The wave of violence that hit the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo in 2012 sparked many debates about public safety in Brazil. Themes such as restructuring the police, fighting organized crime and modifying the prison system were widely discussed by the government and the media in general. On the other hand, the structural causes of events like this are very far from a concrete solution, and can be translated into the absence of the State in the service to needy areas with regard to housing, health, sewage, education and other requirements to ensure quality of life for the population.
The lack or ineffectiveness of public policies during the consolidation of Brazil as an urban country ended up producing millions of young people with no prospects for a promising future. In the midst of a degraded environment and entry into the labor market, mainly through informality and underemployment, criminal factions found an ideal space to co-opt these young people into the universe of illegality, driven by constant stimuli to consumerism present in all spheres social. But how would the issue of urban violence be related to education as a vector of economic development in Brazil?
Urban violence represents just one of the reflections of the low level of education that persists in the country, identified in official figures as 10% of illiteracy and many others considered functionally illiterate, who do not even believe that increasing education can be an instrument of ascension. Social. The discrediting of the Brazilian educational system was reflected in the heated debate about quotas in public universities. Far from reducing the weight of these analyses, the quotas point to the root of the problem, which is weakened basic education and unable to lead students from public schools to the most popular courses at universities maintained by the government federal.
The concept of economic development is broad. In theory, it is the result of a combination of planning policies in social projects conducted by the State and the general growth of the economy that the private sector can provide. In the most different periods of its late capitalism, Brazil managed to achieve economic growth, but limited to few sectors and subject to economic crises and indebtedness, moving away from a development model economic.
The gaps in educational policies to universalize quality education are making the country increasingly distant from other nations emerging countries such as China, India and South Korea, the latter presenting social indicators and technological innovations very close to countries considered developed. Looking more closely at everything that has worked in Asian countries, two characteristics stand out: the role of the State in the idealization of educational and qualification policies of labor - which in the long term generate technological development - and the typical discipline of the oriental culture, much appreciated by companies and also by universities and centers of research.
In Brazil, there was no ambitious plan to change the panorama of public schools, despite the structure of higher education in Brazil reveal excellence in teaching and research in certain segments. What happens is an abyss between the research carried out at our universities and the market demands. There are thousands of research and academic papers produced each year, many of which are financed by public bodies, but whose knowledge remains restricted to the walls of universities. We cannot believe that the needs of private capital - which vary a lot - need to figure as the only way forward for the generation of scientific knowledge, but the mismatch is evident and costs dearly to the State and the entrepreneurs. Both are losing, either because of investments that do not show the desired return or because of reduced competitiveness against countries that are competing with Brazil in this regard.
When starting the neoliberal project during the 1990s, Brazil apparently absorbed much more of the harmful aspects of deregulation of the economy than what has been advocated as the beneficial factors that accompany the ideology neoliberal. The speed of economic opening and the privatization process was not accompanied by a redirection of the basic functions of the State. One of the premises of neoliberalism corresponds to the decentralization of administration and coordination of economic projects. Public-private partnerships are certainly one of the greatest examples that can be followed for qualification of the workforce sought by investors and the introduction of public policies to combat social misery.
In the same way that discipline can be identified as one of the components of success for the Asian model, it is necessary consider the potential present in our territory to foster a Brazilian model of development economic. And among so many potentials, the Brazilian people have the creativity, the innate ability to improvise and promote dynamic adaptations in the face of challenges. Of course, when it comes to improvisation, it doesn't mean lack of goals and commitment to goals, but betting on the flexibility and cultural characteristics that each Brazilian region It has.
It is in these regionalisms that the historical adaptations of a nation reside, which must be used to innovate, in the most different perspectives. Entrepreneurs, public authorities and universities have the obligation to walk in harmony, establishing new proposals for teaching, production and dissemination of knowledge based on our capital Social. Otherwise, the country will remain dependent on flashes of economic growth, with the expressive presence of the primary sector in the composition of the country's GDP, exactly the sector with the lowest added value in its products and with the lowest job generation capacity qualified. And as a consequence, it will have to face for many decades the most different types of social tension triggered by disparities in the distribution of income and resources. At a time of greater exposure of Brazil on the international scene and a slight drop in the share of traditional countries in the economy world, the time has come for the country to chart new directions, to put an end to the colonial legacy of primary, agro-exporting and exclusionary.
Julio César Lázaro da Silva
Brazil School Collaborator
Graduated in Geography from Universidade Estadual Paulista - UNESP
Master in Human Geography from Universidade Estadual Paulista - UNESP
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/economia/educacao-progresso-economico.htm