Os exames de suficiência em Alagoas: a certificação de professores secundários (1965 a 1970)

Abstract

This study encompasses the Proficiency Examinations conducted in Alagoas between 1965 and 1970, with the objective of certifying teachers for secondary education. These examinations emerged as an emergency public policy, given the scarcity of qualified teachers due to the disorderly growth of secondary schools, which began with the promulgation of the Organic Law of Secondary Education in 1942. To mitigate this deficiency, the Ministry of Education and Health instituted, through Decree-Law No. 8,777 of 1946, the requirement for the definitive registration of teachers in secondary education. The decree allowed unlicensed individuals to take the Proficiency Examination, which, if approved, guaranteed authorization to teach in secondary schools lacking teachers with diplomas from the Faculty of Philosophy. The exams were abolished in 1971 with the enactment of Law No. 5,692, which established guidelines for primary and secondary education, determining short and full teaching degrees as the only regulated forms for the training and certification of teachers. The objective of this research is to understand the process of secondary school teacher training in Alagoas during this period, through the analysis of the Proficiency Exams. To this end, we seek to identify the evolution of teacher training policy from the 19th to the 20th century, describe the context that motivated the creation of the proficiency exams in Brazil and in Alagoas, and explain how these exams were organized and carried out in Alagoas between 1965 and 1970. The research is characterized as qualitative, with an emphasis on the analysis of primary sources, such as registration forms, terms and reports, safeguarded by the collection of the Study and Research Group on the History of Education, Culture and Literature, linked to the Education Center of UFAL. Reference authors in the field were also consulted, such as Uekane (2008), Tanuri (2000), and Lopez and Souza (2018). The research results indicate that the Proficiency Exams in Alagoas took place between 1965 and 1970, preceded by an intensive preparation course, carried out in partnership between the Faculty of Philosophy and the Directorate of Secondary Education of the Ministry of Education and Culture. According to the documents analyzed, 332 candidates were approved to teach in secondary education between 1966 and 1971.