The Literacy Assistant as an exposed face of precarious teaching work

Abstract

In this study, it was analyzed how the Literacy Assistant was created, a structuring part of the More Literacy Program (BRASIL, 2018), whose aim is to improve the literacy rates of students in the 1st and 2nd years of Elementary School, which is why it is part of the Policy National Literacy instituted in 2019. Our general objective is to understand the meaning and the supporting elements of PMALFA, highlighting the constitution of AA. The relevant documentation was collected and with it a documentary analysis. The empirical categories were identified and we later examined their internal connections and in relation to educational policies in Brazil, in addition to their articulations with international guidelines. We deal with the “fight against poverty”, slogan of the World Bank, and the “service to vulnerable populations”, from UNESCO, considering the contribution of academic production. The Program was created, it is alleged, due to the low rates reached by students in the National Literacy Assessment, in 2016. Then, the Literacy Assistant was created to assist, as a volunteer worker, in literacy within the scope of a strategy focal subordinate to the managerialist perspective of evaluation. Furthermore, teaching work is precarious, making the State abandon the educational task. The proposal echoes the hegemonic capitalist project that assigns professors functions of managing scarce public resources, opening paths for the solidarity and voluntary business entrepreneurship and the growth of a professional category without rights.