As políticas públicas de assistência estudantil no enfrentamento à pandemia de Covid-19: desafios e perspectivas no âmbito do Instituto Federal Farroupilha- campus São Borja

Abstract

The general objective of this study was to understand how the student assistance policies (PAE) implemented at the Instituto Federal Farroupilha, more specifically at Campus São Borja, impacted the academic lives of students benefiting during the Covid-19 pandemic. The approach to the research theme comes from working as an employee of the institution on the Campus mentioned above and emerged through practical and daily work in the pedagogical advisory sector (SAP) in the interface with the student assistance sector, especially during the pandemic period. In view of the proposed objectives, qualitative research was chosen as the most appropriate methodological path for carrying out the study in question, as this type of research is relevant for analyzing the direct perception of the results of a policy among its users or beneficiaries. The research also aims to present the theoretical framework in relation to the public policies that constitute the focus of this postgraduate program and that underlie the policy in question, regarding conceptual categories, typologies and the public policy cycle, as well as outlines the category of public servants who are responsible for the direct delivery (implementation) of public policy to users, the street-level bureaucrats (Lipsky 1980, Lotta, 2014). It also provides a brief contextualization of the normative historical trajectory of student assistance in Brazil, drawing a timeline of the legal frameworks and the emphasis of the actions of each period portrayed. It presents the Instituto Federal Farroupilha: setting, actors and subjects of the policy, as well as the institution's student assistance policy. Regarding methodological procedures, this research is characterized as applied and exploratory, with a mixed method, documentary and field approach. The instrument used for data collection was a semi-structured interview applied to AE team employees and students who had received at least one aid during the pandemic period, in addition to the analysis of documents such as: decrees, resolutions, notices and related monitoring reports. to the years 2020 and 2021 of the student assistance coordination. To analyze the data, the content analysis methodology proposed by Bardin (2011) was used. The importance of carrying out this study is justified in order to identify the real effectiveness of the provision of this policy in relation to its intended objectives, the needs of the benefited students, the planning and management of these resources, as well as the impacts that these aids had on the school life of the benefited students. The results obtained indicated that the AE actions implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic were of utmost importance for the students' permanence during the period of remote activities, as they were configured as basic subsistence aid for some interviewees. The data showed that, with the worsening of the vulnerability situation, the benefits served to maintain survival conditions in some cases, being used to purchase food items for some families. In this way, therefore, it became clear that although the allocation of student benefits was used for other purposes by some beneficiaries, such as the household budget, AE still fulfilled its purpose of minimizing the effects of social inequalities, which were heightened during the pandemic period, and provide conditions for students to remain on their school journey.