Causes of school failure: the case of the state of Bahia in B azll 9
r
9
Robert E. Verhine and Ana Maria Pita de Melo
The failure of the formal schooling system in Brazil to meet the educational needs of the nation's population has been well documented (Brand~io et al., I983; Brazil, I985a, I985b; Ribeiro, I984; World Bank, I986). The I98o Census reveals that the mean years of study among those I5 years of age and more is only 3.8, and 26 per cent of this population are unable to even write their names. For those who are still children, the educational situation seems equally dismal. Only about 75 per cent of those aged 7 to 14 are currently in school and, of those enrolled, less than 25 per cent are at the age which officially corresponds to their grade level. The problem, of course, is not merely a lack of schools. Many who matriculate are subsequently ~pushed' or 'pulled' out of school, a fact reflected in high drop-out and repetition rates. It has been estimated that for every I,OOO students who enter the first grade,
R o b e r t E. V e r h i n e (United States). Associate professor at the School of Education in the Federal University of Bahia where he teaches and conducts research on issues related to the economics of education and research methods. Author of numerous articles perraining to relationships between alternative forms of education and the labour market in north-eastern Brazil. Aria M a r i a Pita de M e l o (Brazil). Associate professor
at the School of Education in the Federal University of Bahia where she teaches and conducts research on issues related to curriculum and instruction and preschool education.
only 438 go on to the second grade the following year, while merely 297 complete the fourth grade in the expected time frame. Based on these figures, Brand~o et al. (I983) calculate that the drop-out/repetition rate for the first to second grades is 56 per cent, whereas that for subsequent grade levels stabilizes at around 3o per cent. Brazil, of course, is characterized by major regional disparities, and, while the educational situation is serious in all parts of the country, it is most serious in the poverty-stricken Northeast. The largest state, in total area, in the Northeast is Bahia, and the school conditions for that area are among the most discouraging in Brazil. Those x5 or over have an average of only 2.5 years of schooling, adult illiteracy is reported to be 44 per cent and the first- to second-grade drop-out/repetition rate, estimated at 56 per cent for the nation, is calculated to be 66 per cent in Bahia. Both Brazil as a whole and Bahia in particular have long been aware of the magnitude of their educational problem. A number of projects and programmes have been introduced to attenuate the high levels of school failure, but corresponding outcomes have been consistently disappointing (Brazil, I978, I98o; Bahia, I982, Foina, I982). Clearly, effective policy-making requires a fuller understanding of the phenomena in question. Based on the above considerations, Bahia's Secretariat of Education, through its research arm, the Anisio Teixeira Institute, contracted
Prospects~Vol. XVIII, No. 4, x988
558
Robert E. Verhine and Ana Maria Pita de Melo
a group of professors from the Faculdade de Educa~ao of the Federal University of Bahia, to undertake a two-year statewide study to evaluate the causes of school drop-out, repetition and age distortion at the first-grade level. The study consisted of three phases. The first involved an extensive review of local, national and international literature (see Bahia, I984a, I984b). The second phase took the form of a sample survey, conducted in eleven counties (representing the state's various subregions) in which a total of 288 informants from 24 primary schools (half urban, half rural) were interviewed. The informants included 23 school directors, 46 teachers, 47 students, 162 parents and IO local authorities. To provide some measure of comparison, the parents were separated into 46 who had children progressing normally in school and 116 who had children who were either drop-outs or repeaters (Bahia, 1985). The third stage of the study sought to deepen understanding of processes identified in the first two phases by developing an in-depth case-study of four schools representing four distinct Bahian contexts: rural interior, urban interior, urban capital, and suburban capital (Bahia, 1986). This article proposes to summarize the findings of the two-year study, paying particular attention to the third (or case-study) phase. It begins with a review of the pertinent literature and then briefly outlines the nature and outcomes of the eleven-county survey. It subsequently describes the methodology of the case-study and presents the conclusions and recommendations emerging from it.
