European Journal of Scientific Research ISSN 1450-216X / 1450-202X Vol. 158 No 4 March, 2021, pp.326 - 334 http://www. europeanjournalofscientificresearch.com
Brazilian Educational Policy from 2017 to 2021: A Neoliberal Commitment?
Rogério Teixeira de Oliveira Public Policy and Human Formation Program State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil E-mail: [email protected]
Edjofli Dantas Viana Master Business Administration in Project Management IBMR University Center, Brazil E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract
This article analyzes the February 2017 Common National Curriculum Base, the updates to the National Curriculum Guidelines for Secondary Education, November 2018 and the updates to the General National Curriculum Guidelines for Professional and Technological Education, of January 2021 in Brazil and its directions in line with the neoliberal agenda. For this purpose, a theoretical study was carried out, based on bibliographic research and educational legislation. This article aims to verify the correlation of educational policy between 2017 and 2021 and its overlap with the neoliberal political direction. The results of the study demonstrate that the educational legislation of the observed period was organized for the realization of a liberal direction within the modality. Capitalist production, that is, it has elements that aim at the formation of subjects to be prepared only for work and not for an education that contributes to their human and collective formation.
Keywords: Educational public policy, State, Neoliberalism
1. Introduction This article presents a discussion from the National Common Curriculum Base (BNCC) of Brazil, instituted by Law No. 13,415, of February 16, 2017 (MEC, 2017), as well as updates to the National Curriculum Guidelines for High School (DCNEM), instituted by Resolution No. 03, 21 November 2018 (MEC, 2018) and updates to the General National Curriculum Guidelines for Professional and Technological Education (DCNEPT), from CNE/CP Resolution No. 1 of January 5, 2021 (MEC, 2021). The scenario of changes in Brazilian educational policy adds to the worsening of the reality of the Covid-19 pandemic, starting in March 2020, which has evidenced the prioritization of the State for economic issues to the detriment of the preservation of life. In this sense, the defense of public policies that combat inequalities in education, as well as on other fronts guided by democratic protagonism is fundamental for a less unequal society. The article initially makes considerations about education, rights and state and follows with a discussion about neoliberalism in the second section. Next, considerations are presented about work, professional qualification and its correlations with professional and technological education, as well as Brazilian Educational Policy from 2017 to 2021: A Neoliberal Commitment? 327 a specific analysis on Brazilian educational policies from 2017 to 2021. It concludes by attesting to the need for the implementation of educational policies committed to the rights of social subjects and not to the capitalist mode of production that accentuates inequalities.
2. Research Problem and Objective The updates of the DCNEM (MEC, 2018) present changes in the organization of the courses, in the contents and their workloads. Such updates express the result of the process of a neoliberal project that aims to make social policies more flexible and weaken the state's performance. The updates of the DCNEPT (MEC, 2021) are in line with laws 11,741 (MEC, 2008), the DCNEM (2018) and the General National Curriculum Guidelines for Technological Professional Education in Higher Education. The neoliberal direction that permeates these policies demonstrates the purpose of meeting the demands of the world of work in constant evolution (MEC, 2021). Thus, this study aimed to analyze the public educational policy in Brazil from 2017 to 2021, based on a literature review. It also assume the purpose of clarifying that public policies in education in this period have been designed to meet the neoliberal agenda, predominantly based on the formation of labor directed to the production and reproduction of the capitalist mode of production.
