Global Journal of Human Social Science, C: Sociology and Culture, Volume 21 Issue 5

constitutes a problem.” He mentions further that “people will see a problem quite differently if it is put into one category rather than another. Thus, much of the struggle over problem definition centers on the categories that will be used and the ways they will be used” (Kingdon, 1995, p.111). Kingdon emphasizes that problems are not entirely self-evident and therefore one must understand what processes and elements cause a particular situation, which would otherwise be disregarded, to receive attention from decision makers. At this point, statistics play an important role, as do the debates that take place from them. Governmental and non- governmental agencies regularly monitor various activities, and this is followed by historical numbers and series of numbers that are assumed as indicators of various situations. It is worth noting, as the author warns, that “such indicators or studies are not used primarily to determine whether or not a problem exists; such determination is a matter of interpretation” (Kingdon, 1995, p. 91). In the context of this article, I intend to argue that failure has existed since the emergence of the modern school, but it will only be viewed as a political-educational problem in the twentieth century. It is at the confluence of the debates that take it as an issue worthy of attention and of the existence and analysis of educational statistics that one can identify some of the conditions of possibility for school failure to be configured as a political problem. III. S chool E xams and the D efinition of a T ime to L earn Exams have existed since the emergence of modern school. For example, in 1599, when Ratio Studiorum was published, providing detailed guidance for teaching in Jesuit schools, regular written examinations were planned to be held, in which students could show the results of their learning (Saviani, 2007). Also in the work of Jan Amos Comenius, Didactica Magna, published in 1657 and which provides the foundations of the Protestant pedagogy of the seventeenth century, exams, exercises and weekly tests are proposed (Saviani, 2007). Foucault (1987, p. 166) highlights the disciplinary character of this school practice and states that in Modernity “the school became a sort of apparatus of uninterrupted examination that duplicated along its entire length the operation of teaching.” He points out, as an example, that the Brothers of the Christian Schools wanted their pupils to be examined constantly. Such considerations make it necessary to recognize that the examination, as a systematic written or oral practice of proving learning, has been foreseen since at least the sixteenth century. In the nineteenth century, in Brazil, the imperial legislation does not go into detail on the development of teaching and evaluation activities. Thus, examinations will take place in the first letter schools following provincial regulations. For Rio Grande do Sul, for example, according to the Regulations of 1876 and 1927, examinations and exercises should be performed annually in rituals coordinated by the general inspector (Hawat, 2015). Date and time would be defined in advance, and an examining committee would be constituted. Joseane El Hawat (2015, p.64) points out that the students considered fit to take the examinations were individually questioned by the examiners in all subjects according to the level of education reached – 1st or 2nd. After this stage of oral evaluation, which respected the time that each examiner considered “sufficient to form his judgment,” the student took a written test by writing an excerpt, to evaluate spelling and calligraphy, and solving arithmetic problems. From the performances observed in these assessments, students were graded into simply approved, fully approved, approved with distinction, or failed. In reference to schools for girls in Minas Gerais, Monica Yumi Jinzenji describes public examinations in the 1830s. According to the author, the publication of examinations results in newspapers usually occurred a few days after it and did not vary much in form, always bringing the same idea that a citizen witnessed the examination and then reported the event. He described the number of students present, the contents examined, and the students’ performances, highlighting those fully approved or advanced and, in the end, the teacher's speech at the opening of the exam (Jinzenji, 2010, p.183). She also highlights the low attendance of students on these occasions for possibly varied reasons, including the embarrassment of public exposure to a situation when they were not always able to show high achievement. However, it would be a mistake to consider that the experience of participating in exams was generalized to the childhood at that time. It should be remembered that very few individuals came to attend school in the nineteenth century. Even among those who did go to school and long enough to be able to undergo this type of evaluation, there is evidence that the usual practice was to send for examination only students whose previous assessment by teachers indicated that they could pass. Joseane El Hawat, analyzing the minutes of the examinations carried out in the public schools of Porto Alegre between 1873 and 1919, notes that few students submitted to the ritual in comparison to the total enrolled. Clearly, in that context, not all the individuals who attended class were submitted to examinations. Few individuals carried out the public tests provided by the laws and the precariousness that characterizes the production of school statistics in the period results in the absence of a systematic survey Volume XXI Issue V Version I 46 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2021 C © 2021 Global Journals School Grade Repetition in Brazil: History of the Configuration of a Political and Educational Problem