SCHOOL MANAGERS' PERCEPTION ABOUT WALKING TO SCHOOL

Abstract

The number of children who walk to school has been decreasing every year. Policies and programs developed in schools can play an important role in reversing this trend by encouraging active transport. The purpose of this article is to describe research conducted with school administrators to identify the perception of managers regarding the children walk to school. The focus of the research was on primary schools, located in a Brazilian medium-sized city. It is observed that managers have a positive perception of the importance of physical activity (over 90%). The results confirm that there is no consensus about the best age and children skills to make safe decisions. About half (49%) of managers has a positive opinion about the quality of the environment around the schools. Just over half of managers (56%) are indifferent with respect to bus travel, and only about a third of them (31%) favor the use. It was found that more than half of managers (68%) are in favor of walking and that nearly a third of them (31%) are indifferent. The vast majority of managers (86%) is concerned about the impact of traffic on the environment. Keywords: non-motorized transport, active modes of transport, school transport.