School education in times of pandemic: the right to education, remote education, and social inequality

Abstract

The article discusses the theme of inclusion/exclusion in the field of school education, emphasizing public policies, especially those developed during the new coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19). Among these, remote teaching stands out as the most common alternative for the State Departments of Education in order to guarantee the right to education. However, from the analysis of public policies adopted by the São Paulo State Department of Education in 2020, especially during the pandemic period, it appears that, in addition to being insufficient in guaranteeing the right to education in an equal manner, such policies they end up further reinforcing the social inequality intrinsic to the capitalist system. Based on the historical-cultural approach, the limitations and contradictions involving remote teaching are analyzed, showing the way in which this alternative, not by chance, is directly linked to the process of deepening the precariousness of educational public policies from the economic crisis -Brazilian policy of recent years and which is now expressed in a forceful way in the midst of the sanitary crisis determined by the pandemic. It is concluded that the daily struggle to expand the right to education must be the mediation of an inclusion project that goes beyond capital.