Assistência estudantil no IFRN Campus Zona Norte e sua relação com a permanência escolar

Abstract

This dissertational work analyzes the educational policy related to student assistance instituted by Decree nº 7.234/10 that regulated the National Student Assistance Program (PNAS). The study relates this student assistance policy with the school permanence of students linked to the Electronics Course in the Professional High School modality of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology (IFRN), Zona Norte campus, in the city of Natal/RN. The research presents the student assistance policies developed under the PNAS in this educational unit, in particular, analyzing the Student Training Support Program (PAFE). Therefore, the study discusses the assistance actions used by the school administration in serving students in social vulnerability, always seeking to assess the consequences of the PAFE for the permanence of students on this campus. With regard to the theoretical-methodological position, this work seeks to interpret the educational reality in a historical-dialectical movement that considers the economic, political and social mediations related to the object of study, thus contributing to its transformation. In this way, he adopts the Historical-Dialectical Method, seeking to understand the contradictions and relating them to the historical totality. In the methodological directive, documental, bibliographic and empirical research was carried out, the latter being instrumentalized through data collection through semi-structured interviews applied to students and social workers of the educational unit, seeking to understand their knowledge and opinion about the implementation and effectiveness of this Student Assistance Program. The results show the importance of the PAFE in guaranteeing the permanence of students in social vulnerability, however, on the other hand, they attest that there are operational limitations and limited scope, as the Program does not guarantee the reduction of dropouts at an acceptable level and, also, does not cover the majority of qualified students, failing to guarantee the right to quality public education for everyone regardless of class origin. I conclude by emphasizing the importance of carrying out studies of this nature that characterize and analyze the student assistance policies developed for the Professional High School modality in federal educational institutions located in the subnational instance of the federated entres, especially in this current context marked by budget cuts in the area of education, the restructuring of national secondary education and the assumption of neoliberal management in state institutions through the commodification of national public education.