A contrarreforma da educação profissional em Pernambuco: as contradições postas às Escolas Técnicas Estaduais com o novo ensino médio (Lei nº 13. 415/2017)

Abstract

In the State of Pernambuco, the curricular reformulation for High School, claims to respond to the desire of youth, articulating itself with the pillars of research, work, critical innovation, social engagement and guaranteeing life opportunities for Pernambuco students and contributing to a more just, supportive and fraternal society (Pernambuco, 2021). However, based on the historical duality of Professional Education and the narrative of the Curriculum for the New High School in Pernambuco, it is necessary to understand the measures adopted by the State to promote the changes advocated by the counter-reform considering professional training, school infrastructure, training continuation of teachers, working conditions, the organization process and the provision of curricular components. For our field of study, it is necessary to problematize, given this scenario, what is the movement triggered for professional education in the State Technical Schools of Pernambuco in relation to the implementation of the Secondary Education Reform (Law nº 13,416/2017)? In order to answer this question, the General Objective is: To analyze professional training in the State Technical Schools of Pernambuco as a result of the Counter-reform of Secondary Education with a view to implementing Law No. 13,415/2017, and as Specific Objectives: Identify the relationship between the capitalist mode of production and education policy; Identify the repercussions of neoliberalism on professional education policy in the Brazilian scenario and its ideological political construction after the 1988 Federal Constitution; and Analyze the determinations of the counter-reform in the State Technical Schools of Pernambuco based on the measures adopted by the State in compliance with Law No. 13,415/2017. When understanding our methodological path, our research is qualitative in nature, based on categories of dialectical historical materialism: contradiction and totality. The main debates captured are those in the literature about the devaluation of education, especially professional education, with the New Secondary Education, a reflection of neoliberal measures. To do this, we use several authors within the scope of the critical perspective to address the current system and its crises through Marx (2019), the work, with Ricardo Antunes (2017), the professional education of Gaudêncio Frigoto and Marise Ramos (2023) and the Brazilian scenario through Florestan Fernandes (2009) and Carlos Nelson Coutinho (2012), among others. To achieve this, our methodological path was the analysis of the New Secondary Education legislation, the Pernambuco Curriculum for Secondary Education and the understanding of what was put in place for those at the base of the school (managers, teachers and students) through the application of a questionnaire via Google Forms. In order to respond to what is posed for Professional Education with the changes in the final years of Basic Education, we argue that the New High School, by making curricula more flexible and bringing school training closer to the demands of the job market, fails to meet the interests of students and their application has generated challenges, such as inequality in access to Training Itineraries and the lack of teacher preparation, compromising equity and quality of teaching. With this, we conclude that the setback surrounding the abrupt changes in the Final Years of Bsic and Professional Education in the State, as well as the determinations of this process, configured a passive scenario for the working class, intensifying the precariousness of human training and having the counter-reform as an element central to the devaluation of professional education.