Those who compose the first group view the extra-school causes of school failure as the product of a social, economic and political structure which impedes regular school attendance. Among those who focus specifically on political factors, there is a tendency to view school failure as intentional, in that the selection and exclusion mechanisms of the education system are seen as necessary in order to preserve Brazil's unequal social order (Oliven, 1979, Oliveira, 1981). Authors such as Garcia (1982), Sirgado (I98O) and Poppovic (198I) posit that the school is a latent ideological apparatus which uses transmitted information as an instrument for ensuring the continuation of the capitalist system. These writers contend that the school imposes culture, inculcates political values and shapes personality according to dominant class interests. Individuals who resist this process are labelled as deficient or culturally deprived and are pushed out of the schooling system at an early stage. This perspective of intentional school failure is supported by results from several field investigations. Gatti (1981), for example, investigated determinants of school success among students considered poor and not poor, and reported that those with the lowest test scores were not, in the main, those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds. Those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, on the other hand, tended to be those with the lowest endterm grades. Carraher and Schliemann (I983) present similar findings, showing, based on a study of children in both public and private schools in the state of Pernambuco, that differences in pass/fail rates between the two types of schools cannot be explained by differences in student competence levels, since the two Literature review cohorts performed similarly on a battery of examinations administered as part of the reRecent Brazilian literature on the causes of search. Without denying that the political issue is school drop-out, repetition and age/grade distortion is characterized by two distinct lines important, other writers treating the question of thinking: one which locates the causes of of school failure have given priority to alternathese problems outside the school system, and tive out-of-school factors. Cunha (I98I), Silva one that sees these phenomena as originating et al. (1979) and Carvalho (I983), for example, contend that malnutrition has a principal effect from factors within the school.
Causes of school failure:the case of the state of Bahia in Brazil
on the physical and mental development of children, and thus interferes with young students' ability to concentrate on, and participate in, classroom activities. Interestingly, though, in a three-state study sponsored partly by the World Bank, preliminary findings indicated a negative relationship between primary-school achievement and receiving a lunch at school (Armitage et al., I985). Those responsible for this investigation suggest that this outcome is a consequence of a policy to distribute scarce resources of the school-feeding programme to the neediest area8.
Moreira (r957) , on the other hand, blames the high drop-out and repetition rates encountered in rural areas on the school's lack of adaptation to the peculiar circumstances of the rural environment. He writes, in this respect, of the child's need to work and of the disarticulation that exists between semester periods and class hours and the time requirements of agricultural labour. A similar line of reasoning is adopted by Carvalho (z983), Leme (I959) and Costa (I982), who note that although ostensibly free, schooling is actually very costly, especially in rural areas. Not only are there direct expenses in the form of outlays for school materials and clothing, but there are also indirect costs, because time in school interferes with work and thus restricts the child's contribution to the family income. The causes of school failure mentioned above all tend to emanate from outside the school. I.utra-school causes, on the other hand, are internal to the school's process and dymamic. An analysis of the literature suggests that these causes can be grouped into three categories: (a) causes related to the teacher; (b) causes related to the student; and (c) causes related to pedagogical and institutional practices. Studies which view the teacher as a primary cause os student failure often focus on the issue of teacher preparation. Armitage et al. (I985) report a positive association between pupil achievement and the number of years of schoolhag of the teacher, whereas writers such as Bcuavente (z976), Gouveia (z96I), Mello (z982), Pinheiro (r973) and Santos (I97 z) criticize the
559
quality of primary-level teacher education in Brazil, questioning the relevance of curricula, the efficiency of course planning and student evaluation, and the competence of those who train the teachers. This last group of authors argue in favour of a reformulation of secondarylevel teacher-education programmes and a greater use of in-service training, but they tend to be against requiring teachers to have a university level diploma, since this would probably widen the already considerable cultural gap separating teacher and student. Negative teacher expectations and attitudes represent another factor many times linked to poor student performance (Brand~o et al., I983). Moreira (t957) illustrates how teachers exhibit prejudice and stereotyping when dealing with students from poor rural families and Cunha (I98Z) argues that teachers often impose alien values, leading to a form of resistance which manifests itself in slow learning and school abandonment. Other teacher-related factors associated in the literature with drop-out and repetition indude the amount of professional experience (Brand~o et al., I983; Mello, I982), salary level and degree of job satisfaction (Armitage et al., z985; Alencar and Rodriguez, I98O), and the problem of employment instability (Molina et al., I982; Rocha, I98o). As far as the student is concerned, research indicates that school performance is affected by both social origin (Mello, I982) and the linguistic code used (Bernstein, z979; Lawton, I979). Student physical and biological deficiencies have also been mentioned as key variables, although Gatti (I98I) is unable to find a direct relationship between such deficiencies and the level of school success. Pedagogical and institutional factors have been stressed in a number of studies. Drawing from in-depth interviews with teachers in S~o Paulo, Mello (I982) blames primary-school failure on inadequate school curricula, insufficient human and material resources, inadequate teaching methods, and the fact that the student spends too little time at school. Armitage et al. (I985) demonstrate that several variables as-
