Abstract
The deliberations raised in this paper result of a research on the work of the World Bank Group (WB) in the field of tertiary education, carried out, in part, during a Doctorate course in Education. The author starts from the assumption that the conceptions around the evaluation of tertiary education in WB Member States are, partially or totally, outlined by the tensions caused by this organism, through guiding documents published by it. To confirm this hypothesis, an analysis of “What matters most for tertiary education systems: a framework paper” is presented, set as a guiding document for the creation and strengthening of evaluation tools for educational systems. The semantic-categorical analysis of that document pointed to the creation of evaluation mechanisms by the WB, based on the neo liberalization of education, around the following topics: institutional diversification, knowledge economy, participation of the private sector, financing of activities and access and permanence in higher education. It should be noted that this World Bank document is little explored in Brazilian scientific literature. Therefore, the present time is considered an opportune moment to build new trenches in defence of the idea of public higher education, free of charge, secular and of socially referenced quality. This is what this article proposes.
Keywords
evaluation; tertiary education; world bank group
Resumo
As discussões levantas nesse texto são fruto de pesquisa acerca da atuação do Grupo Banco Mundial (BM) no campo da educação superior. O autor tem o pressuposto de que as concepções em torno da avaliação da educação superior dos Estados-membros do BM são, parcial ou totalmente, delineadas pelos tensionamentos causados por esse organismo através de documentos orientadores por ele publicados. Para confirmação dessa hipótese, é apresentada a análise do What matters most for tertiary education systems: a framework paper, que se configurou como um documento orientador para a criação e o fortalecimento de ferramentas de avaliação dos sistemas educacionais. A análise semântico-categorial do referido documento, apontou a existência da criação de mecanismos avaliativos por parte do BM, assentados na neoliberalização da educação, em torno dos seguintes tópicos: diversificação institucional, economia do conhecimento, participação do setor privado, financiamento das atividades e acesso e permanência na educação superior. Ressalta-se que este documento bancomundialesco é pouco explorado na literatura científica brasileira. Por isso, considera-se o tempo presente como um momento oportuno para serem erguidas novas trincheiras pela defesa da ideia de ensino superior público, gratuito, laico e de qualidade socialmente referenciada. É a isso que o presente artigo se propõe.
Palavras-chave:
avaliação; educação superior; grupo banco mundial
Resumen
Las discusiones planteadas en este texto son el resultado de una investigación sobre el trabajo del Grupo Banco Mundial (BM) en el campo de la educación superior. El autor parte de la premisa de que las concepciones en torno a la evaluación de la educación superior en los Estados miembros del BM están parcial o totalmente delineadas por las tensiones provocadas por este organismo a través de documentos orientadores publicados por él. Para confirmar esta hipótesis, se presenta el análisis de What matters most for tertiary education systems: a framework paper, que se configuró como un documento orientador para la creación y fortalecimiento de herramientas de evaluación de los sistemas educativos. El análisis semántico-categórico del citado documento señaló la existencia de la creación de mecanismos evaluativos por parte del BM, basados en la neoliberalización de la educación, en torno a los siguientes temas: diversificación institucional, economía del conocimiento, participación del sector privado, financiamiento de actividades, acceso y permanencia en la educación superior. Es de destacar que este documento bancario global está poco explorado en la literatura científica brasileña. Por tal razón, el momento actual se considera oportuno para construir nuevas trincheras para defender la idea de una educación superior pública, gratuita, laica y de calidad socialmente referenciada. Esto es lo que propone este artículo.
Palavras clave
evaluación; educación superior; grupo banco mundial
1 Initial thoughts
This paper is the result of a research on educational policies, planning, and administration. Its main goal was to study the actions of International Organizations on the field of tertiary education in Latin America. We present through this paper some of the resulting data on the role of the World Bank Group (WB) in the matter studied.
The WB acts in tertiary education since the 1960s (Santos, 2014SANTOS, Thiago Rodrigo Fernandes da Silva. Análise psicopedagógica da proposta educacional Aprendizagem para Todos do Grupo Banco Mundial. 2014. Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso de Graduação (Bacharelado em Psicopedagogia) - Departamento de Psicopedagogia, Centro de Educação, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, João Pessoa, 2014. Disponível em: https://repositorio.ufpb.br/jspui/bitstream/123456789/4409/1/TRFSS11092014.pdf. Acesso em: 16 abri. 2015.
https://repositorio.ufpb.br/jspui/bitstr...
