by integrated actions of the public administration of different federative spheres, should be promoted the analphabetism eradication; the school service universalization; the improvement of teaching quality; the formation focused on work; the humanistic, scientific and technologic promotion of the country and the establishment of goals about the public resources application in education (^{BRASIL, 1988}).

Further ahead, in Article. 8 of the 2014-2024 PNE, the Federal Public Administration mandated that the States, the Federal District and the Municipalities prepare their corresponding education plans, in line with the guidelines, goals and strategies provided by the PNE, within a period of year, counting from the publication of the law. In other articles, powers and responsibilities were provided for States and Municipalities regarding the exercise of education, as in Article 7, which provides for action in a collaborative regime between federated entities; the Article 9, which determines the approval of specific laws for education systems, regulating the democratic management of public education; and in Article 10, which refers to the reformulation of the multiyear plan, budgetary guidelines and budgets, which must be managed in a way to ensure the allocation of budgetary appropriations compatible with the guidelines, goals and strategies of the respective education plans, in order to enable its full execution.

The mentioned plan reveals the outline of a potential National Education System, a system to be built, for which education professionals are implicitly called upon to fight, being the federative entities’ responsibility, in cooperation, to provide the objective and subjective conditions for its construction.

The State Education Plan of the State of Tocantins: developments in the Municipalities

The State of Tocantins approved its first State Education Plan (PEE), Law No. 1,859, on December 6, 2007, to come into force in the 2006–2015 decade. The second PEE, currently in force, was approved in the form of Law No. 2,977, on July 8, 2015, for the decade 2015– 2025. According to Article 7 of this document, §1, it would be up to the Municipalities to establish, in their respective education plans, strategies that:

1. Ensure the articulation of educational policies with other social policies, particularly cultural ones;

2. Consider the specific needs of rural populations and indigenous and quilombola communities, ensuring educational equity and cultural diversity;

3. Ensure that specific needs in special education are met, ensuring an inclusive educational system at all levels, stages and modalities;

4. Promote inter-federative coordination in the implementation of educational policies.

(TOCANTINS, 2015, s.p.)⁶

Considering the determined by PNE and PEE, in the State of Tocantins, it has begun in 2014 the elaboration of the PME, with technical support of the Ministry of Education (MEC), through Department for Coordination with Education Systems (SASE), in coordinated action with the National Union of Municipal Education Leaders, Tocantins’ sectional (UNDIME-TO). The State of Tocantins is composed of 159 municipalities and, on that occasion, all of them elaborated and approved their Municipal Education Plans, published in 2015.

With the execution of the PNE and its articulations, the MEC began, in 2014, the process of monitoring and evaluation of the goals and strategies of such plans, structured and published biannually, namely: Report of the 4th PNE Goal Monitoring Cycle : 2021– 2022; Report of the 3rd PNE Goal Monitoring Cycle: 2019–2020; Report of the 2nd PNE Goal Monitoring Cycle: 2017–2018; Report of the 1st PNE Goal Monitoring Cycle: Biennium 2014–2016.

For States and Municipalities, SASE guided and coordinated the monitoring and evaluation process of PEE and PMEs. For the preparation phase of the state’s PMEs, SASE subsidized the municipalities with the technical support of advisors, each responsible for a group of municipalities. These advisors had the following guiding documents: the book “Planning the Next Decade: Aligning Education Plans”; the book “Planning the Next Decade: Knowing the 20 Goals of the National Education Plan”; and the book “Guidelines on Municipal Education Plan”.

As working tools, the following documents were made available: Monitoring and Evaluation of Education Plans report model; PEE Monitoring and Evaluation form; PME Monitoring and Evaluation Form; Research on the organization of demand for daycare (part 1); Research on the organization of demand for daycare (part 2); Study on how to make municipal data and indicators available for monitoring and evaluation of Municipal Education Plans (2015–2025); National Education Plan – PNE 2014–2024: Baseline; Step-by-step guidelines for using two mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating Education Plans: Public Hearings and Conferences; Educational Indicators to measure progress in meeting PME goals, in accordance with PNE 2014/2024 – Law No. 13,005/214; and PNE on Movement - Guidebook for Monitoring and Evaluation of Municipal Education Plans.