3. Education, Rights, State Education is a human category that is part of the process of social production and reproduction. It contributes to the insertion of people in the social scope and permeates their correlations inscribed in the historical movement. The Federal Constitution of Brazil (BRASIL, 1988) established the Democratic Rule of Law, after a period of military government in force between 1964 and 1985. The Magna Carta guarantees the fundamental rights of citizens in article 5 emphasizing equality among all people and also highlighting that education is a fundamental right in article 205 (BRASIL, 1988). The declaration of rights in the Federal Constitution of Brazil is in line with Bobbio (2004), when the author states that the rights of modernity are presented in modern constitutions. The author also points out that human rights are configured within the historical movement (BOBBIO, 2004). Thus, the existence of rights in modern constitutions does not mean that they are effective, but that it is now necessary to protect them (BOBBIO, 2004). In the same direction, Lefebvre (1966) states that the realization of rights takes place from the facts and experiences of social reality that are gestadas in the process of social reproduction. Thus, we appropriate the Marxist conception in the defense of the protagonism of the subjects. Marxism is a perspective that takes place in the dialectical materiality of the real, not being an empiricism or a pragmatism seeking, therefore, to think theoretically and act practically (MARX and ENGELS, 1982). There is no way to dissociate the realization of the subject in the social sphere isolated from practice. In this sense, the totality of human relations in social production is reaffirmed (MARX, 2003). Nature is not in isolation the object of science, but it is also necessary to consider the man, history and society that are produced and reproduced in social practice. Lefebvre (1966) points out that in social practice one must take into account the relationship between theory and practice. This relationship demands complex calculations and is permeated by antagonisms (MARX, 2003; POULANTZAS, 1985). In this sense, the State does not end in the relations of forces of the classes, on the contrary, it forms with them a material set such as an apparatus. Thus, the class struggle is always present within the State and is not something external to it, since the contradictions and presence of the classes are inherent to their own existence. According to Bourdieu (2002) understanding these contradictions raises the "illusion of transparency" of the issues that are posed. To this end, rewearing Marx (2003) when he affirms that the social being of man is responsible for determining his conscience is fundamental. Thus, it is possible to effect a political consciousness that awakens the social individual to understand their place within society and, consequently, the possibilities of changes in it (GRAMSCI, 1978). Locke (1973) argues 328 Rogério Teixeira de Oliveira and Edjofli Dantas Viana that, from this political consciousness, men organize themselves and constitute a political society and, with the objective of self-preservation, surrender their rights to the State. This surrender of rights does not mean that men also surrender their political power, that is, this power continues to be exercised by the people (LOCKE, 1973). Furthermore, political power is related as classes and is organized in the conjuncture of the State (POULANTZAS, 1985). Ramos (2018) highlights, from the assumptions of Gramsci (1891-1937) that the State is formed by political society and civil society. These spheres are permanently in conflict, in order to establish a hegemony according to their particular interests. In this scenario of disputes, public policies are an essential category for the protagonism of social subjects within the State. According to Souza (2007) the implementation of public policies goes through processes of transfer of issues to the political system and through the modeling, decision and implementation of policies. Thus, public policies arise from these correlations between the role of the State and the Government institution. The actions of the subjects in the State are expressed by the action and also by the non-action. In this sense, it is not possible to be outside the State, that is, outside its relations of existence (POULANTZAS, 1985). Furthermore, Poulantzas (1985) and Lefebvre (1966) point out that the inscription of the subjects in the process of social transformation in capitalism is always directed. The actions of the subjects in capitalism take place within the contradictions existing in the production and social reproduction, from the Industrial Revolution, through the Crisis of 1929, the Oil Crisis in the 1970s, the process of globalization in the 1980s, the recession of 2008 and the pandemic of Covid-19 coining elements for social transformation. The neoliberal direction brings as characteristics the reduction of the state's performance, privatization of state enterprises, concentration of transnational capital and hard-hitting transformations in the world of work and in the lives of workers.
4. Neoliberalism The 1980s combined multiple factors, in addition to the economic issue, from contradictory phenomena at the local and global level bringing neoliberalism as the new direction of capitalism (MANCEBO, 2009). This direction is a project that emerged with the economic crisis in the 1970s and influences the world (HARVEY, 2012; DARDOT and LAVAL, 2016). Harvey (2012) analyzes capital and its consequences, such as unemployment, deindustrialization, migratory currents and state reduction. Neoliberalism also presents as characteristics the disinvestment in social assistance programs, deregulation of conquered rights, transfer to the market of health supply, education, safety and food. According to Souza (2007) in neoliberalism the public thing, to the detriment of the conquests of rights must respond to the market with greater efficiency and reduction of investments in the social area, through a public managerialism. School education has adapted to these requirements (RODRIGUES, 2018). Evaluation policies have followed the neoliberal guidelines (SILVA; RAMOS, 2018). In this context, education has been the target of simultaneous reforms and adaptations, based on the flexibilization of educational policies, the review of wage policy, curriculum fragmentation and the performance of large private educational conglomerates. Ianni (1995) states that capitalism constantly needs to adapt to meet its reproduction needs and thus achieve profitability and productivity. An illustrative case of the actions of seeking performance parameters in capitalism is the approval in Brazil of Constitutional Amendment No. 95, of December 15, 2016, which instituted, for 20 financial years, the New Fiscal Regime in the context of fiscal budgets and social security in the country (BRASIL, 2016). Added to this, the country experienced the second impeachment of a President of the Republic in 2016 and had the rise, from 2019, a government of right-wing political positioning. Given this scenario, education and work should be thought in addition to the evaluation by quantitative results and professional qualification specifically directed to the economy. This overcoming is necessary, especially in the current fiscal context in which the reduction of the public budget is used as a parameter of efficiency culminating, for example, in the Brazilian Educational Policy from 2017 to 2021: A Neoliberal Commitment? 329 reformulation of the Brazilian National High School Exam for a virtual mode, amid a scenario of inequalities deepened by the Covid-19 pandemic.
