The migration of students from public to public schools: a reflection: The reality of a municipality in the state of Maranhão, Brazil

Brazilian basic education has been undergoing transformations since its inception to the present day, aimed at meeting the demands to qualify the teaching and learning process, with the aim of forming the citizen in an integral way. This is why it has become ‘everyone's right’. However, despite all the legal apparatus that Brazilian basic education has, it has been experiencing major problems that insist on remaining in the school environment. So, in the quest to consolidate this right, many families are looking to public schools to guarantee their children a satisfactory and full education. This has led to the phenomenon of students migrating from public to public schools, a movement of low-income families who have looked to the ‘Bolsa Família’ social programme for support in guaranteeing their right to an education that is based on a right. The aim of this study is to understand the causes of the migration of primary school pupils from public to public schools in a municipality in the state of Maranhão.