O efeito da ampliação da carga horária escolar sobre o desempenho dos discentes mineiros do ensino fundamental

Abstract

Currently, the claim according to which education provides several positive points for economic development is a common understanding. Based on this consensus, this work intends to verify the effects of the lengthening of school day on the performance of elementary school students from Minas Gerais municipalities. In order to measure students’ school performance, we considered data on pass and dropout rate as well as the average score obtained by each municipality in Prova Brasil. For this purpose, we estimated models with panel data, applying Fixed Effects on 2011, 2013, and 2015 years. The results were more robust when considering the 9th year. Positive effects were found on language scores in 5th and 9th graders, but when control variables were included in the analysis the variable of interest was not significant to explain the test scores. When it comes to Math scores, the lengthening of school day showed a negative impact in 5th grade but not in 9th. Positive effects were also found on the pass rate in both grades. Regarding the dropout rate, the effect was negative for 5th grade and positive for 9th, i.e., the results show that the increase in study load reduces the dropout rate in the 5th grade, but increases the same rate in the 9th grade.