Decentralized Classes Program in the expansion of public professional education in the state of São Paulo: history and developments

Abstract

The strategies for centralizing and decentralizing administrative responsibilities and its effects on the quality of the education provided by public and private institutions has occupied specific studies intended to understand how such process takes place in different school contexts. The starting point of this study lies in the following quest: within the framework of the neoliberal reforms of education, which would be the function of the Decentralized Classes Program in the expansion of the public professional education in the state of São Paulo? The study includes bibliographical references with authors who address political, social and historical aspects which resulted in the current structure of the public professional schooling, especially in the state of São Paulo. They are also analyzed by means of documental research, carried out on the basis of data available from the agencies in charge of the public professional education in the mentioned state, focusing on the Decentralized Classes Program. The study clearly shows the expansion of enrolments in the program and its relationship with the State Educational Plan, as well as the prevalence in providing courses aligned with the technological issue of Management and Business, since such qualifications require less expensive structures and serve the technologist and managerial approaches found in the public policies, discourses, and actions. It must be pointed out that the neoliberal logic ruling the public policies lowers the function of the educational process to the development of economically significant skills, disregarding social, cultural, and regional aspects, focusing on the private quantitative offer to the detriment of the quality of the public professional education provided.