Every year, approximately 30 million students from more than 123,000 public schools of basic education from the federal, state, municipal, and district networks receive textbooks, pedagogical and literary works through the National Book and Textbook Program (PNLD). This commitment to the education of children and young people from Pre-Primary to Upper Secondary Education is undertaken by the Ministry of Education (MEC), in cooperation with the National Fund for Development of Education (FNDE). The results: up to 170 million books are assessed and made available, year after year, systematically, regularly, and for free. And the PNLD is for everyone: it has national coverage of 97% (it reaches approximately 5,400 municipalities, out of the 5,570 total).

The Program is one of the world's largest, and with this information alone, it is possible to imagine the size of a program like PNLD. Yes, books have a long journey ahead of them before reaching the hands of the students who will use the material. First, MEC publishes the official calls for the procurement of these works. Then a key stage begins, the pedagogical assessment that ensures that the guidelines and objectives laid down by the Program are met and classifies the works based on the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC). Only then, these works are approved, chosen, negotiated, procured, and, lastly, distributed with the support of Correios. The last step is monitoring and evaluating the materials.

In addition to the robustness of the Program, with detailed steps involving different government agents, which results in the distribution of educational materials throughout a country of continental size and with diverse social conditions like Brazil, there are still other challenges. "Schools that participate in the PNLD requested digital resources since the assessment and acquisition process was paper-based. The pandemic scenario increased, even more, the need for digital transformation in education, especially with regard to the formats of didactic materials offered to students and teachers, in the scope of the PNLD", explains the manager of Solutions of RNP, Roosevelt Benvindo.

To solve this problem, the National Fund for Development of Education signed a cooperation agreement with the National Education and Research Network (RNP) to redesign the processes and draft a proposal for a technological solution in a cloud environment where the entire process of acquisition and provision of works from the PNLD will take place. The first delivery from this agreement, divided into two stages, has already happened: on 14/06 and 28/07, the portal's registration and validation module was made available. Thus, publishers were able to register the works digitally.

The general coordinator of the Book Programs of FNDE, Nadja Cezar Ianzer, argues: "In the face of the demands from public schools of basic education for computerized resources as tools for learning tools and required by the new social reality, in which it is necessary to reconcile pedagogical and technological aspects, the implementation of the PNLD is being enhanced to offer more possibilities for student and teacher access to digital resources with the necessary safety and based on quality content, which requires expert work from those involved in this digital transformation of the program". 

On the results expected, Nadja comments: "The work is strictly following the schedule of the PNLD calls, ensuring that the materials acquired by the Program, starting next year, can also be made available in digital format, following the deadlines of the educational schedules. The final implementation of the project will allow all participating schools to have access to digital books, digital educational resources, and other PNLD contents in real-time and with full information security and data protection for all users."

Learn more about the PNLD and the journey of textbooks: RNP supports MEC in the challenge of delivering 150 million books to students all over Brazil