| The
Effects of 15 Years of Neoliberal Policies on Public Education in the Americas
Carlos Mauricio López
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
The
New Landscape and Context of Decentralized Development
According to a study
carried out by Dr. Jose Antonio Morales Erlich, a Salvadoran politician,
the world today is characterized by three main trends in development:
1.1 A marked tendency
toward unipolar politics, represented by the United States and reinforced
by the Cold War
1.2 A tendency toward
economic multipolarity in different parts of the world, promoting a rupture
in national markets in order to give way to globalization of the economy
1.3 A generalized tendency
toward “modernization” of the state characterised by a reduction in the
size of the bureaucratic apparatus, “rationalization” of public resources
and efficiency in the distribution of public services. A pivotal axis of
modernization of the state is the decentralization of territorial political
administration.
Let us take a closer look
at some elements of these three trends.
1.1 The Tendency Toward
Unipolar Politics
Over the last few decades,
the world has experienced very significant economic, social and political
changes, the most important of which has been the consolidation of one
single economic and political system, which is capitalism. These changes
are reinforced by recent events in Eastern Europe, which have served to
feed the idea that "In light of the total failure of socialism, capitalism
has shown itself to be effective." As a political power whose military
strength is without rival, the US has placed itself in a vulnerable economic
and social situation. In this world-wide repositioning, it will have to
defend foreign investment and foreign-made products in its attractive internal.
market. That is why the US has had to force an alliance with Canada and
Mexico in an attempt to form an economic bloc that permits it to compensate
for the deficiencies of it obsolete and costly productive apparatus. Due
to its great scientific and technical capacity, the US is now the only
high level world atomic power, and because of its advantage in this area,
it fills the key, dangerous role of "sheriff" of the universal metropolis.
1.2 Economic Multipolarity
With the implantation of
the New World Order, the economy has undergone more changes in the last
fifteen years than in the eighty years that preceded them. A new industrial/technological
revolution is taking place which is manifest in the areas of informatics,
robotics and bio-engineering. Globalization is characterized by profound
technological changes which have implications at the infrastructure level
for such factors as production, the circulation of goods and the political
economy of states.
Today, this is referred to
as "globalization of the economy", which in reality, means regionalization
of the economy on a world scale. Within this emerging framework, national
economic borders are being drastically reorganized, giving way to the formation
of large regional economic blocs, which actually work against free trade,
since they are actually protective and highly aggressive trade zones.
Latin America with Mexico
and Chile at the Forefront
The concept of national economies
has practically been supplanted by the concept of regional economies or
"the world economy", which no longer produce in order to satisfy domestic
needs but for export. To this end, we must transform ourselves into competitive,
"total quality" economies.
The result of all this is
that today we are living in a world that is increasingly economically integrated
and which grows ever closer to realizing the notion of the "global village".
But this integration is accompanied by a situation of economic and social
inequality between North and South.
In other words, this process
is leading to a reduction of economic activity in the underdeveloped world
while, as we grow more superfluous, the distance between Us and Them increases.
In order to really be considered international, this New Order should benefit
the majority of the world's peoples. On the contrary, however, it is not
even an "order" in terms of respect and imposition, but is more like a
series of "orders" that are being emitted. It is interesting to note that,
etymologically, the concept of "order" can be used to imply "peace" while
"orders" are something that contain the seeds of war.
Neoliberalism: A Story
of the End of the Century
The 1990s witnessed the end
of the Cold War and the dissolution of the socialist system. Agreements
between blocs that were previously in conflict have produced changes in
our world, many of which were unthinkable twenty years ago.
Certainly in a unipolar world,
capitalism thinks it has won the fight and the concept of the paternalistic
welfare state has disappeared. In our countries, this dream was held up
as a necessity in order to offset "terrorist subversion", and as a means
of keeping social conflict at bay. However, with the majority of social
groups disbanded or immobilized, pressure was no longer applied to
keep it in place. In Latin America, the dominant groups perceived that
it was necessary to dump the paternalistic state and supplant it with a
state that would guarantee private investment and private profit.