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Robert E. Verhine and Ana Maria Pita de Melo
sociated with the quality of school environment (especially the availability of textbooks) impact positively on student achievement. Bonamigo (I976), Garcia (I982) and Vial (I979), on the other hand, argue that students of low socioeconomic status suffer institutional discrimination, an example being the creation of special classes of inferior quality for those who are labelled, often based on background characteristics, as under-achievers. It should be noted that, according to some writers, the relative importance of intra-school vis-Ft-vis extra-school factors depends on the socio-economic status of both the region and the individual. Rocha (I983) notes that the poorer the student, the greater the effect of factors internal to the school. The same appears to be true for regions and countries, as evidenced by the work of Heyneman and Loxley (I982). The literature just reviewed suggests that research on the phenomena of primary-level drop-out and repetition tends to be relatively scarce and of poor quality. Until the I97os most such studies were descriptive in nature, merely comparing indicators of school failure across states and regions. More recently, research on the issue has acquired greater sophistication, contributing, consequently, to the identification of the causes summarized above, but still failing to attach relative weights to these factors or clarify relationships between them. These limitations serve as a rationale for the Bahian field research reported below. As noted above, the Bahian study included both an n-county, 288respondent survey and an in-depth case-study involving four schools.
The survey This article pays relatively brief attention to the survey phase of the research, because most of the conclusions and recommendations emerging from the over-all investigation were most directly a consequence of the case-study. The purpose of the survey was to characterize the institutional and environmental conditions of
rural and urban schools in Bahia, as well as record opinions on the causes of school failure, as expressed by those most intimately involved with the problem. The study employed five different interview schedules, designed respectively for local authorities, school directors, teachers, student repeaters and parents of children with both favourable and unfavourable performance levels. As already mentioned, the sample involved 288 respondents from 24 schools in I I counties of Bahia. The schools in the sample had, in general, adequate physical facilities, although lavatory facilities were often very poor. There was a notable lack of textbooks, teaching materials and items necessary for administration and cleaning. Some schools had to turn away prospective students for lack of space or human resources, and, in many instances, the schoollunch programme operated on an irregular and poorly organized basis. The study indicated that the schools tend to operate in a very centralized manner. Basic administrative and pedagogical decisions are made by either bodies outside the school or by the school director alone, with no participation on the part of teachers, students or parents. Evidence of this situation is provided both by the adoption of a rigid, standardized school calendar and by a desire expressed by many of the informants for greater integration between school, family and community. Among teachers there was a high degree of movement, representing both changes in grade level and transfers between schools. Most teachers bore a heavy workload, in many instances spending more than eight hours a day in the classroom. At the same time, they earned very low salaries, often below the legal minimum. Even so, most claimed that they liked their job as teacher, though many indicated a relunctance to work on the initial (and most important) grade levels. The survey outcomes suggested a strong association between family socio-economic circumstances and student achievement, a finding contrary to that reported by Armitage et al. (i985). Students successful at school, as corn-
:56I
Causes of school failure: the case of the state of Bahia in Brazil
TAmaz I. Principal causes of drop-out, repetition and age/grade distortion according to school directors, teachers and parents of first-grade children Position Drop-out
Cause
Poor
school
attendance
L a c k o f school materials Parents u n a b l e to p a y C h a n g e o f residence S t u d e n t s ' l e a r n i n g difficulties T e a c h e r s ' deficiency L a c k o f school or access to school
Age/grade
Directors
Directors
Directors
and
and
and
teachers
Parental disinterest S t u d e n t s ' physical condition S t u d e n t s ' disinterest N e e d for child to w o r k L o w education level o f p a r e n t s
of cause
Repetition
Parents
teachers
Parents
teachers
distortion
Parents
3 2 5
3 5 --
I
I
I
4
3
3
8
--
2
--
I
I
8
4
5
--
8 9 6
--
4
--
--
--
6
--
--
--
9
--
--
zo
--
3
4
--6 2
I6
5
9
19
--
5
25 7
---
29
IO
pared with the unsuccessful ones, had parents with higher salaries and more formal instruction, enjoyed better housing and were less likely to have to work. These findings are consistent with the opinion expressed by the informants (directors, teachers and parents) concerning the causes of school failure. In general, outof-school factors of a social, economic and family nature were emphasized. Table I summarizes the twelve causes mentioned most by the informants, for each of three indicators of school failure: drop-out, repetition and age/grade distortion. The order of listing represents a mere rough approximation, based on the position each cause was given by the directors and teachers on the one hand and by the parents on the other. This position is indicated by the numbers that appear to the right of each cause. Thus, it will be noted that both informant groups considered the primary cause of drop-out to be the need for the child to work and the primary cause of repetition to be disinterest on part of the parents. The directors and teachers viewed disinterest on the part of the parents as also the principal cause of age/grade distortion, whereas parents tended to blame this last problem on a lack of schools (or difficult access to schools).
