Section IV - social assistance

 

Article 203. Social assistance shall be rendered to whomever may need it, regardless of contribution to social welfare and shall have as objectives:
I - the protection of the family, maternity, childhood. adolescence and old age;
II - the assistance to needy children and adolescents;
III - the promotion of the integration into the labour market;
IV - the habilitation and rehabilitation of the handicapped and their integration into community life;
V - the guarantee of a monthly benefit of one minimum wage to the handicapped and to the elderly who prove their incapability of providing for their own support or having it provided for by their families. as set forth by law.

Article 204. Government actions in the area of social assistance shall be implemented with funds from the social welfare budget, as provided for in article 195, in addition to other sources, and organized on the basis of the following directives:
I - political and administrative decentralization, the coordination and the general rules being incumbent upon the federal sphere, and the coordination and implementation of the respective programmes, upon the state and municipal spheres, as well as upon benevolent and social assistance entities;
II - participation of the population, by means of organizations representing them in the formulation of policies and in the control of actions taken at all levels.
Sole paragraph. The States and the Federal District may allocate up to five tenths percent of their net tax proceedings to programmes of social inclusion and promotion, it being prohibited the use of these funds to pay for:
I - expenses with salaries and social duties;
II - interests of debts;
III - any other current expense not directly linked to the investments or activities supported.

Sole paragraph added by CA 19, December 19th 2003.

 

CHAPTER III - EDUCATION. CULTURE AND SPORTS

 

SECTION I - EDUCATION

 

Article 205. Education, which is the right of all and duty of the State and of the family, shall be promoted and fostered with the cooperation of society, with a view to the full development of the person, his preparation for the exercise of citizenship and his qualification for work.

Article 206. Education shall be provided on the basis of the following principles:
I - equal conditions of access and permanence in school;
II - freedom to learn, teach, research and express thought, art and knowledge;
III - pluralism of pedagogic ideas and conceptions and coexistence of public and private teaching institutions;
IV - free public education in official schools;
V - appreciation of the value of teaching professionals, guaranteeing, in accordance with the law, career plans for public school teachers, with a professional minimum salary and admittance exclusively by means of public entrance examinations consisting of tests and presentation of academic and or professional credentials;

Clause V shortened by CA 19, June 4th 1998. The original text contained the following words, in fine: ", a single legal regime being insured for all the institutions maintained by the Union". After the CA, the teachers could be hired as civil servants or as contracted teacher.

VI - democratic administration of public education, in the manner prescribed by law;
VII - guarantee of standards of quality.

Article 207. The universities shall have didactic, scientific, administrative, financial and property management autonomy and shall comply with the principle of non-dissociation of teaching, research and extension.
Paragraph 1 - The universities are permitted to hire foreign professors, technicians and scientists as provided by law.
Paragraph 2 - The provisions of this article apply to scientific and technological research institutions.

Paragraphs 1 and 2 added by CA 11, April 30th 1996. Before this CA, Brazilian universities were not allowed to hire foreign professors.

Article 208. The duty of the State towards education shall be fulfilled by ensuring the following:
I - mandatory and free elementary education, including the assurance of its free offer to all those who did not have access to it at the proper age;

Text in purple added by CA 14, September 12th 1996.

II - progressive universalization of the free high-school education;

Clause II amended by CA 14, September 12th 1996. Former text read the word "expansion", instead of universalization.

III - specialized schooling for the handicapped, preferably in the regular school system;
IV - assistance to children of zero to six years of age, in day-care centers and pre-schools;
V - access to higher levels of education, research and artistic creation according to individual capacity;
VI - provision of regular night courses adequate to the conditions of the student;
VII - assistance to elementary school students by means of supplementary programmes providing school material, transportation, food and health assistance.
Paragraph 1 - The access to compulsory and free education is a subjective public right.
Paragraph 2 - The competent authority shall be liable for the failure of the Government in providing compulsory education or providing it irregularly.
Paragraph 3 - The Government has the power to take a census of elementary school students, call them for enrollment and ensure that parents or guardians see to their children's attendance to school.

Article 209. Teaching is open to private enterprise, provided that the following conditions are met:
I - compliance with the general rules of national education;
II - authorization and evaluation of quality by the Government.

Article 210. Minimum curricula shall be established for elementary schools in order to ensure a common basic education and respect for national and regional cultural and artistic values.
Paragraph 1 - The teaching of religion is optional and shall be offered during the regular school hours of public elementary schools.
Paragraph 2 - Regular elementary education shall be given in the Portuguese language and Indian communities shall also be ensured the use of their native tongues and their own learning methods.

Article 211. The Union, the states, the Federal District and the municipalities shall cooperate in the organization of their educational systems.
Paragraph 1 - The Union shall organize the federal educational system and that of the Territories, shall finance the federal public educational institutions and shall have, in educational matters, a redistributive and supplementary function, so as to guarantee the equalization of the educational opportunities and a minimum standard of quality of education, through technical and financial assistance to the states, the Federal District and the municipalities.
Paragraph 2 - The municipalities shall act on a priority basis in elementary education and in the education of children.
Paragraph 3 - The states and the Federal District shall act on a priority basis in elementary and secondary education.
Paragraph 4 - In the operation of their educational systems, the states and municipalities shall establish forms of cooperation, so as to guarantee the universalization of the mandatory education.