It is for this reason that
neoliberalism (or "new" liberalism) has become an economic trend in our
countries that has gained strength through the its association with the
University of Chicago with its intellectuals and Latin American pupils,
and which has received much support from the developed countries. For neoliberalism,
the market exists in perfect equilibrium and is self-regulating. Private
property is equally self-regulating, based on sales contracts. The state
should modify itself, limiting its capabilities and functions and become
apolitical, efficient and specialized.
The state should privatize
and delink itself from its previous activities, handing them over to private
enterprise. This new state should not disappear, but it should become the
motor of macroeconomic policies and the infrastructure while guaranteeing
investment and capital and some social programs. This last area should
take the form of ensuring that the workforce that industry needs will have
adequate education, training and technical preparation.
The neoliberals claim that
the crisis in education is the product of the welfare state and those that
support it: the unions, teachers' organizations and social organizations
that defend the right of all to quality public education. Neoliberals also
claim that teachers don't work very hard, that they don't keep their knowledge
and methodology up-to-date and that they waste a lot of time on holidays
and strikes.
The
Social Impact of Economic Adjustment Policies
Economic adjustment policies
have had an effect that is perceived by the powerful sectors as dangerous
but necessary: They have increased the number of poor people who are unable
to resolve their basic subsistence needs. For this reason, the Latin American
governments have started up social compensation programs in order to try
to try to prevent a social explosion among the destitute population. Many
of these programs are financed by the World Bank, the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) or regional banks like the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
Most of them are aid programs that cover basic necessities, such as building
schools, contracting non-professional people for pre-school programs, highway
repairs, street cleaning, stipends for students, etc.
Neoliberalism vs. the
People
As a social process, education
is directly affected, but the evolution of this educational component is
still taking place slowly. Many different efforts are being made in the
search to "modernize" and "adapt" education to the new times. These adaptations
are being produced within the framework of heavy economic adjustment programs
which have a negative effect on the majority of the population through
decentralization, modernization, municipalization, regionalization, deconcentration.
Many different names are being used, but whatever label is applied, most
of these so-called reforms are not responses to real diagnostic processes
or serious proposals for education. They are, rather, responses to the
effects of globalization programs. Within this framework, governments make
commitments, apparently with good intentions, but without any real desire
to fulfil them because they are very difficult to achieve.
In this sense, governments
are in a double bind situation. On the one hand, they agree to education
proposals that show a lot of vision. On the other, they have committed
themselves to demanding programs of economic adjustment, modernization
and globalization that make it impossible to really carry out the education
programs.
Economic Adjustment Measures
In the framework of the neoliberal
process that has been implemented for all of Latin America, economic adjustment
measures have been being developed since the 1980s with the goal of improving
the income of the states so that they will be able to fulfil commitments
they have made to the international organizations. These measures seek
to increase economic possibilities while making changes in the institutional
and production structures which permit the following:
1. Greater diversification
of the economy;
2. Greater economic efficiency
in order to compete with other countries on the world market;
3. Floating credit rates
with the state no longer fixing the rate of interest;
4. The cost of labour
should be lowered and the state should no longer set a minimum wage;
5. Elimination of controls
over the costs of goods and services, with the result that they become
unattainable for the poor and working sectors of the population;
6. The state should not
set the rate of exchange with the US dollar;
7. Trade liberalization
(free trade);
8. Privatization of the
banks;
9. Privatization of public
services (water, electricity, telephone system, education, health care,
highways, national parks, forests, etc.)
10. Privatization of
state companies and of the interest earned on transnational capital.
Neoliberal Recipes for
Education in America
When we begin to talk about
education policies for the region, we should recognize that they are being
proposed as a central point of the economic policies with the goal of maintaining
a close relationship between education and the labour market (in reality,
the problems of unemployment in the current context).
The policies being carried
forward for Latin America by the IMF and the World Bank promote privatization
of the state. The state is supposed to be subordinate to other interests
and foster a free market. The education reforms the governments are promoting
operate within this framework, and follow the orders of the international
lending organizations.