, 2017SANTOS, Thiago Rodrigo Fernandes da Silva. Análise da atuação do Grupo Banco Mundial na Educação Superior do Brasil. 2017. Dissertação (Mestrado em Educação) - Programa de Pós-graduação em Educação, Centro de Educação, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, 2017. Disponível em: https://repositorio.ufpe.br/bitstream/123456789/27927/1/DISSERTA%C3%87%C3%83O%20Thiago%20Rodrigo%20Fernandes%20da%20Silva%20Santos.pdf. Acesso em: 30 jan. 2018.
https://repositorio.ufpe.br/bitstream/12...
, 2020SANTOS, Thiago Rodrigo Fernandes da Silva. Atuação do Grupo Banco Mundial frente ao fracasso escolar no Brasil: Para uma análise psicopedagógica. In: ANDRADE, Edson Francisco de; ARRUDA, Ana Lúcia Borba de. (orgs.). Política educacional e desigualdades sociais no Brasil: contextualizações e posicionamentos. Recife: Ed. UFPE, 2020. p. 92-115. Disponível em: https://editora.ufpe.br/books/catalog/view/93/101/272. Acesso em: 19 maio 2021.
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). It does so in two different ways: one as an ideological orientation, through the publishing of orienting documents for the actions of its member-states in multiple areas - also named here as policy texts, or, secondly, by financing the realization of projects.
The research on screens is related to the Bank’s ideological influence, shared through a global document documento mundial - Santos’ (2022) concept - turned to the creation of tools and indicators for the measurement of the results in the field of tertiary education. The text here studied was What matters most for tertiary education systems: a framework paper. Therefore, the results presented here come from documental research on the originals published originally in English1 1 For the writing of this paper, it was preferred to cite the original document directly translated in Portuguese. All citations result of a translation made by a professional fluent in the original language. .
What matters most for tertiary education systems: a framework paper was published in 2016 and is part of the series Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) that was released in 2011 by the WB, as a way to elaborate programs capable of raising the students’ performance in all stages of education in its member-states. According to the SABER project, it would be done via the creation of data-collection mechanisms able to compare data between educational systems and that, among other reasons, would be able to generate educational policies focused on the educational institutions from the WB members.
All the SABER documents work as support to the fulfilling of the WB’s strategy called Learning for all: investing in people's knowledge and skills to promote development (Learning for all), published in 2011 by the Bank. Santos (2014SANTOS, Thiago Rodrigo Fernandes da Silva. Análise psicopedagógica da proposta educacional Aprendizagem para Todos do Grupo Banco Mundial. 2014. Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso de Graduação (Bacharelado em Psicopedagogia) - Departamento de Psicopedagogia, Centro de Educação, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, João Pessoa, 2014. Disponível em: https://repositorio.ufpb.br/jspui/bitstream/123456789/4409/1/TRFSS11092014.pdf. Acesso em: 16 abri. 2015.
https://repositorio.ufpb.br/jspui/bitstr...
, 2020SANTOS, Thiago Rodrigo Fernandes da Silva. Atuação do Grupo Banco Mundial frente ao fracasso escolar no Brasil: Para uma análise psicopedagógica. In: ANDRADE, Edson Francisco de; ARRUDA, Ana Lúcia Borba de. (orgs.). Política educacional e desigualdades sociais no Brasil: contextualizações e posicionamentos. Recife: Ed. UFPE, 2020. p. 92-115. Disponível em: https://editora.ufpe.br/books/catalog/view/93/101/272. Acesso em: 19 maio 2021.
https://editora.ufpe.br/books/catalog/vi...
) made a substantial work on this 2011 publishing. He denounced in it the conception of learning advocated by the WB in the aforementioned strategy, claiming that it is unrelated with socio-historical contexts, especially those of Nation States from the Global South, marked by an inequality intrinsically originated by the development of capitalism. Therefore, it can be stated that What matters most for tertiary education systems: a framework paper, also called SABER-Tertiary Education (SABER-TE), is an initiative also aimed at strengthening the content of the 2011 text.
In fact, the SABER project was stablished as the core of WBs 2020 strategy, as its use would allow them a systemic vision of education, pointing deep analysis turned to the viability of educational reforms revolving around key themes on early and tertiary education levels2 2 All of the thirteenth documents that make SABER can be found in the website: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/education/brief/systems-approach-for-better-education-results-saber. . In this paper, the results of the analysis on the SABER-TE are discussed, along with the reasons why it is considered as a key to the comprehension of WBs acting on the field of comparative evaluation of Tertiary Educational systems in the world. It should be remembered that the WB has 189 member-states, among a total 193 States that are recognized by the United Nations (UN).
As expected, when dealing with a global-scale document, all of it is originally written in English. For this reason, the documental analysis measured its morphological, syntactical, and semantic aspects in its original language. Besides, the context of the texts writing was considered, as a production can’t be separated from its historicity and form the BMs profile of action and intervention.
