The right to education in Latin America: an analysis of education policies in the recent history of Brazil and Argentina

Abstract

Within the context of the new scenario of Latin America, the present article analyses the equity impacts of the education reforms projected as of the nineties in Brazil and Argentina. Throughout the 20th century both countries experience dictatorships, repressions, and structural reforms of both neo-liberal and neo-conservative leaning which entail a minimisation of the States, denial of human rights, and increase in inequalities. The comparative analysis starts from this inheritance in order to contextualise the education reforms in recent history, taking a close look at the post-neoliberal policies of governments with a more democratic leaning which promoted, at the turn of the 21st century, the search for equality and the extension of rights, including the right to education. Even though the progress experienced can be seen, so too can the tensions between the continuities with and ruptures from the previous hegemonic model, between the commercialisation and democratisation of education.

Key words: neo-liberalism, post-neoliberalism, policies, education reforms, inequalities, equity, right to education.