School infrastructure and family characteristics affecting frequency and delay in primary and secondary school. / A infra-estrutura escolar e as características familiares influenciando a frequência e o atraso no ensino fundamental.
AUTOR(ES)
Rosangela Maria Pontili
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO
2005
RESUMO
Many studies in the economic field have showed the importance of education to increase the wellbeing of the society. However, the adult population in Brazil has, on average, 6.4 years of education, which is considered low when compared to other Latin American countries. Trying to improve the educational indicators, in the 90s, many changes were implemented in the Brazilian public school system. The objective of the present study is to evaluate school infrastructure and family characteristics affecting childrens decision to study or to drop out from school (frequency and school delay in primary and secondary levels). The analyses were concentrated in public schools located in the urban areas of Pernambuco and São Paulo states. Demographic census, school census and government spending data from 2000 were used to run a Probit model, whether a child was in school or not and whether a child was in lower grade for his age or not. Interactions between familys characteristics and school infrastructure, as well as some simulations, were done to verify what would be the best possible resource allocation to improve childrens education. The results showed that public policies that increased teachers schooling or teachers salaries, and policies that improved the schools equipments would benefit more children from low income families and/or with low educated parents. Moreover, in Pernambuco, the teachers salary caused the greater impact in the childrens frequency to school, while the teachers schooling had the larger impact in the childrens school delay. On the other hand, in São Paulo, the best option would be to increase per capita family income, either to increase frequency or decrease delay in school. It is known that policies to improve families characteristics will produce results more in the long run. Therefore, policies that would improve the schools infrastructure and consequently the quality of the schools are suggested in the short run. Moreover, the investment should focus Pernambuco due to the lower socio-economic indicators compared to São Paulo.
ASSUNTO(S)
primary and second school demographic census ensino fundamental regression analysis família condições sócio-econômicas quality of life household-socio-economic status public school qualidade de vida urban community comunidade urbana análise de regressão censo demográfico pesquisa educacional public policies education research política pública escola pública qualidade
