POLÍTICAS DE EDUCAÇÃO INFANTIL NO MUNICÍPIO DE ITUMBIARA: AVANÇOS, PERMANÊNCIAS E TENSÕES

Abstract

This research aims to explore The Educational Policies for Children in the city of Itumbiara after the Federal Constitution of 1988 , considering the progresses and challenges, with the main goal of investigating the public policies applied by the Municipal Secretary of Education towards Early Childhood Education as defined by the LDB - Lei de Diretrizes e Bases - 9394/1996. We try to point out that the Centro Municipal de Educação Infantil - CMEI has to be more then a place that simply overlooks children's physical care and protection, but also as an institution where the education outside the child's home begins, which is a right of the kid, a duty of the State and an option to the family. We start our work with a historical analysis of Early Childhood Education in Brazil and Goiás, specifically the public policies for children's education after the approval of the Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação Nacional (LDB) law. After that initial step, we analyze the policies for children's education in the city of Itumbiara. We use a qualitative approach, investigating the transformations occurred throughout the process from various sources, such as: 1) document analysis, 2) observation of institutions, 3) informal interviews with SME managers and several professionals working at the CMEIs. This qualitative approach revealed itself as the ideal path to penetrate and comprehend the meaning of speeches, values, perceptions, desires, needs and actions done by the professionals involved in child education, not only as a transitional process but also in a day-to-day basis of the institution, understanding what should promote integral development of the child in the pedagogical practice. In that sense, we analyzed legal and official documents of the Municipal Secretary of Education and Municipal Council of Education and the Political-Pedagogical Projects of the twelve child education instutions of the municipality, as well as the projects developed there. Approximately ten visits were made to each CMEI, to check functioning conditions and work done in each institution and the municipal educational network as a wholoe. Early Childhood Education in the city of Itumbiara has advanced rapidly to adequate itself to the current legislation, aiming to improve child and family care in the form of available places in institutions, capable professionals and adequate physical structure. There are projects to build more CMEIs in order to meet increasing demand. As challenges still pending to be overcome, we can point out the low variety of service models. The predominant model is service to children of ages 0 to 4 during the whole day, but children aged 5 and onwards are attended only part-time. According to current legislation (LDB - Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação Nacional, Law number 9394/1996), teachers with at least undergraduate degrees are demanded. Most of the teachers have a Bachelor in Arts pedagogy degree. Alongside the children's education professionals there is also a multiprofessional team comprised of nutritionists, social assistants, psicologists and phonoaudiologists.