Assistência estudantil na educação profissional:Análise da Efetivação da Política no IFRN Campus Natal - Cidade Alta

Abstract

This final paper is about the Student Assistance Policy’s effectiveness and Social Work’s insertion and performance in this socio-occupational space, considering the particularity of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Rio Grande do Norte (IFRN), Campus Natal - Cidade Alta. It is understood that Student Assistance is a primordial mecanism when it comes to the realization of the constitutional right to education, and in this sense, the social worker plays a prominent role in the operationalization of programs - in the areas of transportation, food, professional initiation and housing – that are the main focus of Student Assistance Policy, nationally regulated by the National Program of Student Assistance (PNAES). We point out that this policy, so necessary in student’s life, is permeated by a focused and selective perspective, that filters the access through multiple selection/eligibility criteria when it should be provided to all those who need it. We conducted bibliographical and documentary research based on literary review and analysis of institutional documents, legislation, state regulations, among others, that covers the main theme in order to achieve the main objective of analyzing the process of the effectiveness of Student Assistance Policy in the daily life of the students from this school, contextualizing the social worker’s insertion and relevance in this process and; the specific objectives of identifying the proportion between the number of vacancies offered in the Student Assistance programs and the number of enrolled and contemplated in the selection, reflect on the impacts of spending cuts on Social Policies and how Student Assistance and its users are affected and, reveal the contradictions that exist in the daily routine of the social worker by performing the function of selecting students for inclusion in the Student Assistance’s programs. Throught this investigation we verified that Student Assistance expands along with the expansion of the Federal Institutes, however, as so many others social policies, it also suffers from the neoliberal tendency that leads to fragmentation, focus and selectivity. Therefore, we understand that the social worker's work in vocational education is a practice allied to students’ interests, aiming to expand the access and promote permanence actions.