20 ANOS DE PROUNI: UMA REFLEXÃO SOBRE AVALIAÇÃO DE POLÍTICAS PÚBLICAS NO BRASIL

This article proposes a reflective-critical analysis of how educational public policies have been evaluated in Brazil, using the twenty-year trajectory of the Programa Universidade para Todos (Prouni) as a guiding thread. Moving beyond quantitative performance metrics, the aim is to challenge how certain technocratic discourses shape perceptions of the success or failure of government initiatives. Based on a literature review guided by the perspective of social justice, the discussion focuses on how Prouni, despite increasing access to higher education for historically excluded students, still reproduces structural inequalities. Drawing on leading scholars in the field, the article argues that public policy evaluation cannot be reduced merely to measurement methods but must be understood as a situated practice, shaped by meaning disputes, conflicting interests, and historical dynamics. The core of the debate lies, therefore, in the possibility of conceiving evaluation as a political tool capable of producing real transformations in the living conditions of those involved, while also questioning the rationalities that underpin public management. By taking Prouni as the focal point, the intention is not to judge the program simplistically, but to use it as an interpretative lens to reflect on the limits and possibilities of an evaluation model committed to equity and the future of democracy in the country.