7
--
--
-2
I
--
--
--
6
IO
--
--
4
I
It is interesting to note that whereas the principal causes mentioned by the informants were of an extra-school character, many of the concrete recommendations made by these individuals relate to in-school changes. These recommendations included the following: (a) greater efforts to link school and family, via parent/teacher meetings, personal contacts and community information campaigns; (b) improved teacher preparation, especially in the field of basic literacy instruction, via in-service training programmes; (c) more emphasis on individualized instruction; (d) better distribution of school lunches; and (e) free provision of school materials. As indicated, these recommendations are those of the respondents, not the research team. Given the complexity of the social fabric in which the school functions and from which the problem of school failure emanates, they are perhaps too simplistic, fragmentary and short-term. These suggestions, however, come from those most closely involved in the daily school routine, and thus, if promoted, are likely to be accepted and constructively implemented.
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Robert E. Verhine and Ana Maria Pita de Melo
The case-study Although the survey generated useful information, the research team felt the need to investigate the phenomena of primary-school failure in greater depth. Thus, it adopted a ease-study approach, in which restricted contexts are examined in a detailed, qualitative fashion using a variety of data-gathering and analysis techniques.
METHODOLOGY
The study was limited to four schools, one from the centre of Salvador, one from suburban Salvador, one from the centre of an inland town with about 2o, ooo inhabitants, and one from a rural area, which, in this instance, was primarily devoted to cocoa production. In each locale the school selected was one which had been identified during the survey as suffering from a high rate of drop-out and repetition. Within each school, an effort was made to select the primary class with the least number of repeaters, in order to minimize contamination by factors antecedent to the study. In each class selected, a sample of nine students was chosen for careful observation over time. This sample was identified after initial classroom observations, evaluations of student work and interviews with the teacher responsible, and it was composed of three sub-groups: students likely to be successful in class, those likely to have to repeat the class, and those likely to abandon school altogether. Whereas the probable repeaters were those who demonstrated learning difficulties, the probable drop-outs were students with poor attendance records. Based on the above considerations, the combined sample for the four schools was projected at thirty-six students. In two classrooms, however, it proved impossible to select probable drop-outs, so the actual student sample was thirty. Other informants included the teachers responsible for the selected classes, the school
directors, the parents of those in the student sample, and the local secretary of education. To collect the data, the research team made four week-long trips to the sites of the selected schools, at str~itegic moments during the school year. During these visits the informants were interviewed using flexible, open-ended schedules and all aspects of the school's activities, both within and outside the classroom, were systematically observed. Portions of each class were recorded, and textbooks and other teaching materials were carefully examined. Content and discourse analysis were employed in the treatment of data. The research team worked as a unit during this phase. Each school was first analysed separately, and then outcomes were compared in order to generate conclusions concerning the causes of first-grade drop-out, repetition and age/grade distortion.
