scholarly journals Sixty years of the National Food Program in Brazil

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosana Maria NOGUEIRA ◽  
Bruna BARONE ◽  
Thiara Teixeira de BARROS ◽  
Kátia Regina Leoni Silva Lima de Queiroz GUIMARÃES ◽  
Nilo Sérgio Sabbião RODRIGUES ◽  
...  

School meals were introduced in the Brazilian political agenda by a group of scholars known as nutrition scientists' in the 1940s. In 1955, the Campanha de Merenda Escolar, the first official school food program, was stablished, and sixty years after its inception, school food in Brazil stands as a decentralised public policy, providing services to students enrolled in public schools, which involve the Brazilian federal government, twentyseven federative units, and their 5,570 municipalities. Throughout its history, school food has gone through many stages that reflect the social transformations in Brazil: from a campaign to implement school food focused on the problem of malnutrition and the ways to solve it, to the creation of a universal public policy relying on social participation and interface between other modern, democratic, and sustainable policies, establishing a strategy for promoting food and nutrition security, development, and social protection. In this article, the School Food Program is analyzed from the perspective of four basic structures that support it as public policy: the formal structure, consisting of legal milestones that regulated the program; substantive structure, referring to the public and private social actors involved; material structure, regarding the way in which Brazil sponsors the program; and finally, the symbolic structure, consisting of knowledge, values, interests, and rules that legitimatize the policy.

Author(s):  
Mary-Michelle Upson Hirschoff

Not since the 1920s has our society faced so much controversy about public policy toward private elementary and secondary schools. Then, the major issue was whether private schools should be allowed to exist as alternatives to public schools. That issue was resolved in Pierce v. Society of Sisters, in which the Supreme Court upheld the right of parents to choose private schooling, and thus foreclosed a public monopoly. Today, our mixed system of private and public elementary and secondary education confronts increasing pressures for both fiscal and regulatory change. Most prominent in public debate are proposals for tuition tax credits and voucher systems and challenges to government regulation of private school teacher qualifications, curriculum, and admission practices (especially as the latter affect racial segregation). Two major public policy issues have replaced the issue of whether private schooling should exist at all: (1) To what extent should government encourage or discourage the choice of private schooling, that is, what balance between public and private schooling should government try to achieve? (2) What differences between private and public schooling should government promote or prohibit? Despite this change in emphasis, todays debates echo those of the 1920s in many respects. Just as the proponents of the 1920s laws restricting private schools feared that those schools would harm efforts to Americanize the children of immigrants, some argue today that private schools exacerbate social, economic, racial, religious, and ethnic divisions within the society and that aiding private schools will increase such undesirable effects. Now, as then, advocates of private schooling rest their arguments on the rights of parents to direct their children's education and on the benefits to society of diversity in schooling. Most dispute claims that private schools increase social stratification to any greater degree than do the public schools or that they are less effective in creating good citizens. One of the major factors that distinguishes today's debates from those of the 1920s is the greater attention paid to the impact of private schools on the quality of education.


2021 ◽  
pp. 2633190X2110346
Author(s):  
Jyotsna Jha

This article focuses on the issue of the public policy choice of the medium of instruction in public schools in India, taking the high demand for English-medium school education into consideration. Building on the available literature and evidence, the article argues against the introduction of English as a singular medium of instruction in school education. The introduction of English in public and private low-cost schools is not helping children in attaining any proficiency in English. The use of English also adversely impacts their capacity to learn other subjects well. The article argues for the adoption of the translanguaging philosophy and multilingual approach to address all objectives that drive the choice of a particular medium of instruction: gaining proficiency in the said languages, ability to communicate well using those languages, using those languages to learn other subjects, making schools inclusive by including diverse home languages present in school education and enabling diverse languages to flourish by promoting their learning and usage in formal schools. This requires a reform in institutional approaches and capacity building but does not necessarily imply additional burden. Certain parts of the world have adopted these approaches successfully and learning from them. Indian states can device their own approaches taking local contexts and realities into account.