SASE was instituted in 2011 as an objective demand of the National Education Conference, held in 2010, between March 8th and April 1st, in Brasília/DF. The request for a department dedicated to articulation of the participants in the cooperation regime demanded from MEC a more assertive action on the coordination of work of instituting the National Education System than what was being done until then.

The initiatives of SASE’s articulated work had an impact on the discussion of Brazilian educational policy, including expanding the possibilities for dialogue and agreement between managers on different aspects and important themes to Brazilian education, such as federative cooperation, financing, evaluation, articulated planning, valorization of education professionals, strengthening oh collegiate bodies, democratic management and others. This articulation took place through a partnership established by SASE with National UNDIME and the National Council of Education Secretaries (CONSEd), from which a technical support network was created, made of educational evaluators, supervisors and state coordinators, who worked in different centers spread across the States.

In this first phase, the main objective of the Technical Assistance Network was to encourage the construction of plans and ensure that the goals were drawn up in line with the national document. To this end, local coordinating committees were created to support the preparation and review of plans.

(AÇÃO EDUCACIONAL, 2019)

In addition to technical support, SASE was also responsible for maintaining the portal “Planejando a Próxima Decada: PNE em Movimento”, which, in addition to presenting the PNE’s goals and strategies to the public, also conveyed monitoring data. However, in 2019, still in the midst of such a long and complex process, unexpectedly, the department was eliminated from the MEC structure by Presidential Decree No. 9,465, of January 2, 2019, signed by then President Jair Messias Bolsonaro and the Minister of State for Education at the time, Ricardo Vélez Rodriguez. This resulted in a huge gap for States and Municipalities regarding the monitoring and evaluation of PEE and PMEs. Work was interrupted and these entities were left to their own devices regarding the effective implementation of their teaching/education systems.

PRISME as support for Municipalities and articulator between basic education and universities

The Tocantins Collaboration Network (RCT), in which PRISME is inserted, was established in 2020, in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, as an interinstitutional program for training, assisting, monitoring and evaluating municipal education. Consisting of institutions that operate in the State, such as the Federal University of Tocantins (UFT) and the Public Ministry of the State of Tocantins (MP-TO), with the support of UNDIME-TO and the Tocantinense Association of Municipalities (ATM), the entity was created with the aim of supporting municipal teaching/education networks and systems to combat the educational crisis caused by Covid-19 (^{LAGARES, 2020}; ^{LAGARES; SANTOS, 2022}). RCT worked focusing on this objective during 2020 and 2021.

RCT and PRISME are the results of a collective construction, originating from the union of a diversity of subjects, groups and institutions engaged in the area of education, with experience and theoretical specialization in Municipal Education. Also part of the RCT are Municipal Teaching/Education Directors (DME); members of the Operational Support Center for the Child and Youth Prosecutor’s Offices of the Public Ministry of Tocantins (Caopije/MPETO); UFT researchers associated with the Study, Research and Extension in Municipal Education Group and the Observatory of Education Systems and Plans (GepeEM/ObSPE/UFT); as well as teachers working in municipal and state public education networks.

RCT is, therefore, the result of the public-public collaboration regime (^{SANTOS, 2019}), based on Article 211 of the 1988 Federal Constitution and outlined in the State Education Plan, specifically in goal 23, strategy 42. It is a specialized technical collaboration network, established by the convergence of efforts of socially committed peers.

In 2022, RCT began to count on the support of the Tocantins Department of Education (Seduc-TO) and the Department of Basic Education (SEB) of the MEC. Due to the reduction in the number of contaminations and deaths from Covid-19, in 2022 the RCT also adopted the objective of supporting the management and institutionalization processes of Municipal Education Systems (SME), as well as management and pedagogical practice, through initiatives training, assisting, monitoring and evaluation.

