O Plano de Ações Articuladas na gestão educacional: desafios à implementação das Políticas Educacionais em Municípios de Mato Grosso do Sul

Abstract

Considering the discussions on educational planning of the latest decades, the goal of this study is to analyze the process of implementation of the Joint Action Plan (PAR) in four different municipalities in Mato Grosso do Sul in the period between 2007 and 2010; aiming at the identification of the technical and financial contributions provided by the Union for the improvement of the educational planning at the studied locations. The study pursues as its main goals: a) to contextualize the educational management in regards to the constitution of the Brazilian Federative State and the duties of the different levels of administrative divisions in municipal management according to the Federal Constitution of 1988; b) to ascertain the technical and financial support provided by the Union to fulfill the educational demands in diagnosis reports elaborated by the PAR; c) to understand the process of decentralization of the educational policies and identify the autonomy of each municipality to plan and implement the actions via PAR; d) to assess the PAR outcomes to the improvement of municipal planning and the results of each location’s IDEB index. The research is based on both quantitative and qualitative aspects, developed by methodological procedures such as literary and documentary review, interviews and questionnaires. The research shows that the decentralization by giving more autonomy of educational planning to the municipalities has not been achieving the expected positive results due to the strong centralization influence exerted by the Union over the educational policies. It was found that, although the municipalities made plans via PAR, the financial resources provided by the MEC to the benefit of educational programs became a tool used by the Federal Government to induce the municipalities into adopting its policies of interest in a municipal level. Due to the lack of administrative and financial independence, the municipalities have no choice but to accept the impositions. Some difficulties concerning the implementation and monitoring of the PAR have been evidenced. Among them are patrimonialism in the local administration, the authorities responsible for the educational affairs show a lack of knowledge regarding the PAR and the Simec, and also the lack of flexibility of this system to adapt to each municipality specific issues. Among the PAR assets are the multiannual feature avoiding the mishaps caused by changes in politics, the financial support from the Union brought by the educational programs, the fostering of the educational diagnosis process and the decision making based on the quantitative data and assessment of the real conditions at the locations. Based on what was found by this study, for the PAR to contribute with achievement of the objectives of the Goals Plan for the enhancement of the educational system, it is necessary to improve the alignment between the local planning requirements and the fulfillment of these needs by the MEC in support to specific demands; better capacitation for the educational authorities in terms of planning, easing and improving of the Simec; and mainly, the consolidation of a collaboration regime to make possible the fulfillment of the financial requirements for the municipality to plan and implement its own educational policies.