Precarity of education and teaching labour

notes on the public system experience in São Paulo

Abstract

This article discusses the precarious education scenario in Brazil, based on the daily experience within public schools in São Paulo, inside classrooms and in moments of collective teacher formation. The implementation of the “new high school” marks the institutionalization of the neoliberal logic in Brazilian public education, built on the idea of entrepreneurship. The State of São Paulo becomes the representation of a national phenomenon, hiding the context of the crisis and the lack of job prospects from students. We can discuss teachers who are constantly under attack by the Education Department in their careers, creating salary differentiation that benefits temporary workers, which puts permanent and contracted teachers against each other. The teaching labour becomes the destination of professionals from other areas who are unable to enter the job market, transforming it into an alternative to the job demands of society as a whole.