RCT operates in the Tocantins territory offering support to municipal teaching/education networks and systems that adhere to its training program. In 2020, 128 municipalities in Tocantins signed the Term of Adhesion; in 2021, 135 municipalities joined; and in 2022, there were 117 - a significant percentage compared to the 139 existing Municipalities. Despite the adherence and the offer of support, it is not a matter of guardianship: the program seeks to promote municipal autonomy for the planning, formulation, implementation and evaluation of its public educational policies, placing emphasis on training the subjects of this process. With this, we can state that RCT and PRISME are, currently, the materialization of a public educational policy formulated, implemented and evaluated, continuously, by subjects representing the collaborating institutions.

The effective institutionalization of municipal teaching/education systems is the motivation and object of the process. The organizational elements that must form this coherent and operational set are all the spaces and mechanisms that constitute and operationalize municipal education: the Municipal Department of Education and all its departments; councils, such as the Municipal Education Council (CME), the Fundeb Council, the Food Council; the Municipal Education Plan; Articulated Action Plans (PAR); municipal educational institutions; the Parent-Teacher Associations (APM); the Student Unions; the School Regulations; the public selection of directors, etc.

In view of the difficulties of a technical, political and financial nature faced within the scope of municipal education for the organization and management of system elements, as this problem was worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic, in 2022 the RCT creates the Institutionalization and Management of Municipal Education Systems Program (PRISME), aiming to contribute to the effective process of institutionalization and management of SMEs in the State of Tocantins. PRISM

[...] seeks to support the process of effective institutionalization and management of the SME within the municipalities attended, with the intention that they constitute autonomy and fulfill their educational responsibilities, integrating themselves with the policies and plans of the Union and the State, having as axis the Municipal Education Plan (PME) and the Articulated Action Plan (PAR) as articulators of the system.

(^{COLETIVO PRISME, 2022}, p. 7)

Or, in terms of objective, the program seeks to

Ensure continued training and creation of a Virtual Environment of Interactive Educational Nature (Avnei), for continuous assisting and monitoring of the constituent elements of the Municipal Teaching/Education System (SME) and periodic evaluation of the subjects of the training movement (course participants), supporting the effective process of institutionalization and management of the SME, with the intention that the Municipalities establish autonomy and fulfill their educational responsibilities, integrating themselves with the policies and plans of the Union and the State, having as their axes the Municipal Education Plan (PME) and Action Plan Articulated (PAR) as articulators of the system. [...] Produce and scientifically disseminate knowledge, transforming the data and information generated in PRISME into scientific knowledge materialized in articles, dossiers and books/e-books, among others.

(^{PRISME, 2022})

Regarding the management of municipal education in the territory of Tocantins, PRISME today gathers data relating to the institutionalization of systems through the creation of a specific law, a procedure that did not have great support when the first plans were created: in 2020, 45 municipalities in Tocantins they had enacted the SME law; in 2021, they were 80; and, at the end of 2022, after PRISME intervention, they are 95.

Constituting the law of the system does not imply in the independence of the municipality in relation to the State and the Union and, as ^{Lagares (2008, p. 201)} argues,

There is a greater definition and delimitation of its political-pedagogical, administrative and financial competencies regarding the organization of national education. In this delimitation and definition, there must be permanent and systematic dialogue with the State and the Union, considering that, as its own education system, the Municipality becomes directly responsible for the standardization, planning and definition of municipal public educational policies, which must be articulated to those of the respective State and the Union.