5. Work and Professional Qualification Work and professional qualification are categories that strongly permeate the reality of professional and technological courses in Brazil. The logic of qualification for work for the poor and the relationship with technologies was accentuated from the Industrial Revolution (RAMOS, 2006). Thus, education presents itself as a capitalist arm to subordinate the working mass to neoliberal interests, often based on an entrepreneurial perspective incoherent to the real conditions of the population. Work is also a fundamental category in appropriation and action within the social reality (RAMOS, 2006). Thus, the author points out the direct relationship between work and education and reaffirms the importance of this relationship in the direction of human formation (RAMOS, 2006). These initial characteristics of preparation of the subjects for capital are directly related to the Fordist model of production (FORD, 1967). This model favored the conception of man as an individual, atomized and dissociated part of his social insertion (FORD, 1967). Based on this dichotomy brought by the Fordist model, Ciavatta and Ramos(2011) analyze that professional education has historically presented itself from this duality, that is, from a differentiated education for elites and another for the poor. According to Marx and Engels (1992) the Fordist model explains the intention of scingling out collective work, that is, the disarticulation of the subject from his effective work process and community relations. Gramsci (2001) also criticizes this repetitive, atomized, exhaustive, alienated and detained work of its human value and collective consciousness. Education, like work, is not apart from alienation directions in its social realization. Almeida (2000) emphasizes that it expresses reflections of productive and cultural issues that directly impact on the current changes in the international division of labor. Thus, overcoming an education that is a desteradora, flexible and fragmented towards a human formation is fundamental for us to advance socially (RAMOS, 2006). This process is the individual as a particularity and in its collective conformation, that is, the individual also exists in the totality of human life. The path of educational public policies in Brazil has shown setbacks that need to be fought towards the reaffirmation of human formation.
6. Brazilian Educational Public Policies The Common National Curriculum Base - BNCC (MEC, 2017) may represent a retreat in educational policies, considering that its determinations have brought the possibility of a segmented curriculum and divide into formative itineraries impacting integral education. The possibility of a setback in terms of educational policy lies in the fact that such fragmentations do not consider the inequalities that reside in Brazilian society, accentuated in the pandemic context experienced, from 2020. In line with the BNCC (MEC, 2017), Resolution No. 3 of November 21, 2018, which updated the National Curriculum Guidelines for High School (DCNEM) presents in its article Article 2 clear articulation with the General Curriculum Guidelines for Basic Education. The principles listed in the updates of the DCNEM (MEC, 2018) point out paths, at first sight, that would contribute to an integral formation of the subjects, from integral formation; reflection on school trajectory in its broad dimensions; respect for human rights; understanding of social diversity; sustainability; possibility of offering multiple trajectories by students; non-separation between education and social practice and between theory and practice; consideration of the historicity and protagonism of the subjects (MEC, 2018). Article 11 points out in its caput that basic training is composed of competencies and skills foreseen in the BNCC (MEC, 2017) and that they are articulated with the historical, economic, social, environmental, cultural, local scope, world of work and social practice (MEC, 2018). To do so, it must be organized through the following areas of knowledge: languages and their technologies, mathematics 330 Rogério Teixeira de Oliveira and Edjofli Dantas Viana and their technologies, nature sciences and their technologies and applied human and social sciences. Divisions in relation to formative itineraries bring fragility to integral education, in view of existing structural inequalities. Another point is that, in a scenario of blocking resources, from constitutional amendment 95 of 2016, not all institutions would be able to offer the expected formative itineraries. In addition to these points are the other issues of vulnerabilities and consolidated inequalities, for example, unemployment, lack of basic sanitation, technological inequality, hunger, health scupulation and the health crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Article 31 states that the Union should establish performance standards for high school; such standards will be references for large-scale evaluation (MEC, 2017). The definition of these patterns brings with it neoliberal characteristics of evaluation by performance of Brazilian educational public policies and highlights contradictions, highlighting the place that education occupies within this capitalist direction. These educational policies presented guidelines towards the implementation of innovations for work that would be achieved through the training itineraries contemplating the various courses of Professional and Technological Education, at different levels and modalities, according to the fourth term (MEC, 2017). The fifth and sixth terms have as proposals the updating of existing technological axes that, according to the MEC, no longer correspond to the realities of the industrial sector and the offer of other courses that are relevant to the productive sector. The eighth term aims for the National Information System of Professional and Technological Education (SISTEC) to be, as in its initial proposal, only one data repository (MEC, 2020). It is important to note that all data from professional and technological education institutions are inserted in SISTEC. This system aims