A third of children are out of daycare in Brazil – 03/22/2024 – Education

One in every three children aged 0 to 3 is out of daycare due to a lack of places in Brazil’s public education system. The data are from Pnad Educação (Continuous National Household Sample Survey) of 2023, which were released this Friday (22) by IBGE.

The research shows that none of the country’s five administrative regions managed to guarantee the availability of places for half of the population in this age group up to 3 years old, as established by the PNE (National Education Plan) law.

Goal number 1 of the PNE defined “to universalize, by 2016, early childhood education in pre-school for children aged four to five years old and to expand the provision of early childhood education in daycare centers in order to meet at least 50% of children up to three years old” by the end of 2024.

Although the country has made progress in offering vacancies for this stage since 2016, it is still far from reaching the 50% target. According to PNAD, in 2023 only 38.7% of children of this age were enrolled in daycare centers.

The research shows that, among children up to 1 year old who do not yet attend daycare, 30.7% did not get a place. There are still 63.7% who were not enrolled by choice of their parents or guardians.

Among older children, aged 1 to 3 years, 38.5% were unable to find a place and 55.4% did not attend daycare due to their family’s choice.

Under Brazilian legislation, enrollment and school attendance are only mandatory from the age of 4. Despite the law’s determination, the country has still not managed to universalize access to school for children aged 4 and 5.

In 2023, according to PNAD, 92.9% of children of this age were in school.

“It is noteworthy that this rate rose again between 2022 and 2023 in Brazil and the North region. In this group, the Northeast stands out for having the highest percentage of children in school since 2016, being surpassed by the Southeast region in 2023. Both regions were the only ones with a rate higher than the country’s average”, says the research report.

The Northeast has 94.4% of children in this age group enrolled. In the Southeast it is 94.5%.

National and international research shows that children who attend early childhood education (from 0 to 5 years old) have more chances of developing fully and, consequently, of having better educational results throughout the rest of their school career and later in their professional lives.

In September 2022, the STF (Supreme Federal Court) decided that basic education is a fundamental right and that the provision of places in daycare centers and preschools for children up to five years old can be requested individually from the public authorities.