THE RESULTS
The results of the case-study were, in general, compatible with the findings derived from the eleven-county survey. The major conclusions which emerged are summarized below. Sample sizes, of course, were much too small to permit legitimate generalizations, but the conclusions offered have the advantage of being both consistent with findings reported elsewhere and of providing a basis for the implementation of concrete, viable measures to attenuate the problems under study. Drop-out
In relation to the phenomena of first-grade drop-out, the results of the study were as enumerated below. I. The level of first-grade drop-out is lower than generally recognized In the four schools studied, the abandonment of school by first-grade students was very limited. The teachers had difficulty identifying potential drop-outs and in three of the four schools every student who began study at the beginning of the year was still in school at
Causes of school failure: the case of the state of Bahia in Brazil
the end. The only school to suffer a loss of clientele was that in the centre of Salvador, where four individuals were classified as dropouts and eight others transferred to another school. Of the four classified as drop-outs, only one was confirmed as such by the research team (the others may have been transferrals too). In this respect, the school director pointed out that it was commonplace for students to matriculate in several schools simultaneously, and then, based on the family's evaluation of the alternatives before them, make a choice, often without communicating this fact to the school not selected. The exaggeration of school drop-out estimates has also been noted by Fletcher and Castro (I986), who argue that researchers rarely take into account school transfers in the calculation of Brazil's Calarming' rates of school abandonment. 2. Factors external to the school are the principal causes of first-grade drop-out Of the four students in the sample identified as drop-outs, one abandoned because he lived a long way from school and to get there he had to cross a number of busy streets. In the other three cases, the children left because their families changed their address. Whether or not they subsequently enrolled elsewhere could not be determined. The interviews with the parents supported this conclusion concerning the importance of extra-school factors. These respondents argued that, to their knowledge, school abandonment o c c u r r e d when family financial conditions made it impossible to pay for didactic materials, school uniforms, school lunches and matriculation fees. They also mentioned sickness as a key factor explaining first grade drop-out. 3. Among in-school factors contributing to school abandonment, the most important are the pressures placed on children considered unruly and the occurrence of successive grade repetition One of the students in the sample of probable drop-outs in the school in urban Salvador was hyperactive and caused the teacher considerable difficulty. The student was scolded and
563
punished daily and his father was often called to school to hear the teacher's complaints. Tired of this verbal abuse, the father finally took the child out of the school and placed him in a private one. This student was initially classified as a drop-out; only later was it learned that he was studying at another school. The problem of being driven from school by insensitive teachers was also a factor mentioned in a number of the interviews with parents. Their own children were not necessarily victims, but they often knew of other children who were.
Although in the present study there were no examples of school aba~adonment due to successive repetition, the parents interviewed indicated that if their children repeated three or more times, they would remove them from school. Some of the parents had actually implemented this threat, in the case o f an older child. This conclusion concerning the importance of grade repetition as a cause of school abandonment has also been put forth by Fletcher and Castro (I986), based on a careful analysis of secondary data pertaining to Brazil as a whole. Repetition In relation to the phenomena of grade repetition, the results of the study were as follows. I. Repetition constitutes a serious problem in the first grade, as observed rates are very high Contrary to school abandonment, repetition of the first grade occurred in all four schools studied, with rates varying between 24 and 37 per cent. Once again, the school in urban Salvador suffered the most serious difficulties. Its first grade class began with twenty-eight students, thirteen either transferred or dropped out, and of the remaining fifteen, only five passed at the end of the year. The rural school and the one in suburban Salvador had the lowest incidence of student failure: 24 and 30 per cent respectively. However, one of the outcomes of the research was the discovery that teachers often make grade-level assignments at the beginning of the year without
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Robert E. Verhine and Aria Maria Pita de Melo
taking into account the previous year's performance. Thus, it is not known whether the observed pass/fail rates correspond to subsequent repetition figures. Given the fact that grade repetition negatively affects age/grade profiles and, as argued above, tends to lead to school abandonment, it is clear that special priority must be given to efforts to attenuate this oroblem. 2. Although first-grade repetition results from a combination of factors both external and internal to the school, the in-school factors seem especially important, particularly those relating to the organization of the classroom and the decision-making authority of the teacher Observed in the various cases studied was the fact that the first grade consists of sub-levels which correspond to stages in the process of literacy instruction. These sub-levels make it impossible for a large percentage of students to complete the first grade in less than two years. The sub-levels result from distortions in the implementation of pre-packaged literacy acquisition programmes. The stages specified in the programmes are supposed to be completed in a single year, but, in practice, teachers often devote a single year to a single stage, making repetition inevitable. A second major factor contributing to firstgrade repetition is the power of the teacher to make arbitrary decisions concerning student evaluation and grade,level assignment. In one observed instance, the teacher created a subgroup containing the weakest students which, for the rest of the year, she practically ignored. She then automatically passed everybody in the group, but the following year insisted that they repeat the first grade, since they did not have the ability to advance. This tendency to require passed students to repeat the previous year's grade level was observed in other schools as well.
