Relationship between socioeconomic status and academic performance

Relação entre condição socioeconômica e rendimento acadêmico.

The Technical Courses in Brazil had a large increase in the supply of vacancies since 2002, when the federal government began investing in education monitoring. To expand the vacancies, the existing structure in the old federal Centers for Technical–CEFET Education was used. These centers were transformed into the Federal Institutes of Science and Technology, which allows the creation of a new structure, more dynamic and complete. Within this proposal, in 2008, the CEFET–Nilópolis became Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of the State of Rio de Janeiro–IFRJ. It currently has 11 campuses located throughout the State of Rio de Janeiro. The Campus IFRJ–Arraial do Cabo was established in 2006 and has technical courses of Environment and Information Technology. The Technical Computer Program, integrated to the high school, was established in 2011. Since its implementation –even taking various measures that contribute to academic performance–, this course has shown a high number of disapproval/retention. Given this reality, it became necessary to investigate the relationship between socioeconomic status and academic performance. To carry out this study, we used data collected through semi-structured interviews with students and a documentary survey of the School Registry. The analysis indicates that the greater economic and social inclusion, the better academic performance. Therefore, it points to the need to invest in social and educational policies that recognize the socioeconomic characteristics of these students, respecting the limitations and possibilities identified.