Indicações do Banco Mundial para a educação de crianças de 0 a 5 anos: o Programa Criança Feliz em discussão

Abstract

Situated within the Research Line of History and Educational Policies, this study examines the World Bank’s guidelines for early childhood and their influence on Brazilian educational policy. The guiding research question is: how do the World Bank’s orientations, as expressed in the Programa Criança Feliz (Happy Child Program), influence the right to the provision of Early Childhood Education in Brazil? As a theoretical and methodological framework, the study is grounded in the principles of Historical-Dialectical Materialism. The research adopts a bibliographical and documentary approach, based on the reading and interpretation of legal instruments related to the object under investigation. The general objective is to analyze the World Bank’s recommendations for early childhood education expressed in the Program and their implications for the debate on the right to Early Childhood Education in Brazil. The main theoretical references include Marx (2017), Marx and Engels (2007, 2010), Gramsci (2005, 2024), Saviani (1998, 2003, 2012), Pasqualini (2008, 2020), Pasqualini and Martins (2009), Kramer (1995), Rosemberg (1984, 1997, 2002), and Kuhlmann Jr. (1998), among otherscholars in the Marxist tradition who contribute to the understanding of the theme. The findings indicate that, by encouraging education in domestic contexts, the Programa Criança Feliz may contribute to a reduction in the demand for school-based education and, consequently, to a contraction of State action. It is concluded that this dissociation may lead to the erosion of the right to Early Childhood Education.