doi: 10.18503/2658-3186-2026-10-2-20-26
Abstract. The article analyzes the influences of neoliberal policies on Brazilian basic education, with emphasis on large-scale assessments. Since the 1980s and 1990s, multilateral organizations such as the World Bank have guided educational reforms in Latin America, subordinating education to an economic logic. In Brazil, these guidelines materialized through assessment systems such as SAEB, Prova Brasil, PISA, and IDEB, which link educational quality to measurable student performance. The research points out that such assessments, although presented as instruments for quality assurance, produce perverse effects such as curriculum narrowing, hierarchization of knowledge (with an emphasis on reading and mathematics), intensification of competition among students and schools, and teacher deprofessionalization. Moreover, the logic of rewarding results: such as tying resources to test performance; reinforces the alignment of education with labor market demands, to the detriment of students’ integral development. In light of the above, the objective of this study was to analyze the key provisions, concepts, and results of large-scale assessment systems that control and monitor educational systems, substantiating the need to rethink the purpose of the basic education system in Brazil, its focus on the intellectual, ethical, aesthetic, cultural, humanistic, and social development of the student's personality, as opposed to the neoliberal model that has become widespread in educational policy. The study relied on theoretically oriented methods: comparison, theoretical analysis, contrast, and generalization; statistical methods using analytical techniques based on the collection, processing, analysis, and interpretation of data in order to identify patterns and trends in the results obtained. Among the sociological research methods, sociological observation and the processing of social information were used. The study was based on international organizations of large-scale comparative systems for assessing the quality of education, educational organizations in Brazil, particularly in the state of Goas.
Keywords: large-scale assessment; neoliberal policies; education system; educational goals; educational system evaluation
Acknowledgments: The authors would like to thank the leadership of the Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Goiano, Brazil; the leadership of the Pontifical Catholic University of Goias, Brazil; the Institute of Humanitarian Education, the Department of Preschool and Special Education of Nosov Magnitogorsk State Technical University for providing data and support in writing the article.
Information about the authors:
Araujo Cunha A. L., Ph. D., Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Goiano.
Branquinho Xavie P., Ph. D., candidate Pontifical Catholic University of Goiás.
Chernobrovkin V. A., Associate Professor, Candidate of Philosophy, Head of the Department of Preschool and Special Education at the Institute of Humanitarian Education of the Nosov Magnitogorsk State Technical University.
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For citation: Araujo Cunha A. L., Branquinho Xavie P., Chernobrovkin V. A., Unfolding of Neoliberal Policies in Brazil: the Impact of Large-scale Assessment on the Basic Education System, Gumanitarno-pedagogicheskie issledovaniya = Humanitarian and pedagogical Research, 2026, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 20–26. (In Russ.), doi: 10.18503/2658-3186-2026-10-2-20-26.