to record, disseminate data and validate diplomas from mid-level vocational and technological education courses (MEC, 2021a). At a second time, this data is transported to another database, the Nilo Peçanha Platform; which collects, validates and disseminates statistics from the Federal Network of Professional, Scientific and Technological Education (PLATAFORMA NILO PEÇANHA, 2021). The data of SISTEC and plataforma Nilo Peçanha need to be in tune, as they are fundamental for defining annual resources received by institutions of professional and technological education, as well as consolidated for the preparation of the School Education Census. Thus the eighth term proposes the ratification of SISTEC only as a repository of quantitative data and not to provide information and definitions on educational policies. The ninth term brings as a proposal the strengthening of teacher education, which according to the MEC is deficient (MEC, 2020). Here it is possible to observe traces of the neoliberal ideology, from the disqualification of the performance of the State. In the tenth term the document proposes the recognition of "notorious knowledge" to meet the current need for lack of this training. Thus, doubts about the model and formative pathpaths provided for with such modifications should be discussed. The Ministry of Education presents as outputs the participation of private agencies specialized in professional education (MEC, 2020) evidencing the government's intention to insert private capital in the training of teachers. However, the political and pedagogical direction offered to professionals is unclear and generates doubts and insecurity about the intended results. In this sense, the eleventh term clearly shows the intention of partnering between private initiative and public authorities. The twelfth term also reinforces the insertion of private initiative and the offer of the EAD modality related to face- to-face education (MEC, 2020, p. 18). The thirteenth term reaffirms the importance of the curricular internship and the last term suggests the creation of sectoral chambers to organize the courses and arrangements of itineraries. According to Mueller and Cechinel (2020) the possibility of inserting private initiative at the state level can be observed, for example, from the holding of the "International Forum of Public Policies: Educating for the competencies of the 21st century", in 2014 where a partnership was sealed between the Ministry of Education (MEC), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the private institution Instituto Airton Senna (IAS). Furthermore, the authors bring other situations in this same direction: a) offer, in 2014, in partnership with the IAS, of strictu sensu program in the area of socio-emotional competencies; b) the influence of the OECD; that in 2015 prepared an economic report on Brazil and recommended a national spending limit contributing to the Brazilian Educational Policy from 2017 to 2021: A Neoliberal Commitment? 331 implementation of Constitutional Amendment No. 95 of 2016; c) the incursion of the concept of socio- emotional competencies in educational policies, as observed in the BNCC (2017), also based on the influence of the OECD; d) the leading role of private institutions, such as the IAS, Movimento Todos pela Educação, Fundação Lehmann, Itaú Social and Movimento pela Base Nacional Comum (MUELLER; CECHINEL, 2020). According to Ball (2014), OECD and IAS aim to directly influence educational policies in the world, in order to meet market needs. The updates of the DCNEPT (MEC, 2021) list in their guiding principles (Article 3) the direction for the productive sector, inscribed in the capitalist mode (item I); the stimulation of socio- emotional knowledge (item V); the emphasis of technology "for the performance of different functions in the productive sector" (item VI); autonomy and flexibility of training itineraries (item XV); directing professional skills "required by the nature of work, technological development and social, economic and environmental demands" (MEC, 2021). Article 8, item I, presents the planning and organization of courses linked to "meeting the socioeconomic and environmental demands of citizens and the world of work", without considering the possibility of another organization of society. Item IV of the same article highlights that the professional profile must respond with "originality and creativity" to the challenges of life, not correlating these challenges to the expressions of inequalities of the capitalist system itself. Article 20, paragraph 2 reinforces the concept of socio-emotional competencies as one of the principles of THE DNEPT, a concept advocated by the OECD and large private education groups (MEC, 2021). Article 24, item II reiterates that professional and technological education must be integrated into the world of work and its technologies in line with the advances of the productive sectors meeting the demands of professionalization for the labor market (MEC, 2021). Thus, the consolidation of the DCNEPT only reinforced the neoliberal direction presented in CNE/CP Opinion No. 17/2020, which is articulated with the way the government has been organizing itself. In this sense, the composition and performance of the Council for Social Economic Development (CDES) are also important in this debate. The Brazilian political direction adopted from 2016, with the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff and constitutional amendment no. 95 also count on the creation in 2016 of the Council for Social Economic Development (CDES) which has objectives integrated to the neoliberal direction constant in accordance with the updates of the DCNEPT (2021). The CDES(2021) has actions to advise the President of the Republic, overcome differences, build consensus, valuing motivational aspects, interpersonal skills, emphasis on meritocracy, training of the citizen of the future, training to market needs and improving labor to meet market demand (CDES, 2021). In summary, the objectives of the CDES clearly show the consonance with the neoliberal prerogatives assumed by the Brazilian government.
