A Política Educacional do Estado de São Paulo (1983-2008)

Abstract

The research that generated this text tried to analyze from a critical perspective the educational policy promoted by the different governments of the Sao Paulo state in the 1983-2008 period. The year 1983 was chosen as its starting point because it was then that the first government was directly elected by the people, after almost twenty years of governments elected through an indirect process. During the researched period two parties directed the social policies in the State. At the beginning there were three governors elected by the PMDB (Brazilian Democratic Movement Party): Andre Franco Montoro (1983-1986); Orestes Quercia (1987-1990) and Luiz Antonio Fleury Filho (1991-1994). After them there were four mandates entrusted to the PSDB (Party of the Brazilian Social Democracy) in the following order: Mario Covas Filho (1995-1998); Mario Covas/Geraldo Alckmin (1999-2002); Geraldo Alckmin/Claudio Lembo (2003-2006) and finally Jose Serra (2007-2010). During these 25 years there were many actions in the educational field. Some were merely punctual. Others brought structural changes in the organization and functioning of the educational sector, among them the reorganization of the physical network – that paved the way for the municipalization of the elementary level – and the institutionalization of the studies’ regimen known as Sequenced Progression. In the period under the PMDB it should be highlighted the creation of the Basic Cycle (CB). Its objective is to improve the quality of the children’s literacy program and in this way to lower the worrisome first grade repetition indexes at the elementary level (54.0%) of the State public system. The creation of this cycle brought about the much needed review of the curricula contents and started the process for de definition of the Curricula Proposals for the elementary and high school education. The teachers progression career was restructured after governor Franco Montoro signed the Teachers’ Statute following a wide discussion with the teachers’ unions of Sao Paulo. During governor Fleury Filho’s period there was another attempt at confronting the challenge for the improvement of public education quality. I am referring here to the so-called Standard program that was cancelled at the beginning of the Mario Covas’ government. It was during this time that for the first time it was created a permanent program to evaluate the performance of children and adolescents, the SARESP (System for the Evaluation of School Performance of the State of Sao Paulo). But the decisions of greatest impact were unquestionably the institutionalization of the studies’ regimen known as Sequenced Progression and the municipalization of teaching, this one made possible by the FUNDEF (Fund for the Maintenance and Development of the Elementary Education and Teachers’ Valorization).