04/25/2024 – 4:25
The narrative about public sector inefficiency is strategic to validate the entry into teaching of the private sector, which has its own agenda and strategic interests in this activity. SP should launch an auction in November to privatize the management of 33 schools: This is the title of a UOL article , written by Ana Paula Bimbati. The person who sent it to me was a professor of my master's degree in public policy at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). He had commented on the matter and it honestly took me by surprise.
I already make my opinion very clear: I do not look favorably on this initiative. I have absolutely nothing against public-private partnership (PPP) and I believe that the balance can be positive in many situations, but I have huge reservations with this type of partnership in education.
What is the objective of the plan? According to the São Paulo secretariat itself, it would be “freeing the school management from bureaucratic tasks, allowing greater dedication to pedagogical issues”. Beautiful is not it? And, in fact, it was born from a real problem that I have already reported in the column. So why am I problematizing? Well, why does the solution necessarily need to involve the private sector?
In Brazil, there is a narrative that the State is inefficient, always corrupt and full of professionals “suckling at the government’s teats”. I am not naive or excessively idealistic: there is corruption and unqualified professionals – as is also the case in the private sector. Now it is incredibly evil to generalize and put the entire system and professionals in the same box. We have public institutions of international reference and highly qualified, ethical and committed sector professionals.
I die of shame when I hear self-styled liberals saying that the best case scenario is a zero state and that this is how it is in the largest nations in the world. Who said that? The economic literature shows just the opposite. Almost all of the largest countries in the world have as much or even more State participation than Brazil, including the United States. And another: even the most liberal economists in history have always signaled that education should be the responsibility of the State.
Private sector is not always the solution
The problem is in management. My professor has been teasing us a lot about this: Why aren't we talking about training public sector professionals and investing in what already exists? Why is the solution always in the private sector?
Well, here the “hole is further down”. The narrative that the public sector is inefficient and that the solution lies in the private sector is part of a strategy that aims to weaken the first and open space for the entry of the second – the latter with its own agenda and almost never cohesive with that which the State should assume. .
São Paulo is not the only one with the beginning of a possible privatization in effect. Paraná started in 2022, and is currently testing the private management model in two schools. Is it a coincidence? No. The two have in common secretary Renato Feder, who worked in the southern state before assuming the same position in the most economically important state in Brazil.
This relationship between education departments and the private sector is not new. I read a 2018 article by Teise Garcia, professor of the pedagogy course at the University of São Paulo, entitled School management in the context of the privatization of basic education. It already identified the presence of private actors in educational management in the period between 2005-2015.
Who is behind all this? Well, overall, great foundations. About two years ago, I spoke to a professor at the Federal University of ABC (UFABC) who said that there is an annual event in which all education secretaries in Brazil participate, whose organization was often sponsored by large foundations. Whoever is behind one of them is simply one of the richest men in Brazil. Look at the power of entry: simply in all education departments in the country and they can, as already happens, influence the curriculum and public policy decisions involving basic education.
Selective care
I am the founder of a national social education project that helps young people from public schools enter higher education. It is 100% non-profit and staffed entirely by university volunteers. I have already visited schools in ten states to publicize our work and in some I had incredible difficulty visiting the schools, even via secretariats.
I was a little disappointed, but deep down I admired the protection towards schools and consequently towards students. But when I found out about this close connection between the private sector and the departments, I felt quite naive. This resistance and blocking are quite selective. There is a lot of resistance when it comes to social projects and small NGOs, but the big “sharks” behind large foundations find a completely open path in many of Brazil's education departments.
I fear that, if this advance by the private sector in the secretariats continues, we will be faced with a scenario of no return. The sector's interest is not only in government subsidy, but also in access to students – both political and monetary. After all, there are millions of potential clients and thousands of possible potential leaders who could hold political positions in the future and vote in favor of the agendas of the foundations that invested in them.
I don't want to incite a conspiracy theory and I'm not saying that the private sector is evil or that the professionals who make it up don't have any kind of good intentions. This is not true, just as it is wrong to say that everyone in the public sector is bad professionals. My point is: sectors have different goals and natures.
We cannot hope that the public sector has the same efficiency as the private sector without due adaptation. We need to protect our public education, our departments and above all our students. I had the opportunity to meet some highly qualified education department professionals, as well as school directors. What we must do is invest in them, in appreciation and qualification.
______________________________
Vozes da Educação is a weekly column written by young people from Safeguarda, a social volunteer program that helps public school students in Brazil enter university. The founder of the program, Vinícius De Andrade, and students assisted by Safeguarda in all states of the federation take turns authoring the texts. Follow the Salvaguarda profile on Instagram at @salvaguarda1
This text was written by Vinícius De Andrade and reflects the author's opinion, not necessarily that of DW.
#public #education #privatized