The objective of this text is to characterize the relative weight of the admission exam to the gymnasium (the four series following primary education) in the years between 1931 and 1945, in view of the educational policy for Secondary Education during the govern of Getúlio Vargas. To this end, we have examined the pattern of recruiting established by the exam, and the relations existing between the juridical regulations and the ensuing behavior of institutes of education. Information were gathered from the archives of five institutes of education located in the city of São Paulo, which were functioning at that time and remain in operation today. The analysis of the school trajectory of the students between Primary and Secondary Education made use of the concept of segmentation as proposed by Fritz Ringer in a work that describes and compares the different configurations of education systems in Europe and the USA. To that author the segmented education system is one that offers parallel paths of study separated by institutional barriers, by curriculum, and by differences in social origin between students. The results obtained indicate that the exam legitimized a specific pattern of recruitment of pupils, and camouflaged the existence of institutional barriers in elementary education. Furthermore, the strategies developed by the private institutions to circumvent systematically the juridical regulations of the exam give us a glimpse of the repressive and intervening role of the State at that time.
Entrance exam to the Gymnasium; Educational policy; Vargas period
