Novais, from Maranhão, eighty years old, has had six terms in Congress. He is not notable for any project, any political articulation, or any great gesture. But he became minister for no reason and now he's becoming more famous everyday.
It's also worth noting that he looks like this:
The reference to the state of Maranhão links him to the notoriously corrupt President of the Senate, Sarney, which explains how he got as far as he got despite not having any accomplishments. Despite having an incredibly salary of R$ 26,700 per month (of which everything is pocket change because Brazilian congressmen don't pay for their own food, transport, housing, or staff), he still got into trouble but repeatedly putting his personal purchases (maid services for some of his homes, a driver for his wife, a motel party) onto the public payroll. And this is after eight subordinates were all forced to leave the ministry due to massive spending fraud (somehow, this didn't effect the minister personally). What will happen to him now that he has finally been forced to leave his post?
Not much. He'll go back to being a congressman, and will continue earning an exorbitant salary. He'll have no responsibilities except to continue to help enrich his political party. He'll probably take some time to think of very elaborate explanations for all the money he stole. He'll make repeated affirmations about the way he was mistreated by the press (if he is anything like his predecessors in leaving the ministry, he may even make grand pronouncements about how he and his party "are not trash to be swept"). He certainly won't go to trial or have to pay in any real way for using his position to enrich himself and his friends.
Some people might say that this light handling of criminals is exclusive only to the upper class. There is some truth to this; a crack dealer would not be forced to step down and merely sell marijuana if he were caught. But there does seem to be a streak of a complete lack of consequences throughout all levels of public administration, including schools.
I hear about a lot of examples through my wife, who is a local city employee as a teacher and educational program coordinator. The city has recently installed a finger-print scanner to register the coming and going of city employees. This, of course, is an incredibly stupid idea. Previous to the scanner, the government couldn't prove whether or not employees were showing up. Now all they need to do is show up at 8am, scan their fingers, and suddenly they're free until it's time to scan out at 5pm, and as far as the government is concerned, it is "proven" that they've been at work, regardless of the reality. According to my wife, some employees are taking advantage of this system in full - they are scanned in as working 40 hours a week, but they only show up a couple of afternoons a week to move some things around and give the impression that they've been working. The result? The projects don't work.
A friend of hers works as a secretary for for a school. Her coworker began to study education in a university, apparently exclusively as a way to reduce his hours (public employees can work part-time and be paid full-time if they are in school). Now, he cuts out of work at noon, leaves everything for his coworkers to do, and probably sits at home and watches TV.
The system benefits incompetent people as well as lazy people. Once you are in, it doesn't matter if you have no clue what you are doing. No one is ever going to force you out of your position as a government employee, as long as there is no PF (FBI) investigation against you. It doesn't matter how inefficient you are personally making government.
There are probably hundreds of examples like these, and they all add up to local governments that simply don't work. Like Pedro Novais at the federal level, every year millions of idiots are put into positions of responsibility because someone has to please a voting bloc. The result is that competent people are left out, people that have no interest at all in the work they are doing end up in important positions (that they either don't bother showing up for or just use to steal money, which is basically the same thing), and half the social projects that the government boasts about end up going nowhere.
In the case of education, this certainly affects the quality of teaching. I understand from friends that teachers in state schools have vast amounts of bureaucracy to deal with if they are sick for a day. But this isn't the case of municipal teachers. And even leaving truancy aside, the quality of teaching inside the classroom of local schools is pretty much unregulated. In bad municipal schools (and there are many), any excuse not to give class will be taken (let's decorate the room today!). You can be an English teacher and not speak a word of English for decades in some schools, and you will be handsomely rewarded for your service.
Finally, this has a remarkable effect on students. As far as I can tell, students are generally not punished for bad behavior. I teach at the college level, and the results of all this are... interesting. In effect, the relationship between teacher and student gets turned on its head. A student that conducts (incredibly loud) conversation throughout class is not rude; but a teacher that asks him or her to be quiet is. A student that doesn't bother to turn in a homework assignment is pretty sure he or she can work out a deal with the teacher (and even students that haven't shown up to class until halfway through the semester will expect their teachers to figure out how to accommodate them). Plagiarism and cheating are widespread because students are not used to paying any consequences. Essentially, students do not expect their grades to reflect what they've learned and how their performance has been on school projects, but rather how well they get along with their teacher. Thus, the teacher can expect a lot of schmoozing before and after class, but not much his students during class. And they'll get pushed through to their diploma, one way or the other.
In the end, merit is pretty irrelevant in many aspects of Brazilian life, especially government service and public education. The individual response to this is only rational, after all - why bother working hard when you'll get a lot more benefits simply by having powerful friends, whether a politician or your teacher?
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