Nova gestão pública e as políticas de ensino médio na Bahia de 2019-2024

Abstract

This paper presents a masters’ thesis research which aims to understand how the nuances of the New Public Management manifest themselves in the High Schools of Bahia, Brazil. High School in itself is also analyzed as the setting of conflict between the preparation of students for employment versus for higher education – an environment where the contradictions of capitalism spread through education reforms which reduce integral education in favor of prioritizing market interests. This research is justified by the need to question the usage of a business approach to the public management in Bahia, which, under the guise of modernization and efficiency, has prioritized assessments and controlling the education of the youth. With that in mind, this study raises the following inquiry: How do the nuances of managerialism in public management manifest themselves in educational policies regarding High School in Bahia between 2019 and 2024? The main goal of this paper is to analyze how the managerialist logic shows in the State's conduct during this period. Specific goals include conceptually outlining the NPM, analyzing the law and the normative documentation that guide the so-called New High School Project in Bahia, and identifying managerialist strategies within them. The research is based on dialectical materialism and uses a qualitative approach of documental nature. The document corpus analyzed in this paper includes federal resolutions such as the Brazilian Laws of number 13.415/2017 and 14.945/2024, as well as state mechanisms such as resolutions, reports and debates. The results found show a strategic alignment between the restructuring of curriculum in Bahia and the market's demands, revealing that the autonomy promised to the students works as a way to place the responsibility on the individuals while the State keeps strict control via goals and measurements. In conclusion, the official papers analyzed by this research has made pedagogical interests submissive to management interests, which results in the intellectual hollowing of the working youth in favor of a function-focused and pragmatic education.