SPACE DISTRIBUTION OF SCHOOLS AND DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF STUDENTS OF BASIC EDUCATION OF NATAL / RIO GRANDE DO NORTE / BRAZIL

The distribution of municipal public schools in the municipality of Natal underwent a transformation process in recent years with the reform and construction of new schools as well as the installation of classroom equipment and enlargements, libraries and sports courts to meet the population in the age group from 6 to 14 years. In this context, the objective of this work is to analyze the spatial distribution of schools and the demographic profile of the school population of the 9th grade students in the municipal education network of Natal/RN. The database is composed of the school population of 8 elementary schools, distributed in the four administrative regions of the capital. Data was taken from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), referring to the geographic, sociodemographic and educational aspects and data from the school census of 2011/2013/2015. Information about the individual record and the student's academic record provided by the schools were also used. As for the methodological aspects related to the processing and spatialization of information, it was done using Google Maps and Google Earth softwares and, for the statistical treatment, SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Science) was also used. The results show that a significant portion of the school population of the municipal school network is formed by students residing in the municipalities bordering the city. The school located in the center of the capital, comprises the largest population and population dispersion, covering students from virtually all neighborhoods of the city and neighboring municipalities: Extremoz to the north, Macaiba and Sao Gonzalo do Amarante to the west and Parnamirim to the south of Natal. The school population, in general, concentrates in the surroundings of each one of the schools, with a higher prevalence for 3 schools: two in the western zone and one in the northern zone. For the schools that presented the highest Index of Basic Education Development (Ideb), students come from a greater proportion of the eastern and southern regions, and as for those who exhibited the smaller Ideb present greater prevalence for the northern and western regions. School performance and socioeconomic analysis of the students showed that the socioeconomic conditions of the administrative regions and the neighborhoods influenced the students' school performance. To that end, it is suggested that schools that did not reach a satisfactory Ideb should be given more attention in order to improve the students' school performance, aiming at more adequate conditions to provide a quality education, respecting the heterogeneity and individuality of the school community. However, these results have important implications for the educational management of the municipality.