Educação a Distância (EAD) e formação de capital humano: um estudo sobre contribuições do curso de Geografia da UNEB para o município de Camaçari-Ba

Abstract

This document presents the research “Distance Education and Human Capital Formation: a study on the Bahia State University’s (UNEB) geography under-graduate contributions to the municipality of Camaçari – Bahia”, concerning the impact of education on development. The main aim is to analyze human capital formation proposed by UNEB’s geography course, showing how teach-er formation in the geography articulates itself with the municipality develop-ment. The research main justification is based on the evaluation of a distance learning model, capable of accessing remote places in Brazil, offering knowledge and human capital formation, which, if well applied, is a fertile ground for localities development. Using a timeframe from 2011 to 2020, the methodological analysis follows pertinent legislation research, which regu-lates distance education and teacher training, as well as bibliographical and descriptive research of this social fact. The research strategic technical proce-dure used exploratory Case Study method, allowing the investigation to re-spect holistic aspects of real-life events, in line with the contemporary theme of this research. Data collection and apprehension used the following instru-ments: systematic observation and an online questionnaire with open and re-lated closed questions. Main results revealed that more than 80% of under-graduates stay in the city at the end of the course and more than 70% of the class have education as their training area and are working in high school. This training articulates itself with municipality development, improving the educational quality index from 4.2 in secondary education final grades (IDEB, 2019). Additionally, after the course graduation and before the COVID19 pandemic, 38.9% of students had an increase in their income, 95% perceived that the course has increased personal and professional qualification. This per-spective confirms Human Capital Theory propositions, recognizing education as a significant part of the economy, capable of enhancing development eco-nomic aspects.