INVESTIGAÇÃO DAS CAUSAS DO FRACASSO ESCOLAR NAS ESCOLAS PÚBLICAS DA ZONA URBANA DA CIDADE DE RIO GRANDE

Abstract

Abstract- The study examined the causes of school failure related to the child and his/her familiar environment, identifying the prevalence and diversity of problems that lead to failure in the initial grades. It involved parents, teachers and students, enabling the researcher to have an ample vision about the school-failure. Outline of the study was characterized by a cross-sectional study of cases and controls, at a school level. Children of first and second grade from public schools of the urban area from the city of Rio Grande- RS, Brazil participated in the study. The sample comprised 614 students (307 in each group), excluding the children with history of mental disorder and/or who have special needs. The groups were paired by the following criteria: being in the same classroom in 2002, have approximately same age, same gender and living in the same neighborhood. Analyses were conducted by chi-square test and multivariate conditional logistic regression. The analysed variables were related to the socioeconomic level, school performance, individual development and family characteristics. The studied variables which showed to be significant were: families with low income, low level of education of parents, difficulties in Reading Writing Arithmetics, low marks in Portuguese and/or Mathematics. The hypothesis that the school failure is associated with sociodemographic factors, familiar characteristics, as well as characteristics of the student was confirmed. We hope that the institutions in the city of Rio Grande will keep the data about failure in mind, taking some action to minimize it, considering all factors that are involved