O trabalhador certificado: o fetiche ENCCEJA na crise de acumulação capitalista

Abstract

This research, linked to the Policies, Rights and Inequalities line of the Postgraduate Program in Education - Formative Processes and Social Inequalities (PPGEdu), of the Faculty of Teacher Training of UERJ (FFP/UERJ), has as its general theme the National Exam for Certification of Competencies of Young People and Adults (ENCCEJA), which hides the overexploitation inherent in Dependent Capitalism, examined under the lens of the Marxist Dependency Theory (TMD). This study has as its general objective to analyze the process of constitution of the ENCCEJA certification as a fetish commodity (Marx, 2010), in the period between 2017 and 2022. To this end, it is based on the hypothesis that the ENCCEJA can be considered a fetish that hides social relations of overexploitation of labor in contemporary Brazil and the denial of the right to school for working-class youth. The theoretical and methodological foundation is anchored in dialectical historical materialism, a method outlined by Marx, from which the Marxian category of commodity fetishism proved to be fundamental for writing about the thesis' problematic. Thus, quantitative empirical data is used, with the following main sources: Statistical Synopses of the ENCCEJA published by the National Institute of Studies and Educational Research Anísio Teixeira (INEP), data on employment, society and economy provided by the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MTE), Inter-Union Department of Statistics and Socioeconomic Studies (DIEESE), Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), among others. The dialectical movement of interrelation between school, ENCCEJA and capitalist society permeates the entire work when it is concluded that the exam also has the role of reinforcing the hegemonic discourse that affirms the existence of equal educational opportunities in Brazil. Thus, the requirement for quality public schools for the Youth and Adult Education (EJA) modality is urgent, given the growing trend towards strengthening certifications as a way of certifying young people and adults.