ENCCEJA in the context of the development of students: Between the real and the formal

Abstract

Since its implementation in 2002, the National Exam for the Certification of Competences for Young and Adults (ENCCEJA) has been a school completion option for students whose educational paths were interrupted. Thus, this study aims to understand the extent to which the educational aspirations of students in youth and adult education (EJA, in Portuguese) are aligned with ENCCEJA’s evaluative proposals and to examine the possible outcomes of its application in EJA in Distrito Federal – Brazil. Using a qualitative-quantitative approach, based on historical-dialectical materialism, this research analyzes the theoretical framework, statistical data, school registration forms, and narrative interviews with students. Three key categories emerged from the study—exclusion, labor, and self-image—indicating that certification policies are becoming consolidated into a training project for the working class. However, marked by contradictions, this project clashes with the students’ educational aspirations, in which the diploma is perceived as a tool for emancipation—another way of acting and being in the world.