O ensino público tecnológico em Santa Maria – RS: clientes e expectativas

Abstract

The objective of this work is to know the reasons and expectations that took students on seeking public technological schools, at secondary and post-secondary levels, in Santa Maria– RS. The schools participated in this study were: the State Highschool, secondary level, Professora Maria Rocha with technical courses in Secretary, Accounting and Computer Science; the Industrial Technical School with technical courses in Electrotechnical, Industrial Automation, Mechanics and Work Safety; the Agricultural Technical School, with technical courses in Geomática, Gardening, Administration, Computer science, Agriculture and Agroindustry. The procedure adopted in data collection was through a questionnaire, elaborated with closed and open subjects. The questionnaire was applied on the second semester of 2003 to all students of the participating schools. The study showed that most of the students came from Santa Maria and its neighboring municipals. Most of those students' families have their own home. The students of higher age group and highest average personal income are from Professora Maria Rocha Highschool. While the highest average family income is from the Industrial Technical School´s students. Most of the parents have incomplete fundamental education, although some parents of students in Eletrotechnical, Work Safety, Geomática, Administration, Gardening and Agriculture have Master's and Doctoral degrees. These parents have diverse professions and that they do not require higher education. The reason that many students seeked technical courses at the Professora Maria Rocha Highschool is that they could not afford to pay private tuition fees, and they also needed to improve their skills for job market. This was not the reason for some students of the federal technical schools, they took their course because they did not passed their university entrance examinations and while waiting for the next ones they took technical courses. For others, because they wanted to get into the job market faster. However the expectation for all students was to improve themselves in order to enter or to stay in the job market.