A third of the most vulnerable study full-time – 11/10/2023 – Education

Even after São Paulo increased the number of schools offering full-time education, only 32% of children and adolescents from families benefiting from income redistribution programs are enrolled in this modality.

The data appears in a report from the Court of Auditors of the State of São Paulo obtained exclusively by Sheet. The audit assessed how state and municipal education networks have acted to achieve the goal of the PNE (National Education Plan), which provides for at least half of the students in full-time schools.

The court warned the Tarcísio de Freitas (Republican) government that, despite the state having expanded service, it did not promote actions to guarantee access and permanence of the most vulnerable students in the modality, as provided for in national legislation.

“The PNE defined that the priority should be vulnerable students, but we found that, in practice, managers have not promoted actions to guarantee this prioritization. It is a very worrying situation, because, without taking care of the poorest, the policy tends to widen educational inequalities”, said Sidney Estanislau Beraldo, president of the TCE.

According to the 2014 law, the expansion of full-time enrollment should serve “primarily poor communities or those with children in socially vulnerable situations.” In addition to the goal of reaching half of enrollments in this modality by 2024, it was also established that the networks should have 25% of schools with full-time services.

In a note, the Department of Education, under the Tarcísio administration, said that the PEI (Integral Education Program) meets “all vulnerability classification ranges defined by the MEC” and that it is close to reaching the PNE target. However, he did not answer whether he is studying measures to guarantee assistance to the poorest students.

According to data from the TCE audit, the São Paulo state network has 553,884 students who are from families that benefit from social programs, that is, they live in homes where the income for each person does not exceed R$218 per month. Of these students, 177,208 (32%) are in full-time schools. The other 68% are in units that serve part-time.

The most vulnerable students represent only 18.3% of the total of 965,096 enrolled in full-time schools in the São Paulo state network in the initial and final years of primary and secondary education.

The report also highlighted that 45.9% of the state’s education boards reported not having provided preferential assistance to students at risk and socially vulnerable.

In municipal networks, service to the most vulnerable in full-time schools is even lower. Only 17.8% of those who benefit from social programs are covered by this modality.

“The objective of expanding full-time is to provide better conditions for those who are most disadvantaged, for example, offering better food, more time to learn, more leisure options. If these most vulnerable children are left out, the program only increases inequality that already exists”, says João Victor de Oliveira, researcher at Lemadi (Teaching and Teaching Materials Laboratory) at USP.

The expansion of full-time schools was former governor João Doria’s (no party) big bet for education in São Paulo. In 2018, 364 state schools offered extended days (around 6% of the total). This year, the model was offered in 2,311, reaching 45% of the entire network.

Expansion has been one of the country’s main goals in the area of ​​education for years, as international and local experiences have demonstrated a series of benefits in keeping students in the classroom for longer.

Experts, however, warn that implementation needs to be done carefully so that the model does not end up excluding precisely the most vulnerable students. As shown by the Sheetthe accelerated expansion of full-time education in São Paulo led teenagers from poorer families to attend night school or abandon their studies.

“It’s no use just extending a young person’s time at school and not thinking about their reality. Many young people already work outside the home, helping their parents with domestic care or with younger siblings. It is necessary to think about additional policies, such as the payment of scholarships so that these students have the opportunity to stay at school throughout the day”, says Oliveira.

A hallmark of the previous government, the expansion of full-time schools did not continue as a priority agenda of the Tarcísio administration. For next year, for example, the secretariat plans to include just 21 more units in the program — some of which were defined last year.

Two days after taking office, secretary Renato Feder told Sheet which would not maintain the same pace of expansion as the previous administration. At the time, he stated that he would improve the implementation of the policy.

Questioned by Sheet regarding changes that have been made or are planned for the program, the Department of Education did not respond. He only said that “the expansion is being studied so that all students enrolled in PEI have a more equitable service and that the expansion in schools happens with sustainability for the network”, without detailing how it will be done.

The TCE audit also highlighted the state government’s lack of planning to evaluate the program. “The basis of all public policy is periodic monitoring. If there is no evaluation, this policy will fail. What it seems to me is that the government has not established ways to carry out this monitoring, which is necessary to correct errors along the way”, said Beraldo.