(^{LAGARES, 2008}, p. 69)

The “Guidelines for Monitoring and Evaluation of Municipal Education Plans Book” (^{BRASIL, 2016}), published by SASE before it was extinguished, is a document intended to guide municipalities regarding the importance of “continuous monitoring and periodic evaluations, involving responsible instances and promoting appropriate social mobilization” (^{BRASIL, 2016}, p. 5). This book conceives monitoring and evaluation as interconnected phases of a continuous process, which not only contribute to the achievement of established goals, but also identify deficiencies and possible adjustments needed along the way, allowing the plan to remain flexible enough to meet social demands (^{BRASIL, 2016}, p. 6).

Monitoring of teaching/education plans in the Municipalities of Tocantins

The Guidelines for Monitoring and Evaluation of Municipal Education Plans Book (^{BRASIL, 2016}), published by SASE while still in force, is a document that aims to guide Municipalities on the need for “continuous monitoring and periodic evaluations, with involvement responsible instances and due social mobilization” (^{BRASIL, 2016}, p. 5). This book presents monitoring and evaluation as steps that are continuously articulated in a single process, contribute to achieving the proposed goals, point out gaps and any necessary changes along the way and incorporate into the plan the flexibility needed to absorb society’s demands (^{BRASIL, 2016}, p. 6).

According to the PNE in Movement portal, of the 139 municipalities in Tocantins, a total of 117 presented monitoring and/or evaluation reports in the years 2016, 2017 and 2018 — SASE’s period of activity. Using information collected from documents available on this portal, these deliveries were mapped by municipality and by year, distinguishing whether they were a monitoring or evaluation report. The data reveals the following statistics: the total number of monitoring files in the three years was 117; the total number of evaluation files in the three years was 69; and the annual distribution of reports prepared was as follows: in 2016, there was 1; in 2017, 19; and in 2018, 97. Furthermore, 69 municipalities submitted both monitoring and evaluation reports, while the others submitted only one monitoring report each.

As is consensus in the area’s literature, monitoring is a continuous process of observation, through which information about progress towards achieving established goals is disseminated, whether internally or externally. On the other hand, evaluation is “understood as the periodic act of giving value to the results achieved up to that moment, to the actions that are still in progress and to those that have not been accomplished, to determine the extent to which the objectives are being achieved” [.. .] (^{BRASIL, 2016}, p. 6). Regarding the plan under analysis, at each annual monitoring stage, the commission in charge should file the report after its approval by SASE. This report should then be used in the subsequent evaluation cycle, which occurs every two years.

Given the exposed situation, it is observed that, as of 2019, with the extinction of SASE, the municipalities of Tocantins stopped publishing monitoring and evaluation reports for PMEs, which reveals a rupture or discontinuity in the monitoring and evaluation of educational public policies in this context. Furthermore, as Dourado (2017) highlighted, education plans must be seen as the central focus of State policies for education, thus requiring specialized and systematic attention, as pointed out by ^{Saviani (2014)}.

Searching for data and updated monitoring and evaluation reports on PMEs in TO, UNDIME-TO was contacted in order to obtain information on the monitoring and evaluation process of PMEs since the extinction of SASE. The entity reported that it does not have “any systematic monitoring of SMEs and does not have any specific public platform. This work used to happen when SASE was active, during the Bolsonaro government’s administration SASE was extinguished, this monitoring stopped” (^{UNDIME-TO, 2023}).

Also according to ^{UNDIME-TO (2023)}, Municipalities are instructed to keep monitoring and evaluation reports updated, and as support they have a private tool, Conviva Educação, whose availability is an initiative of UNDIME in partnership with other institutes and foundations with the support of the Union of Municipal Education Councils (UNCME). The platform is made available to Municipalities that want to make reports using that system. However, UNDIME-TO stated that each Municipality has its own private password and that the entity does not have access to the data that they feed into the system. The entity also highlights that “the tool is optional, it was created and is available, but UNDIME does not require a periodicity for it to be inserted into the system” (^{UNDIME-TO, 2023}).

