High School Pros and Cons

Throughout this study, we sought to gain a better understanding of the legal guidelines governing secondary education in Brazil and the state of Minas Gerais from its implementation to the present day, as well as to identify and understand the dimensions and implications of teaching work in the teaching and learning processes developed in secondary education in public schools in Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, during 2010. A quantitative-qualitative approach was used, and the population consisted of students, teachers, and administrators from seven of the 26 state schools in the municipality of Uberlândia, MG. These were selected according to the overall averages obtained by each educational establishment in the 2009 National High School Exam (ENEM), with three having scores above and four below the municipal average. It begins with the presentation and discussion of historical facts about secondary education policy at the national and state levels, as well as data on the evolution of access to secondary education and its consequences from the point of view of demand in conjunction with notions of teaching quality.