1 in 3 teachers does not have training in the subject they teach

A study published in one of the study notebooks of Inep, an organization of the Ministry of Education, on the 22nd, showed that 32.4% of teachers in the final years of elementary school (6th to 9th year) and high school do not have training in the subject they teach in the classroom. The researchers organized data from the School Census from 2013 to 2022 to analyze the possibility of a possible “teacher blackout”, a theory that suggests that there will not be enough teachers in the future. The authors consider teachers who teach subjects for which they do not have a specific degree for the subject they teach to be inadequately trained.

In the North region, the percentage of teachers with inadequate training rises to 36.6%. The South has the lowest rate (27.6%), but not much different from the country’s average. Sociology, foreign language, arts, philosophy and physics are the subjects that have the most teachers in the classroom who do not have bachelor’s degrees in the area. Portuguese language and physical education are the areas with the best rates of teachers with adequate training.

Situation of elementary 2 is worse than the average

When separated by stage of basic education, the situation in primary education 2 is even more drastic. Students from the 6th to the 9th year who study in rural areas have almost 70% of teachers without a degree in the subject they teach. In urban centers, students in their final years of elementary school have 47.7% of teachers without specific training for the role. A People’s Gazette recently showed that Brazilian students regress in performance from the 6th to the 9th of elementary school.

In relation to secondary education, the difference between city and rural schools is much smaller: 32.1% in urban areas and 31.2% in rural areas. Recently, the Lula government presented a bill with the aim of changing some points of the new secondary education, in force since 2017. Among the changes, the Ministry of Education proposed a ban on teachers with only a well-known knowledge in professional courses that can be made during high school. The demand came from groups such as the National Confederation of Education Workers (CNTE) and the National Union of Students (UNE) who are calling for the repeal of the new secondary education to meet corporatist interests.

Another fact that draws attention is the number of trained teachers who do not pursue a career in teaching. Only 29.3% of teachers trained in 2021 were employed in the area in 2022. The rate is the highest in the last seven years and was based on the Higher Education Census and the Basic Education Census, both from 2011 to 2022. In 2020 , only 22.1% of graduates from the previous year worked as teachers. The percentage was 24.1% in 2021. Both years were marked by the Covid-19 pandemic and Brazil was one of the countries that kept schools closed for the longest time.