The educational model for
the region provides the same prescription for all countries: Hand over
real control of the economy and the benefits derived from it to a small
"financial" group. Within this same logic, the changes that are being proposed
arise from the new plan for workers: "modernization", "efficiency", "total
quality", "free market", and "deregulation".
In this way, we are forming
a new type of person in society. We are facing an enormous social change,
in which the parameters outlined above will not only apply to workers,
but to every individual that makes up a society. Even rules as to how we
are to relate to each other will be imposed, and to lock the system in
place, education must be adapted to new needs. The World Bank, the IDB
and the IMF have all worked at identifying the different categories within
the workforce that the market demands in the areas of production of goods
and providers of services, and the "education supply" is being designed
with this in mind. No longer is education to be designed under the principal
of developing human capacities to a maximum, but rather with the idea of
limiting human capacity to the "possibilities" of the market. In other
words, the education and preparation of people and citizens will be subjected
to the rules of the market which are imposed for the purpose of exploitation.
At the end of the 1970s,
concerned by the enormous growth in the public systems (including education)
that required them to continually ask for bigger budgets without being
able to guarantee that they were economically viable, the international
lending organizations began to study "education in developing countries"
in order to recommend educational reforms for them to adopt that would
be in keeping with a new plan.
In this context, the education
system was seen as the ideal environment for forming the type of workforce
that would be needed. Education should lead to an increase productivity
with the introduction of cutting edge technology, which would go hand-in-hand
with the reorganization of work. Increasing productivity does not mean
increasing workers' wages. Today, it means increasing exploitation, since
wages have not gone up, but have, in fact, decreased considerably. Today
the picture is the same for all the countries of the region: unemployment,
an increase in informal labour and the informal market, closure of "non-competitive"
companies with capital being transferred to the financial sector, often
resulting in this capital ending up in the hands of large national or international
companies.
The concept of education
has changed considerably. No longer is education seen as a right of citizens.
Today, it is an investment. And, like any investment that does not turn
a profit, it does not deserve further investment. Education needs to adapt
to the market and yield interest in economic terms. The areas of education
that the market demands should be developed. Education should be looked
on as a business that must demonstrate its efficiency, effectiveness, profit-making
ability and quality.
As part of this objective,
a set of measures have been proposed by the World Bank for the countries
of the region that have the effect of increasingly decentralizing the education
system, putting it in the hands of communities, municipalities or private
companies. A clear example of this is the fact that nearly 80 percent of
technical training in Chile is now in the hands of private companies, while
in Brazil part of the technical formation of teachers is carried out by
SENAI, SENAC or SENAR. If the education systems are to be compatible within
the region, there should be general, basic compulsory education for at
least ten years. In this way, the concepts will be nearly unified and "universal".
Decentralization of the system
is the first step toward privatization, and to dismantle it means nationalizing
the service, all of which makes no sense for the market, which is supposed
to be "rationalized" (although it does make sense socially).
Within this logic, the school
would be viewed as a company or business that provides education. Professional
training for teachers would mean forming a new elite that would then instruct
future teachers, who would graduate with lower qualifications. Costs would
then be lowered for the system: there would be fewer years of preparation
for teachers with fewer courses offered, resulting in less-well-prepared
teachers.
The neoliberal agenda is
a perverse one. It takes the contractions and deficiencies of the system
and changes and redirects them for it own purposes. Its attractive discourse
is often the result of taking our own ideas--often our own words--and using
them to communicate its own coded message. It also frequently makes reference
to situations that we ourselves have denounced.
There is an education system
identical to that being used in some other countries, which is being tested
for the possibility of implanting it in others. Today, the Chilean educational
model has shown that it has been unable to lower the number of students
who fail to be promoted. Nor has the education reform in that country reached
the neediest children. On the contrary, cases of non-school attendance
have increased.
It would be good if the governments
of the region could explain how they intend to balance economic plans that
continue to generate growing rates of unemployment with a public school
system that is supposed to favour social mobility. How do they intend
to carry out plans for competition and efficiency when public education
in many countries of America is still designed to protect the poorest people
and foster solidarity...?
