These funds from the so-called Growth Acceleration Program are aimed at expanding and strengthening these educational and health institutions.

The initiative includes building 10 new university campuses, repairing 31 hospitals and expanding the offer of professional training institutes, as well as an increasing the budget of these institutions.

This growth will be generating as many as 28,000 new jobs for undergraduate students.

For Lula, people should have the right to go to university and opportunities should be offered, especially to indigenous and Afro-descendant people. All with the purpose of making Brazil “a developed and competitive country”, he stressed.

The plan came up in a meeting held by the head of state at the Presidential Palace in Brasilia with rectors of universities and federal institutes, in which the current strike of professors and civil servants was discussed.

In this regard, Lula criticized the 60-day strike and pointed out that, by analyzing the situation as a whole, it will be possible to realize that “there is no reason for the strike to last so long”.

He stated that, “the one who is losing is not Lula, it is not the rector, the one who is losing is Brazil and the Brazilian students”.

During his speech, Lula also said that the union leaders started a strike, but they do not have the courage to end the blockades.

The teachers and technical servers are pressuring the Federal Government for salary readjustment. They demand a correction of 3.69% for this year, 9% in January 2025 and another 5.16% in 2026.

The Ministry of Management and Innovation (MGI) is the one that deals with the negotiations with the category and denies these rates.

According to the National Union of Teachers of Higher Education Institutions (ANDES), there are 62 federal institutions of Higher Education currently paralyzed and this Monday three more go on strike.

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