Social control in the Brazilian school environment: strengthening is necessary

Abstract

The School Food Council (CAE) is a deliberative, supervisory, and advisory body of the Brazilian National School Feeding Program (PNAE). This study was aimed at proposing a model to strengthen CAE performance. The research was carried out with CAE members of a municipality in the central region of Rio Grande do Sul State, south Brazil. The study consisted of the following phases: diagnosis to make a profile of the Council members; participation in the meetings and reading of the minutes; interventions (training, interview with school principals, elaboration of the assessment instrument, school visits, and development and validation of software); and evaluation of the interventions. Despite the low participation of the counsellors, strengthening of CAE in this municipality was achieved; all actions carried out along the work were useful to help and guide the members to have a good, correct and effective performance within the Council and during school visits and assessments. Based on the current study, further work addressing this issue in municipalities of different sizes is suggested so that more specific comparison and analysis of CAE performance in Brazil are possible.