I go by bus”: the role of the Rondônia State Prosecutor’s Office in the defense of public-school transport
Access to education; Public Prosecutor’s Office; Public School Transport; Student rights.
The present research investigates the structure, instruments and forms of judicial and extrajudicial action of the Rondônia State Prosecutor’s Office (MPRO) in the defense of public-school transport and in guaranteeing access to schools in the rural area of the municipality of Porto Velho, in the State of Rondônia, through the Public Prosecutor's Office for Education. Its general objective is to find a methodology for the action of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, as to ensure, in an equitable way, the distribution of resources to guarantee rural school public transport, in order to promote social inclusion, minimize school dropout and guarantee access to school with social quality. In this sense, the problem that underlies the studies is - how can the MPRO act judicially and extrajudicially so that the municipality of Porto Velho guarantees, in the form of the law, school transport as a right of the student and a State obligation? The research is justified by the concern for the rights of students, considering that from 2016 onwards, there was a worsening of the crisis in the supply of public-school transport in the rural area of the municipality, which prevented thousands of students from attending school. Mainly between the years 2017 and 2020, there was a drop of 36.73% in the number of enrollments in the affected schools. With a qualitative approach method, of an applied and exploratory nature, the study uses the bibliographic, jurisprudential and documental research techniques, data collection and case study. After approaching the structure and forms of action of the Rondônia State Prosecutor’s Office in the defense of society and public education, through its branch situated in Porto Velho, the study addresses the right to education with social quality and public transport as a consequence of the right to education. The study is focused on the rural area of the Municipality. After identifying the rural schools and their location, this paper deals with the public transport crisis between the years 2016 and 2020, and then addresses the role of the education prosecutor in this scenario and the existing challenges in achieving the right to education and the availability of public-school transport, as a mission of the Rondônia State Prosecutor’s Office. It analyzes the application of the precepts of the Brasilia Charter as a method adopted by the MPRO as a solution to some of the problems identified. With a purposeful nature, the need to adopt a new model or a new way of acting for the MPRO is discussed. As a result, it presents a proposal for a resolution that seeks to guide the performance of members of the Prosecutor’s Office in the educational field, with the use of information technologies, through systems or applications, in order to build a system of guardianship capable of eliminating inequalities and repairing the educational losses caused to students from the rural area of Porto Velho by the lack of public-school transport.