A EXPANSÃO DO ENSINO FUNDAMENTAL MUNICIPAL EM CAMPO GRANDE – MT/MS (1960-1985)

Abstract

This thesis, linked to the Research Line "History, Politics, Education" of the Postgraduate Program in Education at the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS/PPGEdu), Campo Grande campus, investigates the expansion of elementary education maintained by the municipal government of Campo Grande between 1960 and 1985. The temporal delimitation of this work begins in 1960, the year when the municipal government of Campo Grande expanded its involvement in education with the creation of the first municipal school, the Grupo Escolar Bernardo Franco Baís. The study ends in 1985, at the end of the civil-military dictatorship (1964-1985), a historical moment marked by the institutionalization of Federal Law No. 5.692/1971, which established the guidelines and bases for elementary and secondary education in the country. The general objective of this thesis is to uncover the economic, political, and social factors that influenced the municipal government's actions in expanding elementary education in Campo Grande during this historical period. The specific objectives are: 1. to analyze the modernization of the state in Brazil and the states of Mato Grosso (before the division) and Mato Grosso do Sul (after the division), which favored the expansion of municipal elementary education; 2. to uncover the process of expanding municipal elementary education in Campo Grande, considering the initiatives of the municipal, state, and federal governments in the educational field; and 3. to investigate the factors that influenced the expansion of this level of education, particularly those initiated by the municipal government. To achieve these objectives, a survey and analysis of bibliographic sources (books, theses, and dissertations) related to the subject, as well as documentary sources (laws, decrees, reports, statistical data, among others), compiled from websites, institutional libraries, and archives, were conducted. The theoretical framework adopted is the science of history, using the categories of universal method, singularity, mediation, and contradiction, in addition to the analytical categories: public education, educational policy, state, and modernization. The study found that the municipal government's involvement in education in Campo Grande intensified from the 1960s onwards, driven by federal financial support with the installation of the first municipal schools and secondary schools. In this context, two key periods of expansion of the Municipal Education Network (Reme) in Campo Grande were identified: 1) between 1960 and 1972, when four elementary schools, ten secondary schools, and 20 primary schools were established; and 2) between 1974 and 1985, when Federal Law No. 5.692/1971 was implemented, resulting in the establishment of 45 additional municipal primary schools. The thesis argues that the expansion of municipal elementary education, although determined by the economic and demographic development observed in Campo Grande between the 1960s and 1980s, which increased the social demand for elementary education and its provision by the municipal government, was also a result of the actions of certain political actors who, influenced by the educational policies of the civil-military dictatorship (1964-1985), viewed investment in education as essential for achieving the city's social and economic development. Thus, the expansion of municipal elementary education was a complex process, conditioned by political, economic, and social interests that determined access to and the quality of education in Campo Grande between 1960 and 1985.