Paragraph 1 to 4 amended by CA 14, September 12th 1996.

Article 212. The Union shall apply, annually, never less than eighteen percent, and the states, the Federal District, and the municipalities, at least twenty-five percent of the tax revenues, including those resulting from transfers, in the maintenance and development of education.
Paragraph 1 - The share of tax revenues, transferred by the Union to the states, the Federal District and the municipalities, or by the states to the respective municipalities, shall not be considered, for purposes of the calculation provided by this article, as revenues of the government which transfers it.
Paragraph 2 - For purposes of compliance with the caption of this article, the federal, state and municipal educational systems, as well as the funds applied in accordance with article 213 shall be taken into consideration.
Paragraph 3 - In the distribution of public funds, priority shall be given to the providing for the needs of compulsory education, as set forth in the national educational plan.
Paragraph 4 - The supplementary food and health assistance programmes provided by article 208, VII, shall be financed with funds derived from social contributions and other budgetary funds.
Paragraph 5 - The public elementary education shall have, as an additional source of financing, the social contribution for education, collected from companies, as provided by law.

Paragraph 5 added by CA 14, September 12th 1996.

Article 213. Public funds shall be allocated to public schools, and may be channelled to community, religious or philanthropic schools, as defined by law, which:
I - prove that they do not seek profit and that they apply their surplus funds in education;
II - ensure that their assets shall be assigned to another community, religious or philanthropic schools, or to the Government in case they cease their activities.
Paragraph 1 - The funds provided by this article may be allocated to elementary and secondary school scholarships, as provided by law, for those who prove insufficiency of means, when there are no vacancies or no regular courses are offered in the public school system of the place where the student lives, the Government being placed under the obligation to invest, on a priority basis, in the expansion of the public system of the locality.
Paragraph 2 - Research and extension activities at university level may receive financial support from the Government.

Article 214. The law shall establish the pluriannual national educational plan, with a view to the coordination and development of teaching, at its various levels, and to the integration of the Government actions leading to:
I - eradication of illiteracy;
II - universalization of school assistance;
III - improvement of the quality of education;
IV - professional training;
V - humanistic, scientific and technological advancement of the country.

SECTION II - CULTURE

Article 215. The state shall ensure to all the full exercise of the cultural rights and access to the sources of national culture and shall support and foster the appreciation and diffusion of cultural expressions.
Paragraph 1 - The State shall protect the expressions of popular, Indian and Afro-Brazilian cultures, as well as those of other groups participating in the national civilization process.
Paragraph 2 - The law shall provide for the establishment of commemorative dates of high significance for the various national ethnic segments.

Paragraph 3 - The shall shall establish the National Plan of Culture, with a plurianual duration, aiming at the cultural development of the Country and at the integration of the actions by the Public Power which lead to:
I - defense and valorization of the Brazilian Cultural Heritage;
II - production, promotion and difusion of culture;
III - formation of qualified personnel for the management of Culture in their multiple dimensions;
IV - democratization of access to culture;
V - valorization of ethnical and regional diversity.

Paragraph 3 added by CA 48, August 10th 2005.

Article 216. The Brazilian cultural heritage consists of the assets of a material and immaterial nature, taken individually or as a whole, which bear reference to the identity, action and memory of the various groups that form the Brazilian society, therein included:
I - forms of expression;
II - ways of creating, making and living;
III - scientific, artistic and technological creations;
IV - works, objects, documents, buildings and other spaces intended for artistic and cultural expressions;
V - urban complexes and sites of historical, natural, artistic, archaeological, paleontological, ecological and scientific value.
Paragraph 1 - The Government shall, with the cooperation of the community, promote and protect the Brazilian cultural heritage, by means of inventories, registers, vigilance, monument protection decrees, expropriation and other forms of precaution and preservation.
Paragraph 2 - It is incumbent upon the Government, in accordance with the law, to manage the keeping of the governmental documents and to make them available for consultation to whomever may need to do so.
Paragraph 3 - The law shall establish incentives for the production and knowledge of cultural assets and values.
Paragraph 4 - Damages and threats to the cultural heritage shall be punished in accordance with the law.
Paragraph 5 - All documents and sites bearing historical reminiscence to the ancient communities of runaway slaves are protected as national heritage.
Paragraph 6. The States and the Federal District may allocate up to five tenths percent of their net tax proceedings to a State fund for fomenting culture, it being prohibited the use of these funds to pay for: I - expenses with salaries and social duties; II - interests of debts; III - any other current expense not directly linked to the investments or activities supported.

Paragraph 6 added by CA 19, December 19th 2003.

SECTION III - SPORTS

 

Article 217. It is the duty of the State to foster the practice of formal and informal sports, as a right of each individual, with due regard for:
I - the autonomy of the directing sports entities and associations, as to their organization and operation;
II - the allocation of public funds with a view to promoting, on a priority basis, educational sports and, in specific cases, high performance sports;
III - differentiated treatment for professional and non-professional sports;
IV - the protection and fostering of sports created in the country.
Paragraph 1 - The Judicial Power shall only accept legal actions related to sports discipline and competitions after the instances of the sports courts, as regulated by law, have been exhausted.
Paragraph 2 - The sports courts shall render final judgement within sixty days, at the most, counted from the date of the filing of the action.
Paragraph 3 - The Government shall encourage leisure, as a form of social promotion.