BID and recommendations for secondary education: the education at what distance?

Abstract

This article analyses the document “Reforma de la educación primaria y secundaria en América Latina”, published by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), in June 2000. The objective is to understand the influence of international organizations on educational policies in Brazil based on the analysis of the document, but also making use of research that studied other funding agencies. Thus, an analysis of the IDB document is employed with the identification of topics related to high school, as well as the conception presented in the document for that level of education. Thus, the analysis has a documentary character, plus bibliographic research, in an effort to understand the field of research and to deepen the discussions held by other researchers. In the document, technology appears as a way to improve the quality of teaching, without, however, explaining how to do it. It’s concluded that, given the inequality that marks Brazilian education, only poor young people would be submitted to distance education. In an attempt to address these inequalities, the IDB advocates public-private partnerships and the extension of Distance Education to the least privileged or those who live in regions that are difficult to access. In view of all the technical apparatus necessary for the production of materials and access to Information and Communication Technologies, the resource would be poorly implemented, not allowing a correct expansion of schooling, but perhaps a reduction in the number of enrollments and an increase in dropout. Under these conditions, the historical duality persists and the exclusion increases.