The neoliberal model has
a vision of the region in which each individual will maintain and produce
for him/herself. It seeks to increase the already-existing gap between
the poor countries and the First World, between those who have nothing
and those who own our peoples, between the "haves" and the great mass of
"surplus" humanity, along with those who have ceased to be surplus by ceasing
to exist. In the time it takes to read this paper, 300 of the world's children
under five years of age will have died of hunger.
We should begin with
the fact that, in America, education has three levels of development, which
correspond to the US and Canada, Latin America and Cuba.
a) The US and Canada:
Many students in these countries have access to a broad, good-quality education
in both the arts and sciences. The majority of youth finish high school
and in Canada, the majority go on to some form of higher education. But
within this abundance, there are many inequalities. In both countries,
neoliberal policies have given rise to a growing inequality of income,
to the extent that 20 percent of children now live in poverty.
In the United States, far
more money is invested per capita in the children of the middle and upper
classes than in those of the working class or the ethnic minorities that
live in the inner cities. One analyst has described this situation as one
of "savage inequality" within an opulent society.
Education in Canada also
has it inequalities, although they are not as acute as in the US. Indigenous
children face many more barriers to education than other children. Globalization,
neoliberal policies and free trade agreements such as NAFTA have brought
budget cuts to public programs, including education, and have encouraged
privatization.
Despite the fact that Canada
and the US have achieved more economic progress than the other countries
of the American continent, growing sectors of the population have remained
behind and marginalized, while those that direct the economy have increased
their incomes.
b) Latin America: With
the exception of Cuba, education in Latin America is truly backward, with
profound inequalities among social classes, and between the urban and rural
populations, and between mestizos [the mixed-race majority. Trans.] and
the national minorities.
In Cuba, on the other hand,
education is a universal right and is part of an overall project of society.
In the English-speaking islands of the Caribbean, most countries have developed
school systems based on the British public education model. Although these
countries have succeeded in reaching high academic levels and a high rate
of school enrolment, in recent years they have experienced economic adjustments
similar to those taking place in the Latin American countries over the
last two decades. These countries are also experiencing the problem of
an increase in children and youth leaving school before completion.
With the exception of Cuba,
the Latin American educational systems have not developed the along the
lines of what was hoped for the modern public school. With profound social
inequalities and with an anti-democratic and elitist style of education,
they have, however, deepened the application of neoliberal policies.
As with all social areas,
education is subordinate to the neoliberal measures, which are aimed at
bringing about the following objectives:
1. Privatization of public
education, placing it in the hands of the popular sectors, the community,
non-governmental organizations, private enterprise or multisectoral organizations,
which will replace state responsibility in this area.
2. It has been suggested
that the need to improve the efficiency, the quality, the effectiveness
and the productivity of educational systems is taking place in a general
way, rather than with an eye to democratizing the systems. This is contrary
to the way public education was visualized during the Nineteenth Century
by such leaders as Bolivar in South America and Francisco Morazán
in Central America.
3. Flexibilization of
education, changing the system and the professional profile of teachers,
reforms to the curriculum ways that eliminate the humanist aspects and
substitute a purely technical approach. People should be prepared to follow
orders without questioning them.
4. It has been proposed
that internal competition be introduced and that a system be developed
that is based on individual strength and that these should become mechanisms
for guaranteeing the services offered among both students and teachers.
5. Mechanisms for control
and quality evaluation of education services are to be established.
6. Schools should express
and be subjected to the needs imposed by the national and international
labour market.
7. Private contribution
to education should be promoted.
8. Teachers' contracts
and salaries should be flexible, but social systems of evaluation should
be developed.
9. Education costs should
be decreased through the establishment of measures that optimize resource
use in order to increase efficiency in the education system.
10. The number of students
per classroom should be increased, in order to increase teachers' productivity
and lower the cost of paying new teachers.
11. Contracting non-professional
people to carry out work that was previously only done by qualified teachers.
12. Moving toward educational
models that rely on the purchase and use of imported technology. |
