The expansion of distance education and the contradiction between capital and labor

Abstract

The article analyses the phenomenon of expansion of distance education (DE) in Brazil, as determined by the private-mercantile sector. The Brazilian State has encouraged such expansion through deregulation and flexibilization of the rules referring to the opening of poles and courses, thereby taking into account the private sector lobby that sights in DE a business alternative for the economic crisis Brazil has faced throughout the last decade. The economic rationality that seeks to associate rapid training and lower monthly fees is imposed upon workers, who are subjected to the deepening of the process of exploitation and the dismantling of labor’s social protection structures. A project for the mass education of the working class is fabricated, via distance education in private-mercantile Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) whose long-term developments are uncertain and demand the continuity of studies. The methodological approach is based on the contributions of historical-dialectical materialism. The research procedures were guided by bibliographic review, documentary analysis, consultation of the statistical databases of the National Institute for Educational Research (Inep), and the websites of the HEIs. The results evidence that corporate businesses act to minimize the effects of the economic crisis on the financial performance of these institutions; in addition, they seek to build consensus around the economic, pedagogical and formative feasibility of distance learning courses, whose target audience is young people excluded from access to public institutions of higher education.