Moreover, this research object is slightly explored in Brazilian scientific writings, what makes now a good time to suggest new ways to be followed by those who mean to defend the idea of a public, free and laic tertiary education, with a socially attested quality.
2 For an understanding of the SABER and SABER-TE
The Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) is a series of 13 documents signed by the WB, aimed to track the differences between its 189 member states in matters of needs, policies, and administration techniques in varied education cycles. Its structure is based in emphasizing benchmarking - meaning a cluster of techniques for comparative evaluation, allowing studies on competition, targeting to detect and study the depth of the successful measures of corporations of this field, to replicate them later.
While SABER focuses on the creation of tools for diagnosis, it also means to compare each of the signatory countries - in other words, all WB members. The SABER policy domains are detailed in diagram 1.
The document SABER-Tertiary Education (SABER-TE) specifically starts by praising the Millennial Goals of Development, classifying them as responsible for the educational progress verified - specially for early education - since its release in the 2000s. Interestingly, the WB calls its member states as “customer states” since the introductory note of SABER-TE. It also states that the Learning for all publication is a guide for average income countries that want to be competitive, through the training of its malleable workforce.
The global enterprise continues with a historicization of its actions in the following years, starting by citing its first undertaking, from 1963, in the field of Tertiary Education. It underlines the decades of 1960 and 1970 as a time of political instability, when instructions for the diminishing of poverty were created, boosted by the Bank’s initiatives.
According to Almeida (2005)ALMEIDA, Wellington. A trajetória das instituições financeiras multilaterais e suas relações com as políticas públicas. Revista de Políticas Públicas, São Luís, v. 9, n. 1, p. 173-188, jul./dez. 2005. Disponível em: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/233143126.pdf. Acesso em: 3 jun. 2023.
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/23314312...
, the WB focused, during its first decades of existence, in financing programs in the areas of transportation and energy infrastructure. The infrastructure department is the one which sets the table for the implementation of industries, while at the same time raises the webs of financing, seeking the production and flow of goods (Coelho, 2012COELHO, Jaime Cesar. Economia, poder e influência externa: o Banco Mundial e os anos de ajuste na América Latina. São Paulo: Ed. Unifesp, 2012.). It is important to perceive that the “infrastructure sector is, by far, the most financed [by the WB] between 1950-1960, answering for the consumption of 61% to 64% of its total resources […] (Coelho, 2012COELHO, Jaime Cesar. Economia, poder e influência externa: o Banco Mundial e os anos de ajuste na América Latina. São Paulo: Ed. Unifesp, 2012., p. 104).
Before 1960, the debate on the extra-economic agenda of the WB orbited around the “social necessities” and not “poverty” (PEREIRA, 2010PEREIRA, João Márcio Mendes. O Banco Mundial e a construção político-intelectual do “combate à pobreza”. Topoi, Rio de Janeiro, v. 11, n. 21, p. 260-282, jul./dez. 2010. Disponível em: https://www.scielo.br/j/topoi/a/9pbHm3pRMrsRK7gZwQjFnNP/?format=pdf⟨=pt. Acesso em: 16 abr. 2020.
https://www.scielo.br/j/topoi/a/9pbHm3pR...
). Its focus gradually began to be the “[…] fight against poverty in the long term” (Charlot, 2007CHARLOT, Bernard. Educação e globalização: uma tentativa de colocar ordem no debate. Sísifo/Revista de Ciências da Educação, Lisboa, s/v., n. 4, p. 129-136, out./dez. 2007. Disponível em: https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/5653650/mod_resource/content/1/CHARLOT_2007_Educa%C3%A7%C3%A3o%20e%20globaliza%C3%A7%C3%A3o.pdf. Acesso em: 3 jun. 2022.
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, p. 133). When referring to the 1970s and the 1980s, the WB considers them to be an unfertile time to the creation of tertiary education policies.
The decade of 1990 is defined in the SABER-TE as a key change in the plans for tertiary education - with the publication of La enseñanza superior: las lecciones derivadas de la experiencia (World Bank, 1995WORLD BANK. La enseñanza superior: las leccionesde la experiencia. Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 1995. (Conleção El deasarrollo en la práctica). Disponível em: https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/274211468321262162/pdf/133500PAPER0Sp1rior0Box2150A1995001.pdf. Acesso em: 9 set. 2022.
https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated...
) being set as a great sign of change. When it arrives in the contemporary times to the publication, the BM states that it has a diverse portfolio with more than 80 financially supported projects and with technical assistance for the demands of the field.
