Educação Infantil em contexto de Pandemia (COVID-19): direito ao cuidado e à educação da criança pequena no município de Uberlândia

Abstract

This research is linked to the line of research “State, Policies and Management in Education” of the Post-Graduate Program in Education [PPGED] at the Faculty of Education [FACED] of the Federal University of Uberlândia [UFU]. Its objective is to analyze the public policies deliberated in the municipality of Uberlândia that directly or indirectly affected the right of small children to care and education in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Regarding methodology, the research is based on the assumptions of qualitative investigation, with bibliographic and documentary research procedures. The bibliographic research was conducted using the Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations [BDTD], the Catalog of Theses and Dissertations of Capes, the Repository of the Federal University of Uberlândia, the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) Brazil and Capes Journals, with a temporal range of 2012 to 2022. The documentary research selected documents published between March 2020, the beginning of the pandemic, and November 2022, the time of publication of official documents by the municipality of Uberlândia. We selected notes, letters, and reports issued by the Municipal Education Secretariat [SME], as well as epidemiological bulletins and news reports published during the delimited period. The analytical approach is based on Bardin's (2016) content analysis. The research showed that public policies to ensure the constitutional precept of care and education as a right for all were not effectively guaranteed by the State, as there were gaps, delays and inconsistencies in policies aimed at assisting families in promoting the rights of the small children to care and education, especially during the closure of Early Childhood Education institutions. The State's limitations in such policies resulted in the sole transfer of responsibility to families, even those with greater vulnerabilities. In the absence or limitation of coordinated policies and actions between federal entities to ensure conditions of care/life and education, whether during quarantine or the return to face-to-face educational activities, existing injustices and inequalities in the country were reinforced. The discussion of the right to education and care for small children and public policies for Early Childhood Education in the pandemic context is important in reclaiming the historical sense of the conquest of social rights, where the State must ensure them and understand the risks that the political and social context experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic represents for achieving the right that defines children and their families as citizens. Therefore, the State must ensure conditions for facing a health crisis, as well as promoting educational public policies that prioritize support to collaborate with the capacity of families so that they can fulfill the socio-political and pedagogical function to promote the integral development to which the child is entitled.