Public policies for the democratisation of public higher education: a record of the posrgraduate course in Rural Education at UFSCar

Abstract

The scarcity and absence of public educational policies aimed for the rural areas are features of the reality of the rural population, however, contrary to this and as a result of a process of struggle and resistance by the rural labours, the National Programme for Education in Agrarian Reform (PRONERA) was created in order to guarantee one of the basic rights for this population. Thus, the present paper, sited between the discussions about the right and access to education, discusses the experience of the Postgraduate Course in Rural Education, and aims to present and record this experience as a practice that has contributed to the democratization of public, free and quality education for proletariat. The course is an outcome of a partnership between the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), PRONERA and Rural Social Movements. Drawing from a qualitative approach with a descriptive focus and an integrative documentary review of the course in question was carried out. In addition, descriptive-exploratory research was used as a methodological strategy to analyse the carefully selected bibliographic contents. The importance of teaching through alternation as a practice that meets the needs of the working class in terms of access to education and professional qualification was also examined. This study reinforces the thesis that education is a right denied to the working class and this becomes even more evident when it is witnessed the extinction of the PRONERA, a programme that has made possible of existence, the training, from basic education to post graduate trainings, of rural labours, representing a step backwards and part of a project to dismantle public education. The results show the fragility of the rights won, which are further aggravated when viewed from the point of view of neoliberalism.