According to the SABER-TE text, the cited projects revolved around the areas of
[…] including quality assurance, institutional diversification, performancebased funding schemes, alignment of academic offerings with market and societal needs, financing of equitable access programs, public-private partnerships, science and technology, and governance reform, among others [equaling 20% of the total investments on education of 2014] (World Bank, 2016WORLD BANK. What matters most for tertiary education systems: a framework paper. [Washington, D.C.]: World Bank, 2016. (SABER: working paper series, 16). Disponível em: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/26516/114295-WP-PUBLICSABER-Tertiary-Framework.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Acesso em: 24 maio 2022.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bits... , p. 12).
Although, there are more relevant data that deserves to be highlighted: “Also, as of June 2014, the International Financing Corporation (IFC) [CFI in Portuguese] -the private sector division of the World Bank Group- had an education selection of US$ 770 million, of which approximately 70 percent was devoted to tertiary education initiatives” (World Bank, 2016WORLD BANK. What matters most for tertiary education systems: a framework paper. [Washington, D.C.]: World Bank, 2016. (SABER: working paper series, 16). Disponível em: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/26516/114295-WP-PUBLICSABER-Tertiary-Framework.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Acesso em: 24 maio 2022.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bits...
, p. 12).
Whilst the IFC is the bureau responsible for the protection, creation and dissemination of private operations in many of the WB member states, and SABER methodology being the comparative evaluation strategy between the educational systems of those member states, we can conclude that the setting created by the WB to reach what it denominates “performance raise” and “financing and equity in the access programs” are strategies to remodel the State’s role in this educational level. All of it is directed towards the privatizing of the institutions’ supply and ways of functioning.
3 Study and discussion of the conception of Tertiary Education in the SABER-TE: highlighted subjects
The BM presents a mechanism of assessment in the SABER-TE, focused on individually evaluating the Tertiary Education Institutions (IES) present in national systems, by six dimensions of what they call “educational policies”. Those are: (1) vision for tertiary education, (2) regulatory framework for tertiary education, (3) governance, (4) finance, (5) quality of tertiary education and (6) relevance of tertiary education for the country’s economic and social development.
The measurement of each of these points would result in a total score to raise the IES position relative to the system that contains it and all the others IES of the WB member states. It is important to point that this score system was developed by the WB alongside the Center for Mediterranean Integration, not envisioned for the macroanalysis of tertiary education systems. But their intention is to expand the methodology to regions beyond Africa where, accordingly to the document, it was initially implemented and experimented.
Subsequently in the text, the BM states that tertiary education is fundamental for three main reasons: (1) to promote expansion, (2) development and (3) to reduce poverty. The difference between “promote expansion” and “being fundamental for development” is not clear. The present analysis suggests that the concept of “expansion” is more related to individual gains of those who enter this level, while the term “development” is related to the country’s economic factors and resources.
The text leads to the defense of the integration of tertiary and basic education. Then, to make this link stronger, the SABER-TE assumes a strategic vision and an action plan that would allow the growth of the earlier stages before the tertiary education.
The document incisively calls for attention to the need for the governments of its member states to select the stakeholders that are more relevant and adequate to work along them in order to change their vision on tertiary education in a concrete plan of execution that takes into account the local necessities. This is the intent of all topics that make the wholly of SABERTE. To simplify the presentation of arguments, this study was divided into blocks, that are going to be presented below.
3.1 Diversification
Concerning the diversification of the field of tertiary education, the WB recognized the role of systems of tertiary education through the IES, showing that they will have specific roles, depending on their type and mission. Evidently, the multilateral organization maintains the idea of the diversification of the types of institutions as a way of answering many of the problems involving the question of access. Below, the diagram 2 replicates one of the diagrams present at the SABER-TE text, that better details how the roles of the different types of IES were divided according to the WBs postulate.
In accordance with the debate on the IES profiles, the WB insists that the financial return tax for graduated students is above the average of those graduated in basic education, without relation to the place where they studied in tertiary education (Santos, 2017SANTOS, Thiago Rodrigo Fernandes da Silva. Análise da atuação do Grupo Banco Mundial na Educação Superior do Brasil. 2017. Dissertação (Mestrado em Educação) - Programa de Pós-graduação em Educação, Centro de Educação, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, 2017. Disponível em: https://repositorio.ufpe.br/bitstream/123456789/27927/1/DISSERTA%C3%87%C3%83O%20Thiago%20Rodrigo%20Fernandes%20da%20Silva%20Santos.pdf. Acesso em: 30 jan. 2018.
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). In the SABER-TE, the bank preferred to cite researchers that create evaluation methodologies regarding the effect that receiving a degree may have on someone’s life.
