Day care and full-time enrollments rise in 2022 – 02/08/2023 – Education

Data from the 2022 School Census, released this Wednesday (8), show a recovery in daycare and full-time student enrollment after the Covid pandemic. The Minister of Education, Camilo Santana (PT), attributed the results to the action of states and governments despite the absence of the federal government during the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) administration.

Enrollment records dropped in 2020 and 2021, a period marked by school closures during the pandemic. In the case of day care centers, there was an unprecedented drop in enrollment even before the impacts of the pandemic.

In 2022, the number of enrollments in day care reached 3,935,689, an increase of 5% compared to 2019, before the pandemic, when there were 3,755,092 enrollments. In 2021, this data had fallen to 3,417,210.

These data include vacancies in the public and private network. This indicates a school coverage of 36% of children up to three years old in the country —the goal of the PNE (National Education Plan) is to reach 50% in 2024, which will not be achieved.

In both cases, public and private networks, there was an increase in 2022. Considering only the public network, there are 2,613,843 enrollments. There were 2,456,583 in 2019. These students are concentrated in municipal networks.

In the private network, the number of students in daycare increased from 1,298,509 in 2019 to 1,321,846, an increase of 2%.

For the Minister of Education, it was the action of municipalities and states that ensured this resumption. He also cited the effects of Fundeb as part of the explanation.

Fundeb, the main financing mechanism for basic education, underwent a renovation in 2020 that increased the resources received by the education networks.

“If it were [resultado de] national policy, we wouldn’t see so much distortion between states,” he said. “The criticism is from a policy point of view, not because we are adversaries.”

Santana spoke about the lack of dialogue between the MEC and states and municipalities during the Bolsonaro government, even mentioning the experience he had as governor of Ceará during the period.

“What was the role of MEC during the pandemic? None”, said Santana, in a press conference held in Brasília, at the headquarters of Inep (National Institute of Educational Studies and Research), responsible for the survey.

Throughout the Bolsonaro government, and especially during the pandemic, MEC was repeatedly criticized by education secretaries for undermining dialogue with networks and also for emptying transfer programs, such as full-time education. Federal spending on building daycare centers, for example, has plummeted.

More than half (50.7%) of daycare students are in units that have a contract with city halls, without direct management. The model is criticized by some educators and especially by unions.

In the presentation of the data, the director of educational statistics at Inep, Carlos Eduardo Moreno Sampaio, highlighted this reality and presented positive data on school attendance in the partner companies.

Santana defended the model and said that his team will evaluate the topic. “The largest number of full-time daycare centers were located in the affiliated companies. It is important, positive data, the team will assess it”, he says.

Enrollments in preschool (ages 4 to 5) recovered from a drop seen in 2020 and, especially, in 2021, but remained practically stable. There are 5,093,075 million enrollments at this stage in 2022, including students from public and private schools, against 5,217,686 in 2019.

Data for 2022 indicate that 91.5% of children aged 4 and 5 are enrolled. The balance was 92.9% in 2019. Taking into account only the public network, there were 2,613,843 enrollments in 2022. A jump compared to 2019, when there were 2,456,583 students in preschool.

The proportion of full-time students in the country also increased, both in primary and secondary education.

In high school, the public network reached 20.4% of students with extended hours. It was 12% in 2019 — unlike daycare enrollments, this indicator has kept increasing over the years.

But there are regional distortions. Pernambuco, for example, has 62.5% of full-time high school students, while this rate is 4.4% in Paraná.

In primary education, the percentage of full-time students is 11.4% in the initial years and 13.7% in the final years.

Brazil still accumulates a large number of children and young people out of school. Among the population aged 4 to 17, there are 1.04 million children and young people outside the classroom.

The largest volumes are among the youngest and oldest: 512 thousand of those excluded are aged between 4 and 5 and, on the other hand, 386 thousand are between 16 and 17 years old.

Brazilian basic education, which ranges from kindergarten to high school, totals 47,382,074 enrollments. Considering public and private networks.

This amount has been falling year after year due to the effects of a demographic transition. Of the total number of enrollments, 49% are in municipal networks. State schools concentrate 31.2% of students and private schools, 19%. Only 0.8% of basic education students are in federal schools.

In addition to Santana and Moreno, the president of Inep, Manuel Palácios, and MEC secretaries Izolda Cela (executive secretary), Zara Figueiredo (Secadi) and Kátia Schweickardt (basic education) were in the interview.

The minister made a point of congratulating the institute’s employees. In the Bolsonaro government, Inep went through one of the main crises in history, with allegations of moral harassment and attempts at ideological interference in exams.