Closure of rural schools in the Médio Rio de Contas identity territory from Bahia

Abstract

This article presents the results of the research on the closure of rural schools in municipalities in Bahia, whose cut is the Médio Rio de Contas Identity Territory from Bahia/Brazil, in the time frame between 2007 and 2019. For the development of the investigation, a data collection was carried out from sixteen (16) municipalities located in that Territory, from this total of municipalities, those with a population greater than 15,000 inhabitants were selected. General data were collected directly from a website , between 2007 and 2019. Among the municipalities surveyed, the municipality of Jequié-Ba was selected based on three criteria: a) having a population greater than 15,000 inhabitants b) being easily accessible c) having schools in its countryside. The methodology used was based on the theoretical concepts of the Dialectical Historical Materialism Method, while the instruments for data collection were document analysis and semi-structured interviews. With the result of the investigation, we found that the closure of rural schools in the municipality of Jequié - Ba comes from the process of nucleation of schools under the justification of the municipal government to contain expenses with school transport, school maintenance and hiring teachers. Thus, the closure of rural schools by the “holders of power” is increasingly expanding, thus ratifying the neoliberal guidelines implemented in education.