Concerning the degrees and those who got them, Bourdieu (2011)BOURDIEU, Pierre. A distinção: crítica social do julgamento. 2. ed. Porto Alegre: Zouk, 2011., still in the 20th century, shapes his points from the fact that, as himself found out, the IES with differing institutional goals and social prestige levels will grant variously esteemed social capitals - what will impact the way in which the undergraduate will attain its personal gains. Even if Bourdieu (2011)BOURDIEU, Pierre. A distinção: crítica social do julgamento. 2. ed. Porto Alegre: Zouk, 2011. doesn’t focus his study on factors of administrative differentiation of the IES - public or private, for example -, its stand is a factor of attention to envisage the similitudes on what we perceive today as the administrative differences claimed by the WB.
The local legislative framework of the member states is also into the content of the text, precisely when the type of institution is contested. Concerning this theme, the main trend in the text is the apex for the land planning to the other interested parties, other than students and the public sector, to act in the field of tertiary education in national systems. In the WBs words:
The need to clarify roles and requirements in legislation is becoming increasingly important, given the growing complexity of the tertiary education sector and the many different actors which may be involved. An appropriate regulatory framework helps clarify how various stakeholders operate in the system, allowing space for both state and private organizations without creating barriers to flexibility (Fielden 2008) (World Bank, 2016WORLD BANK. What matters most for tertiary education systems: a framework paper. [Washington, D.C.]: World Bank, 2016. (SABER: working paper series, 16). Disponível em: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/26516/114295-WP-PUBLICSABER-Tertiary-Framework.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Acesso em: 24 maio 2022.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bits... , p. 29).
The Bank introduces the subject of “governance of tertiary education”, defining it as the capability to dive an adequate structure to the tertiary education system, and also policies and processes that allow the IES to operate efficiently. It adds that while the governance is based in cultural and historical contexts, it also results from international regulatory frameworks. As the Bank emphasizes:
As mentioned above, a sound governance structure is based on an adequate regulatory framework. Such a structure includes adequate coordination among the various components of a diversified system, as well as adequate institutional autonomy and accountability measures. Together, these components help a tertiary education system more effectively meet national and local needs. (World Bank, 2016WORLD BANK. What matters most for tertiary education systems: a framework paper. [Washington, D.C.]: World Bank, 2016. (SABER: working paper series, 16). Disponível em: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/26516/114295-WP-PUBLICSABER-Tertiary-Framework.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Acesso em: 24 maio 2022.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bits... , p. 30).
In the WB’s understanding, the IES categorization is grounded on its founding and orienting mission. In this case, the bank offers a taxonomy that upholds the existence of tertiary education systems and subsystems. The systems would correspond to all the IES with operation/functioning in a specific State. The subsystems, according to Lester (2005) and Hatakenaka (2008), are the subdivisions of types of IES as stated by the WB - consisting of research, teaching, and technical education; or, yet, the subsystems (public IES and private IES).
In the present study, we consider that the WB’s reasons for the creation of a robust regulatory framework favoring the existence of this diversification are unreasoned. What is evidenced in the excerpt:
facilitates articulation, or the transition of students between different types of institutions. Articulation comprises mechanisms that enable student mobility within the tertiary sector, such as academic credit accumulation and transfer, recognition and equivalence of degrees, recognition of prior learning, and so forth. (World Bank, 2016WORLD BANK. What matters most for tertiary education systems: a framework paper. [Washington, D.C.]: World Bank, 2016. (SABER: working paper series, 16). Disponível em: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/26516/114295-WP-PUBLICSABER-Tertiary-Framework.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Acesso em: 24 maio 2022.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bits... , p. 31).
The Bank even defends that the legal non-obligatoriness of the need for universities to create partnerships with non-university IES could generate insecurity, even in its partnerships with other university IES (sic). The excerpt containing this point is as follows:
In contexts where universities are under no obligation to articulate with nonuniversity institutions and there is no history of inter-institutional cooperation, institutions may see articulation-even with their peers-as a threat to their autonomy (World Bank, 2016WORLD BANK. What matters most for tertiary education systems: a framework paper. [Washington, D.C.]: World Bank, 2016. (SABER: working paper series, 16). Disponível em: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/26516/114295-WP-PUBLICSABER-Tertiary-Framework.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Acesso em: 24 maio 2022.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bits... , p. 31).
Something that is not aligned with WB’s publications but is hinted in the SABER-TE text, is the suggestion that students enrolled in private IES could migrate to public ones and viceversa. For it to happen, the WB points that the State should facilitate the transfer processes, by creating mechanisms allowing this procedure.