7. Research Method In order to answer the research question, this study conducted a qualitative approach with literature review through books, theses and legislation on educational public policies in Brazil, between 2017 and 2021 to deepen knowledge and reach conclusions on the theme studied. According to Bardin (2011, in a second moment, content analysis of the legislations surveyed was performed, based on a previous study of the legislation, in the study of the selected material and its treatment to consolidate the conclusions of the research. Therefore, the objective of this research was to deepen the study of the educational public policies of Brazilian basic education between 2017 and 2021, making a correlation between such public policies and the neoliberal direction followed by them.
8. Results The results of the research show that the watertight educational paths proposed by the Brazilian educational policy from 2017 present setbacks, since they do not contribute to an integral formation, but rather fragmented. The incursion of organizations such as the OECD, the CDES and transnational 332 Rogério Teixeira de Oliveira and Edjofli Dantas Viana education conglomerates within the scope of Brazilian educational policies reveal that there is an objective of inserting these private bodies in public educational policies. They also reveal that there is no point of pointing out solutions from a radical change in society, but always in the sense of strengthening and reproducing the capitalist mode of production. Also, in Brazil, from 2019 on, the scenario presented as an emergency before social policies, the environment, the Democratic State of Law, the uncontrollability of the pandemic crisis of Covid-19 leads us to the following reflection: when contradictions reach their limits and exhaustion will themselves be responsible for geeating, based on their material conditions, the possibility of a new society (MARX , 2003).
9. Conclusion Based on the contradictions of interests inscribed in the capitalist mode of production, of neoliberal direction, the strengthening of educational public policies that stick to equality and justice are fundamental for the maintenance, guarantee and consolidation of new rights. Therefore, it is necessary to aim, in the educational sphere, a human formation that privileges the subject as an individual being and also in its collective expressions. Subjects who are not only appendices to work, based on dicotomized qualifications and centered on socio-emotional competencies taken from their collective consciousness as a class. From the analysis of the educational contents to be made available, the proposed watertight educational paths present setbacks, since they contribute to a fragmented formation of the subjects. Attention must still be made to the actions and positions of bodies such as the OECD, the CDES and transnational education conglomerates in the public sphere and the conformation of their actions. Thus, public education in Brazil, in its different modalities, must resist educational policies that reduce rights, accentuate inequalities and become waste for the poorest and leverage the production and reproduction of the current capitalist mode of production.
References [1] Almeida, Ney Luiz Teixeira de. Capacitação em Serviço Social e Política Social. Módulo 3. Brasília: UNB, Centro de Educação Aberta, Continuada a Distância, 2000, p. 151-163. [2] Bardin, Laurence. Análise de conteúdo. São Paulo: Edições 70, 2011. [3] Bobbio, Norberto. A era dos direitos. Tradução Carlos Nelson Coutinho; apresentação de Celso Lafer. — Nova ed. — Rio de Janeiro: Elsevier, 2004. [4] Brasil. Constituição da República Federativa do Brasil: promulgada em 5 de outubro de 1988. Disponível em:
[10] Ciavatta, Maria; Ramos, Marise Nogueira. Ensino Médio e Educação Profissional no Brasil: dualidade e fragmentação. Revista Retratos da Escola, Brasília, v. 5, n. 8, p. 27-41, jan./jun 2011. Disponível em:
http://portal.mec.gov.br/index.php?option=com_docman&view=download&alias=167931- rcp001-21&category_slug=janeiro-2021-pdf&Itemid=30192 > Acesso em: 14 jan. 2021. [32] Ministério da Educação. Sistema Nacional de Informações da Educação Profissional e Tecnológica (Sistec). Disponível em: