ABSTRACT
The article presents an analysis of the 26 municipalities that compose the Metropolitan Region of Maringá City (MRM) - Paraná State, Brazil, regarding the compliance of goal number 1 of the Brazilian National Education Plan (NEP). It aims to highlight the inequality and the size of the municipalities’ challenge. Thus, the study used the microdata of the Brazilian Demographic Census / IBGE 2010, and Brazilian School Census / Inep 2010 and 2016 as well as data from the Brazilian population estimate for 2016 provided by IBGE. The ‘attendance rate’, ‘net enrollment rate’, ‘percentage of variation of enrollments 2010-2016’ and ‘Demand for new enrollments and classes’ for each municipality were calculated. The results show: i. a significant inequality of access to education for children from 0 to 5 years of age among municipalities; ii. an expansion in the period from 2010 to 2016 of 5,099 enrollments (40%) for children from 0 to 3 years of age and 2,080 enrollments (12.2%) for children of 4 and 5 years of age; and that, after the expansion in 2016, iii. almost all municipalities were close to meeting the goal of universal access for children in pre-school age, however, for children from 0 to 3 years of age, seven municipalities were below the target of 50% defined by the NEP. The diversified framework identified in the MRM regarding the access of children from 0 to 5 years of age to education reinforces, therefore, the importance of monitoring access indicators to guide the planning and management of educational policies in municipalities.
Keywords:
Early Childhood Education; Brazilian National Education Plan; Inequality of access; Educational indicators; Educational Policies