It is necessary to consider that through SABER-TE, the question of the traditional foundations of the universities, that is Teaching-Research-Extension, are praised as something that needs to be perennial; although, only in IES focused on it. It calls for attention that the Extension is set as an activity that links the university IES to the industry and the society in general. The WB shows a concern on it:
[…] despite important world-class examples of good practice, the potential of tertiary education institutions to address the considerable social, cultural, and environmental challenges of the regions and constituencies that they serve often remains untapped (World Bank, 2016WORLD BANK. What matters most for tertiary education systems: a framework paper. [Washington, D.C.]: World Bank, 2016. (SABER: working paper series, 16). Disponível em: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/26516/114295-WP-PUBLICSABER-Tertiary-Framework.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Acesso em: 24 maio 2022.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bits... , p. 24).
In the WB’s understanding, to focus on Teaching and Research, while not considering the more socially oriented activities (in the WB’s words), limits the universities provision of services, as the emphasis on Teaching and Research “[…] may fail to generate the necessary critical mass to produce projects that could have potentially positive multiplier effects at the local and regional level (World Bank, 2016WORLD BANK. What matters most for tertiary education systems: a framework paper. [Washington, D.C.]: World Bank, 2016. (SABER: working paper series, 16). Disponível em: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/26516/114295-WP-PUBLICSABER-Tertiary-Framework.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Acesso em: 24 maio 2022.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bits...
, p. 24-25). To avoid what in its understanding is a problem, this OI suggests the diversification of IES types.
In relation to the matter of Research and Development, the WB avows that it is necessary for each country to analyze its own internal production capacity and to create technologies that are apt and relevant for its own locality. For that, it is based on academic authors, ascribing to the present content what Bourdieu (1998)BOURDIEU, Pierre. Contrafogos: táticas para enfrentar a invasão neoliberal. Tradução de Lucy Magalhães. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar, 1998. calls a “technical varnish”. It also adds to this use the role of the technological institutes, community colleges and technical vocational institutions, other than the university IES.
Concerning the debate brought forth by this publication, it can be said that, after the Bank recognized that public IES are the ones where most of scientific research is conducted, they are called to get closer to the private productive sector. As they were also entitled to calibrate their research capacity to the production of commercial products/services, as a path to the development of tertiary education systems in the member states.
In a framework of a World where not everyone can opt for having access to tertiary education, the problem isn’t in the existence of different types of institutions. What is at stake and being discussed as problematic is the creation of mechanisms that would undermine the possibility of the individuals coming from the lower strata to choose any of those models, especially in the tertiary system.
In the contemporary dominant variety of capitalism, based on the competition and the monetarization of people, objects and of the nonreal, it would be impossible to make this kind of choice conceivable by all the individuals. Or even worse: it would be impossible to build and to apply a model of opportunities where agents in transit in their social macro field would be really valorized, especially those of peripheric origin and that are at the lowest in the social pyramid.
3.2 Knowledge economy, higher participation of the private sector, and financing activities
The economy of knowledge is another theme presented by the text. It is used as a case to deal with the relation of the promotion of tertiary education and the economic competitivity in a local, regional, and national level - in the SABER-TE, the term “local” is a synonym to state/provincial. The tertiary education is not far from the changes generated by globalization, related to the transition from a global economy in the industry for a global system based on knowledge. For this reason, the WB defends in this document the urgency of investment in projects for tertiary education systems in member states.
Through this study, in the understanding and interpretation of what is written in the SABER-TE, it was significant to give emphasis to the setting of the points that are aimed to defend the WB’s attempt to open the field of tertiary education to the private sector. One important passage related to financing is as follows: “FINANCE: Public financing is used to steer tertiary education toward envisioned systemwide goals. Private funding contributes to tertiary education as relevant and appropriate “(World Bank, 2016WORLD BANK. What matters most for tertiary education systems: a framework paper. [Washington, D.C.]: World Bank, 2016. (SABER: working paper series, 16). Disponível em: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/26516/114295-WP-PUBLICSABER-Tertiary-Framework.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Acesso em: 24 maio 2022.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bits...
, p. 32). It recalls Espinoza’s work (2016, p. 6, our translation), that affirms: “[…] the WBs policies on education were focused on private education, provision, auto financing, credit systems, cost recovery, and the directing of public expenditure in poor systems”.
In the document, while justifying what would be the State’s role in the regulation of such field, the WB presupposes that its foremost point is “[…] to establish a legal and operational framework that guarantees the quality of education provided by both public and private tertiary education institutions. “(World Bank, 2016WORLD BANK. What matters most for tertiary education systems: a framework paper. [Washington, D.C.]: World Bank, 2016. (SABER: working paper series, 16). Disponível em: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/26516/114295-WP-PUBLICSABER-Tertiary-Framework.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Acesso em: 24 maio 2022.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bits...
, p. 16). And also: “the challenge is to steer tertiary education systems towards overcoming and reducing inequality, particularly in relation to students from underserved populations “(World Bank, 2016WORLD BANK. What matters most for tertiary education systems: a framework paper. [Washington, D.C.]: World Bank, 2016. (SABER: working paper series, 16). Disponível em: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/26516/114295-WP-PUBLICSABER-Tertiary-Framework.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Acesso em: 24 maio 2022.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bits...
, p. 16). Clearly, its intention was to give the State the role of fostering and fomenting the private sector as one of the main responsible for the reduction of the inequality of access of hypo-sufficient population inside this level of education.
According to the WB’s argument, the fast growth of middle-income countries (as Brazil, China, and India) raised their demands for a workforce graduated in tertiary education, to raise their competitivity in global economy (in the world-system based on the knowledge economy). This thesis is literally exposed below:
The result is an intense demand for expanded access to tertiary education, particularly technical and vocational education and training (TVET) that can provide students with skills and knowledge relevant to labor market needs (World Bank, 2016WORLD BANK. What matters most for tertiary education systems: a framework paper. [Washington, D.C.]: World Bank, 2016. (SABER: working paper series, 16). Disponível em: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/26516/114295-WP-PUBLICSABER-Tertiary-Framework.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Acesso em: 24 maio 2022.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bits... , p. 19).
The thesis on the premise that the public financing of the IES would be favoring the wealthiest group of the social layers, makes another part of the document. And, with them, the pressures for the creation of payment models (or auto financing) of the tertiary education. The main mark of this argument is as follows:
These data point to a regressive funding pattern in countries where heavily subsidized public tertiary systems overwhelmingly benefit students from higher socioeconomic strata. This fiscally regressive pattern is especially pronounced in countries with binary tertiary systems divided between a small, highly selective set of public colleges and universities and a set of private institutions that cater to the bulk of the college-going population. (World Bank, 2016WORLD BANK. What matters most for tertiary education systems: a framework paper. [Washington, D.C.]: World Bank, 2016. (SABER: working paper series, 16). Disponível em: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/26516/114295-WP-PUBLICSABER-Tertiary-Framework.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Acesso em: 24 maio 2022.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bits... , p. 20).
In the SABER-TE, the increase of public funds is encouraged based on measurement formula of the IES’ performance (both public and private). The WB argues that the fact that private IES have an inferior performance in the development of research when compared to public ones happens because of the extent of resources each of them receives, as if private institutions would obtain less than the public ones. The WB’s positioning doesn’t consider that the goals of many of those private IES are, since its origin, to raise their profit and to offer more lucrative services - in its most reductionist and pecuniary economic definition.
Such is the way that the WB built its notion of quality on tertiary education. And, while emphasizing this concept of quality, the Bank’s goal is to take the systems of tertiary education of the member states from components of national quality, through components of transition, to reach the state of mature components3 3 The table 2 of the SABER-TE (WORLD BANK, 2016, p. 36-37) explores the components to categorize what would be traditional components, transition components, and mature components. Due to the limitations on the length of this paper, we advisethe reader to access the original document. .
3.3 Access and permanence in tertiary education
The matter of groups historically deprived of access doesn’t come with detail on who would be the individuals that make them. Even less is discussed on the examples of the most effective ways to reach the ideal balance in face of the totality of these peoples inside the systems of tertiary education in the member states. In its place, the WB attacks the modes of state financing already stablished as those to be blamed for such inequality (sic).
Whereas citing some of the migration politics of this reality - as the quota policy - emphasizes the problems supposedly caused by it, as: “it has been argued that compensatory mechanisms such as simple student quotas can worsen rather than eliminate social inequality (Schwartzman, 2009 apud World Bank, 2016WORLD BANK. What matters most for tertiary education systems: a framework paper. [Washington, D.C.]: World Bank, 2016. (SABER: working paper series, 16). Disponível em: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/26516/114295-WP-PUBLICSABER-Tertiary-Framework.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Acesso em: 24 maio 2022.
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, p. 21).
The BM is against the quota policy - without classifying it as racial and/or economic -, stating that their problem rests in “[…] policies that address the equity environment comprehensively rather than relying on piecemeal approaches to individual barriers to entry” (World Bank, 2016WORLD BANK. What matters most for tertiary education systems: a framework paper. [Washington, D.C.]: World Bank, 2016. (SABER: working paper series, 16). Disponível em: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/26516/114295-WP-PUBLICSABER-Tertiary-Framework.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Acesso em: 24 maio 2022.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bits...
, p. 23). There are a lot of different points to defend the private sector, in opposition to the ideals of a tertiary education that is public, free, laic, and that has a socially referenced quality.
The Bank claims that the inequalities in tertiary education result from opportunities that are also unequally experienced in other education levels. Therefore, when we isolate this argumentation, there is still the fact that it doesn’t consider that most of the inequalities reflected on educational institutions derive from the economic system.
The semantic categoric analysis conducted in research on screens resulted that nothing is just aesthetic in the SABER-TE. Everything has a reason to be there. A reason that is meant to be transmitted through a systemically organized content. For that reason, it brings an innovative element in the Bank’s publication until then: the types of individuals that are in the age capable to ingress in the tertiary education. While dealing with it, the WB divides the group into two categories, the first with those who have the profile of persons who access tertiary; the others, of those who doesn’t.
In the first group, that with those who are capable of ascending to the tertiary education, the WB argues that the diversification of the IES will contribute to shelter the difference in interests among subjects, emphasizing the demands of the employment market on them. This implies that, once again, it is the market that sets even the personal pursuits that individuals should have, regarding tertiary education.
In the second group, where all those who doesn’t have the “ideal profile” to be undergraduate students are placed, there is a split: the “not-interested” and the “not sufficiently prepared for a long-term academic degree”. The World Bank (2016WORLD BANK. What matters most for tertiary education systems: a framework paper. [Washington, D.C.]: World Bank, 2016. (SABER: working paper series, 16). Disponível em: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/26516/114295-WP-PUBLICSABER-Tertiary-Framework.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Acesso em: 24 maio 2022.
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, p. 23) contends that:
Such nonuniversity institutions (both public and private) can absorb a significant share of the expanding demand for tertiary education. At the same time, because these institutions are typically more responsive to local labor market needs, they can help improve the balance between skills supply and demand, as well as provide sustainable training alternatives to students who are either not interested or sufficiently prepared for a longer-term academic degree [or an academic degree that requires more time to be achieved].
The debate over the personal interest of the individuals in the right age and basic formation required to access tertiary education is long and can be problematized through various points. Although, the sociological perspective that guided this research focuses on what socially directs the individuals to “opt” for any other kind of formation. So, the capitals - in their most varied forms, but specially the cultural and the economic capitals - influence them in their choices, that aren’t aleatorily made by their families.
In the making of the SABER-TE, the WB doesn’t consider it, preferring to argue in favor of individualization (or the individual responsibility of the subjects over their choices). Ampler economic factors, that relate to the fundament of social inequalities, are forgotten. And the content that works as a smokescreen for it are the points in favor of a model of tertiary education more dynamic in the curricular adaptation and linked to the market demands on the formation of the workforce.
4 Final thoughts
The results of this research afore presented turns on the alert that, after more than 60 years acting in the field of education, the WB doesn’t seem to realize that the reforms that it proposes, in a macro economical level, deepened the inequalities in the access to the tertiary education, when referring to this type of institution. Or, in the worst, it suggests reforms that aren’t going to eradicate already existing inequalities.
In fact, what is being stablished is the “idea of privatization” - that isn’t new but is always being renewed - in connection with a “democratization of access”. The content pressed in the SABER-TE tries to make of those variable spheres directly proportional: in raising the private offer in tertiary education, the access of groups financially vulnerable would also be raised. This turns out to be a concerning mathematization of the ideal of a public and free tertiary education with a socially referenced quality.
Through the SABER-TE strategy, one can see the field of tertiary education to be limited by new disputes tensioned by the WB. It falls to the researchers to be in alert to understand the modus operandi of this and of others that can come to be, aiming to know the ideal size of the trenchers to the defense of educational policies inherent to the real necessities of the context for which they are directed. And, above all: that they are based on counter firing Capitalism.
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Tradução para Inglês por: Giovanni Bruno Alves, E-mail: giovannibruno1212@gmail.com
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1
For the writing of this paper, it was preferred to cite the original document directly translated in Portuguese. All citations result of a translation made by a professional fluent in the original language.
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2
All of the thirteenth documents that make SABER can be found in the website: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/education/brief/systems-approach-for-better-education-results-saber.
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3
The table 2 of the SABER-TE (WORLD BANK, 2016WORLD BANK. What matters most for tertiary education systems: a framework paper. [Washington, D.C.]: World Bank, 2016. (SABER: working paper series, 16). Disponível em: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/26516/114295-WP-PUBLICSABER-Tertiary-Framework.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Acesso em: 24 maio 2022.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bits... , p. 36-37) explores the components to categorize what would be traditional components, transition components, and mature components. Due to the limitations on the length of this paper, we advisethe reader to access the original document.
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Publication Dates
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Publication in this collection
26 July 2024 -
Date of issue
2024
History
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Received
22 June 2023 -
Accepted
29 Feb 2024 -
Reviewed
07 June 2024