2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariene Silva do Carmo ◽  
Maíra Macário de Assis ◽  
Cristiane de Freitas Cunha ◽  
Tatiana Resende Prado Rangel de Oliveira ◽  
Larissa Loures Mendes

Abstract: This study’s aim was to characterize the food environment of Brazilian public and private schools. This was a national school-based cross-sectional study with 1,247 schools - among which 81.09% were public and 18.91% were private - in 124 Brazilian municipalities. The data originated from the Questionnaire on Aspects of the School Environment, used in the Study of Cardiovascular Risk in Adolescents (ERICA) in 2013 and 2014. Data analysis was conducted in 2017. The chi-square test was used to compare proportions. A greater proportion of public schools offered school meals (98.15%) in comparison to private schools (8.07%) (p < 0.001). The internal sale of food and beverages was more prevalent in private schools (97.75% vs. 45.06%, p < 0.001). Also, sale and advertisement of processed and ultra-processed foods (sodas, cookies, savory snacks, sandwiches and pizza), as well as the presence of vending machines for industrialized products (18.02% vs. 4%) (p < 0.001) were more common in private schools. Street vendors at the school gate or surroundings were identified in 41.32% of the public schools and 47.75% of the private schools (p > 0.05). These findings reveal the predominance of obesogenic environments mainly in private schools, and can contribute to the design of Brazilian public policies to promote a healthy school food environment.


Author(s):  
Shawna Holmes

This paper examines the changes to procurement for school food environments in Canada as a response to changes to nutrition regulations at the provincial level. Interviews with those working in school food environments across Canada revealed how changes to the nutrition requirements of foods and beverages sold in schools presented opportunities to not only improve the nutrient content of the items made available in school food environments, but also to include local producers and/or school gardens in procuring for the school food environment. At the same time, some schools struggle to procure nutritionally compliant foods due to increased costs associated with transporting produce to rural, remote, or northern communities as well as logistic difficulties like spoilage. Although the nutrition regulations have facilitated improvements to food environments in some schools, others require more support to improve the overall nutritional quality of the foods and beverages available to students at school.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6197
Author(s):  
Adriana Florina Popa ◽  
Stefania Amalia Jimon ◽  
Delia David ◽  
Daniela Nicoleta Sahlian

Social protection systems are a key factor for ensuring the long-term sustainability and stability of economies in the European Union, their reform being nowadays present in the political agenda of member states. Aging and the dependence on mandatory levies applied to the employed population on the labor market represent a threat for the sustainability of public social protection systems. In terms of sustainability, our purpose was to highlight the factors influencing social insurance budgets, considering the fiscal policies implemented in six countries of Central and Eastern Europe and their particular labor market characteristics. Therefore, a panel study based on a regression model using the Ordinary Least Squares method (OLS) with cross section random effects was used to determine the correlations between funding sources and labor market specific indicators. The data analyzed led to relevant results that emphasize the dependence of social insurance budgets on positive factors such as the average level of salaries, the share of compulsory social contributions, the unemployment rate, and the human development index, suggesting the continuing need for professional and personal development of the workforce.


2010 ◽  
pp. 92-112
Author(s):  
Franco Prina

The socio-legal perspective on the alcohol legislation, including the norms concerned with the relationship between individuals and alcoholic drinks, helps answering some essentials questions: what was/is the "social construction" of the alcohol problem in different eras and different cultures and, consequently, which objectives are deemed to be worthy of pursuit through the creation or amendment of legislation? Which social actors have the ability, in a given period of time, to inscribe the relevance of innovative alcohol legislation on the political agenda and what kind of dialectic is used among those who champion points of view, competences and above all, different interests? Which interests and values would appear to meet with legislatory protection time after time? What tools, of the ample range available, are chosen to achieve the aims set out? To what extent is legislation implemented (or not implemented), and why? Which aspects of the implementation process prove to be most significant, i.e. define the actual content of the legislation "in force", and are therefore tangibly experienced by the law's end target? How much of an impact does legislation have on behavior which is subject to regulation or on problems which stem from such behavior?


2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (16) ◽  
pp. 2980-2987 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katelyn M Godin ◽  
Violeta Chacón ◽  
Joaquin Barnoya ◽  
Scott T Leatherdale

