Maricá RJ students earn R$8,000 to complete high school – 04/07/2024 – Education

Amid the launch of Pé-de-Meia, a federal government program to provide financial incentives to high school students, a similar initiative already benefits young people from public schools in Maricá (RJ): they receive R$50 a month and, upon graduating , will be entitled to savings that can reach R$8,000.

The program, called Mumbuca Futuro, seeks to reduce school dropouts and encourage students to invest in the local economy, with the aim of preparing the city for a post-royalty future.

The initiative began in 2023, after a pilot project in 2018. There are 1,600 students covered, from the 6th year of elementary school to the 2nd year of high school — 9.5% of the total number of students in these years of school, according to data from the 2023 School Census .

With a score on the Ideb (Basic Education Development Index) of 5.4, the city has the 11th best result for the final years of primary education among municipal schools in Rio de Janeiro.

The amount is earned in mumbuca —social currency whose name pays homage to the city’s main river—, which can only be used in establishments in Maricá. Each year, participants will have R$1,200 deposited in a savings account, to be withdrawn when they graduate.

The city hall, under the command of Fabiano Horta (PT), invests R$2.8 million per year in the program. Still in 2024, the management wants to increase the number of beneficiaries to around 3,000 students.

“The objective is to align issues related to the solidarity economy, so that students begin to develop management skills. It is also an important tool for keeping children and adolescents in school”, says Cláudio Gimenez, president of the Institute of Science, Technology and Innovation of Maricá (ICTIM).

The program offers scholarships to all students, regardless of income, in eight municipal schools and one state school. According to municipal management, the goal is for all high school and second stage students in public schools in the city to benefit.

The city hall says it is in dialogue with the state government to implement the program in high schools, which are linked to state management.

Alexandre Costa, 14, a ninth-year student and one of the program’s participants, says he intends to pay for a pre-university course to pass in medicine at UFF (Universidade Federal Fluminense) with the value of his savings after completing high school.

He states that he uses the money he receives to buy things he likes, such as clothes and games, as well as materials for school, when necessary.

For Patricia Costa, 45, Alexandre’s mother, the project helped him to have more independence and financial responsibility. ”He manages his own expenses and, for us who are mothers, it’s already a saving, because he can buy the things he needs.”

Students must have 75% attendance in classes and cannot fail a grade to maintain the benefit. They can only withdraw the final amount of savings if they have been approved at a university or present a solidarity economy project, focused on social responsibility and environmental preservation.

According to Claudio Gimenez, the expectation is that, in this final work, students will propose innovations applicable to the city.

“We have our bottlenecks too, including [abastecimento de] water. Projects can be developed within territorial issues, which help us resolve essential points for the municipality”, he says.

According to Gimenez, the program also wants to encourage students interested in entrepreneurship to invest in the city after graduating. This is because the municipality’s economy is based on oil royalties, a source with an expiration date due to the energy transition and exploration capacity.

Therefore, program members must participate in a series of after-hours activities aimed at the solidarity economy to receive the monthly amount. They learn about finance, human rights and sustainability, as well as aspects of the local economy such as fishing and agriculture.

“We always try to do external programs, to get to know agroecological farms or the work of fishermen, one of the issues we have in Maricá as it is a coastal region”, says Rayanne Gonçalves, general manager of the social innovation incubator Mumbuca Futuro.

The classes inspired student Alexandre Costa to try out for a job as an environmental technician in high school at the IFF (Instituto Federal Fluminense) in Maricá. He wants to be a doctor, but enjoyed the experience with sustainability in the classroom.

“They teach in a fun way about taking care of the environment, cooperating and recycling”, he says. “In economics, we play games with commerce, to manage money.”

According to Fabio Waltenberg, professor of economics at UFF, the program has the capacity to reduce school dropouts, even if the value is low.

“The value alone would not be enough, but the student is chasing what he will earn if he completes each year. It is an important point to put an incentive up front”, he declares.

He also states that the accumulation of benefits, such as Bolsa Família and the city’s basic income program, which gives R$200 a month to those registered, also complement each other to prevent evasion. A long-term assessment should help managers determine whether the savings amount should be reduced to increase the monthly benefit.