In contact with UNDIME-TO, it was found that the institution, already in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, began collaborative work with the municipalities. Faced with the challenges imposed by the disease, which became evident in April 2020, UNDIME-TO mobilized state public institutions and researchers specialized in municipal education, as well as professors from the Federal University of Tocantins (UFT), to provide support to municipalities in the areas of planning, monitoring and evaluating educational actions in the emerging context. This joint effort culminated in the creation of RCT and PRISME, as we mentioned previously.

The data presented below is an excerpt from PRISME – Project I “PME and PAR as articulators of the SME and definers of public policies with a focus on goal 19 of the PNE”, which aimed to examine the municipal reality in relation to the constituent elements of an SME, to support the effective process of institutionalization and management of the System: stage I – instrument and modeling of the Virtual Environment of Interactive Educational Nature (Avnei) related to Goal 19 of the PNE/PME; stage II – socialization of the instrument and Aba Avnei Meta 19 PNE/PME.

Monitoring of teaching/education plans in the Municipalities of Tocantins

The democratic management established in the 2014-2024 PNE, in articles 2 and 9, and also in target 19 and its set of strategies, prescribes:

Ensure conditions, within 2 years, for the implementation of democratic management of Education, associated with technical criteria of merit and performance and public consultation with the school community, within the scope of public schools, providing resources and technical support from the Union for this purpose.

(^{BRAZIL, 2014}).

To collect additional information about this topic, the PRISME project, in 2022, developed an assisting and monitoring instrument that enabled the collection of the following information:

Source: elaborated by the authors, 2023.

Graph I Percentage of development levels of the PME law 

Source: elaborated by the authors, 2023.

Graph II Chronology of SME standardization 

Mapping is an important step to visualize the appropriate and necessary routes, allowing municipalities to be offered specific support. Through PRISME, every participating Municipality was called to develop its specific SME law. It is not hasty, therefore, to state that the actions of PRISME subjects have contributed significantly to the effective process of institutionalization of Municipal Education Systems and management of municipal education, with profound consequences for ensuring public education with effectively public and democratic, laic, inclusive, participative, emancipatory management. and of socially referenced quality for the entire population. The reach of the impact and the tangibility of the contribution to the effective institutionalization of SME in the municipalities of Tocantins may, in future publications, be analytically assessed with precision.

Final Considerations

This article aimed to expose the role of the PRISME Program in the process of effective institutionalization and management of SME in the State of Tocantins. Having as its central point the National Education Plan, more precisely the fulfillment of Goal 19, which addresses the democratic management of public education, in correlation with the Municipal Education Plans, the network and the program have been committed to ensuring continuity of the policy of monitoring and evaluation, interrupted by the federal government that ran between 2018 and 2022.

The study suggests that carrying out the PRISME Program may have promoted a better understanding of the effective process of institutionalization and management of Municipal Education Systems in around 117 of the 139 municipalities in the State, with significant consequences for ensuring public education and its Democratic management.

The actions of PRISME subjects may have contributed to an increase in the number of SMEs created during the Program’s period of validity, knowing that in 2020 there were 45 municipalities with systems created, a number that reaches 80 in 2021 and 95 in 2022. PRISME and RCT promote the understanding that the creation of laws for municipal systems is important, but the effective process of institutionalizing SMEs is closely related to the organic and systematic movement that must exist between the elements of the system and that does not happen without intentionality in its proposition.

Thus, it can be inferred that the PRISME Program is currently the materialization of a public educational policy formulated, implemented and evaluated, continuously, by the subjects representing the collaborating institutions, aiming to improve the quality of municipal education through projects and actions that guarantee continuous training, assisting, monitoring and evaluation for the effective process of institutionalization and management of SMEs in the State of Tocantins.

PRISME, in addition to assisting, monitoring and evaluating processes with Municipalities, also maintains rigorous assisting, monitoring and evaluation of its own activity. Progressively, its results have reached the public through various publications. In the near future, wider analyses, both intensive and extensive, may reveal concrete results from this great articulation.