AbstractObjectiveThe current study sought to examine Guatemalan adolescents’ consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB), identify which individual-level characteristics are associated with SSB consumption and describe school characteristics that may influence students’ SSB consumption.DesignWithin this observational pilot study, a questionnaire was used to assess students’ consumption of three varieties of SSB (soft drinks, energy drinks, sweetened coffees/teas), as well as a variety of sociodemographic and behavioural characteristics. We collected built environment data to examine aspects of the school food environment. We developed Poisson regression models for each SSB variety and used descriptive analyses to characterize the sample.SettingGuatemala City, Guatemala.SubjectsGuatemalan adolescents (n1042) from four (two public, two private) secondary schools.ResultsBuilt environment data revealed that students from the two public schools lacked access to water fountains/coolers. The SSB industry had a presence in the schools through advertisements, sponsored food kiosks and products available for sale. Common correlates of SSB consumption included school type, sedentary behaviour, frequency of purchasing lunch in the cafeteria, and frequency of purchasing snacks from vending machines in school and off school property.ConclusionsGuatemalan adolescents frequently consume SSB, which may be encouraged by aspects of the school environment. Schools represent a viable setting for equitable population health interventions designed to reduce SSB consumption, including increasing access to clean drinking-water, reducing access to SSB, restricting SSB marketing and greater enforcement of existing food policies.


2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 95
Author(s):  
Tariq William Odeh ◽  
Mohammad Saleem Al Zboon

The present study aimed at identifying the extent of practicing social interaction skills by Jordanian elementary school students in accordance with Carl Orff’s approach to music education. The study’s population consists from all the male and female music teachers who teach at primary levels in public and private Jordanian schools (i.e. 350 female and male teachers). In order to collect the required data, the researchers developed a questionnaire that consists from 50 statements.It was concluded that the level of practicing the social interaction skills by Jordanian elementary school students is low from the perspective of the sampled teachers. That is because the total arithmetic mean is 1.80. As for the total standard deviation, it is 0.71. In addition, the means of all the questionnaire statements are within the moderate and low levels. In the light of the study’s results, the researchers recommend the following:Promoting the role of the music education at private and public schools. The researchers also recommend providing all the necessary means and instruments for facilitating and improving the educational processHolding more training courses for teachers regularly by the ministry of education about the music education strategies and methods.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-6
Author(s):  
Prof. univ. dr. habil. Mihaela Rus ◽  
Lect. univ. dr. Mihaela Sandu ◽  
Tanase Tasente

We can talk about public policies when a public authority - central or local - intends, with the help of a coordinated action program, to modify the economic, social, cultural environment of social actors. At national level, public policies can appear from any of the major state institutions (Parliament, President, Government, central or local authorities). The study of public policies is different from the traditional academic research, having an applied approach, oriented towards: (1) designing and developing solutions for the problems of society, (2) Interdisciplinarity, (3) Orientation towards problem solving: it does not have a purely academic character, but it is oriented towards the problems of the real world, looking for solutions for them, (4) Normativity. The general stages of this process are as follows: (1) defining the problem, (2) making the decision, (3) implementation of public policy, (4) monitoring and evaluation of public policy.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Cohen-Woods ◽  
Rachel Laattoe

Background: School uniform options such as skirts and dresses can impact physical activity and psychological wellbeing of girls. Restrictions that exclude trousers/pants or shorts as uniform options for girls can promote inequality in comfort and engagement in school activities. The South Australian Department of Education and Child Development (DECD) School Dress Code Procedure mandates school dress codes provide flexible uniform options with the right to choice, regardless of gender. This review examines public school adherence to DECD guidelines, and compares girls’ uniform options between public and private school sectors.Method: The proportion of girls shorts and pants/trouser options provided in school uniform policies collated in 2018 were compared across 486 public and 193 private primary, secondary, and combined schools within South Australia. Policies were grouped based on the choice they provided girls for shorts, and separately for trousers/pants. The groups were gender specific choice/open choice, unisex choice, restricted choice, or no option.Results: Overall, 98.6% of public and 26.4% of private school policies included shorts as a uniform option for girls. Of these schools, about nine in ten public, and just over half private, policies listed gender-specific or open choice shorts options. All public primary and high schools, and a majority of combined schools (98.8%) provided girls pants/trouser options, with 93.4% providing gender specific or open choices. This compared to 34.2% of private school policies including girls’ pants options. In total less than 1.0% of public, and 45.5% to 66.7% of private schools provide no opportunity for girls to wear shorts every day. Similarly, 56.0% of private schools do not provide any trouser/pant option.Conclusion: The results highlight a small proportion of public schools fail to follow mandated uniform policy procedures set by the DECD, specifically in context of shorts. Moreover, this report clearly demonstrates the discrepancy in girls’ uniform options between the public and private school sectors. We present suggestions and recommendations with the aim to improve current policy, as well as a need to advance adherence to policy and South Australian anti-discrimination legislation in public and particularly private schools.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document