In every school studied, it was observed that the living standards of the families of successful students were superior to those of families of unsuccessful students. Substantial differences between the two groups were found in the status of the parents' jobs, the ability of families to meet educational expenses, and the availability of someone (parent, sibling or relative) to help the students with their schoolwork. In most instances the parents of the student repeaters had unstable jobs, making the purchase of school material and the use of private tutors virtually impossible. Age/grade distortion In relation to age/grade distortion, the results of the study were as follows. I. The principal cause of age/grade distortion is grade repetition, and not late entrance into school Every student in the sample, save one, entered the first grade at 7 years of age or younger, as officially required. The sampled classes had many who were aged 8 or over, but these were all victims of successive repetition. A number of observed students had already spent three or more years in the first grade.
2. Late entrance into school tends to result from socio-political factors In the case of the one student who entered the school at an age beyond that which is mandated, the father had a job requiring constant residential moves, and he decided to wait until he could settle in Salvador before enrolling his child in school. The father told the researchers, though, that the child had studied with private teachers, and, indeed, this student was categorized in the sample as one likely to succeed (which she did). From the interviews with the parents, director and local educational authorities, it was possible to register additional extra-school 3. Among factors external to the school, those causes of late entrance such as: (a) the need to relating to socio-economic conditions were the have the child, especially a female, stay at most important determinants of grade rep- home to do domestic chores and care for younger siblings; (b) a lack of safety in the etition
Causes of school failure: the case of the state of Bahia in Brazil
walk from home to school; and (c) the nonexistence of nearby schools, especially in rural areas.
565
cramped rooms and made to carry out monotonous, routinized tasks. In only one school were they allowed to engage in activities outside the classroom or permitted any form of In addition to identifyingthe causes summarized recreation. Evaluation at this level was based above, the case-study permitted the observation on written tests, and the failing of pupils was of basic educational procedures within the commonplace. In regard to these findings, it selected schools which undoubtedly had a seems reasonable to conclude that, as currently negative effect on students' classroom per- implemented, pre-school instruction, widely formances. Many of these procedures, it will heralded as a solution for Brazil's problems in be remembered, were also evidenced in the the first grade, is making little or no positive eleven-county survey discussed above. The contribution. It should be noted, in this procedures are: respect, that a large majority of those in the The adoption of curricular proposals and samples of probable drop-outs and repeaters teaching methods which are not adapted to had had pre-school experience. the student's living context, thereby making Before concluding this section, mention contents irrelevant and difficult to teach. should be made of the fact that the case-study The utilization of conservative, unattractive respondents, like those in the survey, were teaching practices, which emphasize mem- asked to give suggestions for remedying the orization to the detriment of actions that problem of school failure. There was, once develop cognitive abilities and stimulate again, general agreement among those quesproductive thinkings. tioned of the need for greater school/family An emphasis on student passivity and activities integration. Adult orientation sessions to enable developed exclusively within the confines parents to do better in helping their children of the classroom. with school-work, information campaigns to A predominance of authoritarian relationships make the community more aware of the imon the part of both the teacher in respect to portance of schooling, direct personal contacts the students and the school in respect to the with parents and drop-out children, and greater community. utilization of parent/teacher meetings were all A reliance on poorly qualified teachers and, in seen as ways to obtain this integration. Other particular, the use of uncertified personnel recommendations made by the respondents (often lacking even a secondary education) included the distribution of free school main the initial grades of the primary level. terials, the elimination of school fees, the In addition to the systematic accompaniment of development of a curriculum more relevant to the regular first-grade classes, the research local realities, the upgrading of teachers through team also observed pre-school sessions in the both improved teacher-training schools and four schools visited. These observations re- more in-service training, the implementation vealed that, surprisingly, the teaching methods of student counselling, tutorial services and and learning contents encountered in the first after-hours reading groups, the creation of grade are also predominant at the pre-school classes more homogeneous in terms of student level. Pre-school children, like their more age and ability, and the use of accelerated advanced counterparts, were being taught learning for students entering school late. the mechanics of reading and writing, while the development of skills related to motor co-ordination, visual and auditive discrimination and processes of analysis and synthesis was given little attention. These children, in most cases 5 or 6 years old, were kept in small,
