Abstract

PEREIRA, João Márcio Mendes. The educational agenda of the World Bank in times of fiscal adjustment and pandemic. Educ. Pesqui. [online]. 2021, vol.47, e242157.  Epub Apr 16, 2021. ISSN 1678-4634.  https://doi.org/10.1590/s1678-4634202147242157.

This article discusses the educational agenda of the World Bank from a historical perspective, asking whether it has undergone any changes due to the outbreak of contamination on a global scale caused by the new coronavirus (Sars-cov2), responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic. Based on the institution’s documentation and taking as a reference the Brazilian case, it is argued that no change has occurred in its neoliberal nature, in force since the 1980s. At the same time that the Bank supported the measures of urgency adopted by governments of developing countries (clients of the institution) to soften the impacts of the pandemic – which necessarily results in an increase in public expenditure –, the institution continues to condition the release of funds on the adoption of neoliberal policies, as well as maintaining the normative primacy of the fiscal adjustment as the basis of action for governments of these countries in the post-pandemic period. Initially, the article presents and problematizes the different activities carried out by the Bank (the granting of loans, advice, technical assistance, advocacy in favor of determined agenda, the linking of multilateral initiatives and economic research). Following this, it analyzes the historical evolution of the educational agenda of the institution, in light of its more general political program. Finally, it discusses the action of the Bank in Brazilian education, based on an examination of the organization’s loan portfolio and strategic documents for Brazil, covering the period 2017-20, to which its educational agenda was subordinated.

Keywords : World Bank; Fiscal adjustment; Neo-liberalism; Pandemic.

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