School transportation program as means to improve public education in a minor rural town in Northeastern Brazil

Abstract School transportation is crucial for access and permanence of students at school, in rural areas. The Brazilian government has funded school transport programs to support municipalities. This research aims to analyze if these programs are perceived as effective in small rural municipalities. Seeking this objective, a survey was carried out among students and teachers. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted to test the results. In the quantitative analysis, it is observed that the majority of students are very pleased, being regularity/punctuality the best-evaluated criterion. Teachers believe punctuality has improved, school evasion has decreased, and school performance has increased. In a combined analysis, the evaluations carried out by teachers regarding school evasion and performance presents a significant relationship with regularity/punctuality assessed by students. In the qualitative analysis, a grouping of ideas highlighted comfort, safety, civility and punctuality as positive, while most-cited negative points were overcrowding, lack of organization and discomfort.