O acesso e a permanência dos estudantes de origem popular à educação superior: uma avaliação do Programa Conexões de Saberes na UFT, Campus de Palmas

Abstract

This research aims to evaluate the Knowledge Connections Program at the Federal University of Tocantins, in Palmas. The study consists of an ex post evaluation seeking to comprehend the implementation and execution processes of the PCS in the UFT and to analyze the real implications of the mentioned program on the policies of the popular origin students’ entrance to the University and on the qualified permanence of the conectionist students. The qualitative and quantitative approaches were chosen because those methodological strategies make it possible to analyze the program in details. The bibliographical research discusses the new ways the Brazilian State uses to intervene on the social matters, mainly in the neoliberal context. The data about the State of Tocantins and the process of creation of the UFT are also considered in this work. Aiming to reconstruct the program pathway in the institution, a documental research of the UFT and the MEC-SECAD collection was carried out and also there were some interviews with the managers of those organizations. At last, a field survey was accomplished with the use of questionnaires in order to identify the socioeconomic profile of the conectionists, and interviews with the coordinators and students who are involved in the Program. Also, there was a participant observation with the objective of understanding and analyzing the impacts of the program as a policy of Affirmative Actions to ensure the access and endurance of the popular origin students in the institution. Based on the theorectical and empirical studies, it was verified that the PCS was implemented in the UFT within a context of neoliberal reforms, with the reduction of public resources to finance the high education. It could be seen that those reforms reverberated on the development of the PCS in the institution, in a certain way. The delay on the transfer of resources which had to be done by the government and the lack of those resources to pay the students’grants caused the University to develop the program action in a fragmented and disjointed manner. However, the effort of the management to keep the program going in the institution has to be recognized. But, there must be considered that the inclusion of the popular origin students in the high education depends on the actions that promote the emancipation of those students, with a qualified permanence. To achieve that goal, the program must be carried out in an articulated way in the UFT as well as in the MEC-SECAD and in the popular communities.