Who are the students of state schools of vocational education in Ceará?

A study about the socio-economic profile

Abstract

From 2008 begins in Ceará the construction of a state policy on vocational education aimed at the integration between vocational education and regular high school, echoing with national discussions and laws. The implementation of State Schools of Vocational Education (SSVEs) occurs with different financing and own process of selecting students and teachers. Several educational indicators demonstrate improved student achievement in these schools compared to students of all the state regular high schools. The aim of this paper is to present a socio-economic profile of students of SSVEs and make that presentation compared to the profile of their peers in regular public schools. This profile is shown from the data of ENEM Socioeconomic Questionnaire, issues 2012 and 2013, provided in micro-data form by the Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais Anísio Teixeira (INEP) and supplemented by general information on the dynamics and functioning of SSVEs, obtained through interviews with families and coordinators of three such schools in Fortaleza. The contextualization of who these students, especially in comparative terms, is an important element for analysis within the sociological approach to education, opening track on relations with school performance.