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

that “as can be seen in official reports, repetition for three, four and even five times in the 1st grade occurs even in urban school systems, such as in the Federal District” (Lourenço Filho, 1941, p.543). In his response to this criticism, Teixeira de Freitas (1941, p.572, original italics) says Lourenço Filho would have misread the table in the study: But reread, our dear Professor Lourenço Filho, the table in question, noting the meaning of abbreviations. And then you will see it does not show what you supposed, but exactly “the abstraction of the particular case of multiple repetition of the same grade”. Take, for example, the movement of the 3rd grade in 1936. The three portions there allude, right, to repeaters ; but they are not repeaters of the grade (the 3rd) more than once, but new or repeaters of the 3rd grade for the first time , but who were previously repeaters - of one, other or both preceding grades (1st and 2nd), never, however, more than once in each – likewise the established assumption. Once clarified that what seemed to refer to multiple repetitions of the same grade was not so, it is fitting to ask why the author ignored this phenomenon in his analysis. According to him, as there are no studies or data that match the whole country with regard to the occurrence of multiple repetitions, a technical device was used, namely, to make a substitution, with negligible error, considering all repeaters as simple. Teixeira de Freitas (1941, p.578) argues that “statistically, we are considering such students if not rigorously equivalent, at least as minimally disparate so that they can in practice be considered equal”. For doing so, the author claims that for the purpose of the study, which was to know the time when each generation would have dropped out of school, this device would be satisfactory. Teixeira de Freitas considered that multiple repetition was not so significant as to be necessary to consider it. It is worth to remember that the conclusions the author draws from his statistical study point primarily to the dropout problem. So, what he wants to emphasize is that children leave school before completing the minimum acceptable years of schooling he considered at that time. Therefore, it is reasonable that he gives little importance to multiple repetition since, following his reasoning, one must admit that instead of staying in school doing the same grades several times, most failed children, with more or less resistance, ended up dropping out of school altogether. Lourenço Filho, however, does not have the same view. According to him, a complete analysis of the dropout phenomenon “would take the rates of dual grade repetition, especially important in the 1st grade, where the variety of student rating criteria is so great from one to another educational system” (Ministry of Education and Health, 1941, p. 38). It is also interesting to note that Lourenço Filho argues for the need to consider that failures in the 1st year not always have the pedagogical significance of an actual failure. That's because, he said, “in fact, we do not have in our schools a first grade to be held normally in a year of studies” (1941, p.544). That is, in some regions, in the same school, there was a “delayed” first year and an “advanced” one. Fernanda Cristina Campos da Rocha (2013) identifies this situation by analyzing the registration books of school group Sabará, in Minas Gerais, between 1907 and 1916. According to the author, the current practice in that institution was to divide the first-year program into two parts, each developed over one school year. Until 1912 the documents contain the names “1st year of the 1st half” (referring to the content provided for the first half of the 1st year) and “1st year of 2nd half.” From 2013, such documents contain the words “1st year delayed” and “1st year advanced”. Under these circumstances, “retention is much more related to school practices of the group, in an attempt to be able to cover the content under the program” (Rocha, 2013, p. 10). The author emphasizes that younger children – of the 1st year of the 1st semester or 1st year delayed – were not even submitted to exams, especially those between 6 and 7 years of age, because they are not considered yet ready for evaluation. In this sense, Lourenço Filho (1941, p.544) argued that one should consider that “often, for students, parents, and the effect of the appreciation of the work of the teachers themselves, students passing from a 1st year A to a 1st year B, or from delayed to advanced, meant promotion”. You may notice from this analysis that what gives rise to debate is, indeed, the existence of statistics on the flow of students through the school. These numbers were not produced in order to measure failure, repetition or even the dropout phenomenon. The intention was primarily to follow the expansion of enrollments and the scope of Brazilian primary education. However, the existence of this information will give visibility to initially unforeseen issues, such as repetition and dropout. In this sense, the documents analyzed are inaugural 11 11 Although they may not be the only ones, as the survey was restricted to only Rio Grande do Sul, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Distrito Federal and the documentation published by the central government - MEC, INEP, SEES and IBGE. of an important debate, which hitherto had no conditions to be addressed. Even if failure, repetition and dropout have been configured as possible moves of students through the school before 1930 – as they are tied to the emergence of modern school and then the adoption of the grades model – it is statistics that that make their quantitative dimension visible and expressive, allowing them, in some measure, to be taken as problems on the political agenda, as suggested in Kingdon’s analysis (1995). Volume XXI Issue V Version I 52 ( ) 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