Decentralization and partnership: an assessment of the education of youngsters and adults in the Brazilian educational reform

Abstract

This article examines the education of youngsters and adults within the educational reform implemented in Brazil during the 1990s, analyzing the fulfillment of the decentralization in this specific field of education as well the programs and beneficiaries, the deregulation and selective privatization of services. Under this perspective, it is deemed that the educational reform was fettered by the goals of fiscal adjustment, a fact that resulted in the redefinition of the role of the State in the funding and offer of education services, producing a movement of the boundaries between public and private responsibilities in the promotion of education for young and adult persons. Tendencies are highlighted of proliferation of providers, and of multiplication of youngster and adult education programs conducted in partnership between governmental and non-governmental agents. Such practices are inspired in varying meanings attributed to the concepts of partnership and of non-governmental public services, admitting an economic-instrumental view as well as a perspective of democratization of the public sphere. Considering these different meanings and implementation strategies, the article analyzes how the concept of partnership has been put in practice in three federal initiatives for the education of youngsters and adults - the Solidary Literacy Program, the Land Reform Education Program, and the National Plan for Professional Education and Qualification.