566
Robert E. Verhine and Aria Maria Pita de Melo
Final remarks
of a broad programme of social transformation designed to improve the living conditions of the population as a whole. 9
In response to a request from the Bahian Secretariat of Education, the research team proposed a list of recommendations to attenuate the problem of first-grade failure in the state's Appendix public schools. This list is presented in the Recommendations of research team Appendix to this article and, naturally, it is for reducing rates of school failure in public schools based on the findings of the two-year study in the state of Bahia, Brazil presented in the preceding pages. This list Distribution of teachers in accordance with real parallels, in large part, the suggestions made needs of school, eliminating the excess of teachers by the study's respondents and, due to the in city-centre schools and schools in high SES nature of the soliciting organ, it is limited to neighbourhoods and the lack of teachers in schools policies which can be implemented within the in rural areas and poor neighbonrhoods. present social, economic and political context. Placement of teachers working full time in a single Thus, at best, adoption of the proposed modischool, because permanence in one establishment should enable teachers better to understand the fications constitute no more than a point of local context and work more closely with students, departure. parents and school personnel. Two fundamental considerations must be Establishment of a more rigorous system for contaken into account when evaluating these trolling matriculation, attendance and s t u d e n t recommendations. First, the causes of primaryevaluation, using, if possible, the state's computer school failure are, in the main, external to the system, in order to avoid the distortions provoked school, lodged in social conditions which by the lack of information concerning: student often make school attendance unattractive transfers; simultaneous matriculation in more than and/or impossible. This, however, does not one school; classification of old students and new mean that the school system is exempt from ones; and alterations in end-of-term evaluations at the outset of the following semester. blame and helpless in t h e search for solutions to the problems that confront it. Schools must Promotion of in-service teacher-training, as training during vacation time, outside the local context, has seek to adapt themselves better to the needs failed to produce necessary improvements in inof those t h e y serve and the contexts in which struction. they function. They must: (a) promote closer Elaboration of curriculum proposals by teachers, ties with family and community; (b) ensure that specialists and community representatives, in order teachers are of a high calibre; (c) improve the to contextualize and make locally relevant inadministration of school-lunch programmes; structional contents. and (d) provide services and materials free of Gradual substitution of uncertified teachers from pre-school and initial grade classes with qualified charge to those unable to pay. teachers, especially in the field of literacy inThe second consideration is that, in the struction. final analysis, in-school reforms must be intiImprovement of salaries of public-school teachers and mately linked to complementary interventions development of career ladders based on certifiin areas such as health, nutrition, employment, cation, experience and demonstrated competence. housing, salary levels and the like. In this Provision of equipment and materials necessary for sense, the school must be viewed as part of a the teaching and learning process. social network in which change occurs only Adoption of a policy of pre-school education that when policies are multi-sectorial, articulated integrates this level with subsequent grades and and mutually reinforcing. Thus, efforts to offers a basis for comprehensive literacy instruction. reduce first-grade drop-out, repetition and Clear definition of responsibilities distinguishing preschool from first-grade instruction. age/grade distortion must be an integral part
C a u s e s o f school failure: t h e case o f t h e State o f Bahia in Brazil
Execution of major plant maintenance and recupera t i o n activities d u r i n g vacation t i m e , t h e r e b y d i m i n i s h i n g t h e d i s t u r b a n c e o f n o r m a l school activities. R e g u l a r d i s t r i b u t i o n o f school l u n c h e s , e x t e n d i n g t h i s p r o g r a m m e to all o f t h e s t a t e ' s p u b l i c schools. F r e e p r o v i s i o n o f school m a t e r i a l s to all s t u d e n t s i n p u b l i c p r i m a r y schools. Installation, in c o n j u n c t i o n w i t h t h e Secretary o f l u s t i c e , o f civil registration p o s t s in r u r a l schools, to facilitate t h i s m a n d a t o r y registration for t h o s e d i s t a n t f r o m t h e p o s t s w h i c h n o w exist o n l y in t o w n s a n d cities. E l i m i n a t i o n o f obligatory school u n i f o r m s . Promotion of school/family/community integration, through meetings, individual contacts, information c a m p a i g n s a n d p a r e n t a l o r i e n t a t i o n sessions~ i n o r d e r to m a k e i n s t r u c t i o n m o r e locally relevant a n d to enlist p a r e n t s in t h e effort to keep c h i l d r e n i n school,
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