The number of full-time enrollments grows, especially in the Northeast

The number of enrollments in full-time education in Brazil increased and reached 21.7% last year, according to data from the 2023 School Census, released by the Ministry of Education (MEC) and the National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira (Inep), this Thursday (22).

The initiative to expand full-time education was a banner embraced by the Minister of Education, Camilo Santana, since he took charge of the department. “We will continue this technical and financial induction policy, together with states and municipalities, at all stages of Brazilian education, always focused on also stimulating the expansion of full-time secondary education”, reinforced the minister in the census announcement .

According to data from the 2023 School Census, there was an increase in full-time enrollment of 2.2 percentage points in the initial years (1st to 5th) and 3.5 percentage points in the final years (6th to 9th). In secondary education, the upward trend also continued, and growth, since 2019, reached 9.9% in the public education network.

The Northeast was the region with the highest number of students enrolled in full education in the public network, taking into account the total number of basic education students.

Ceará (51.4%), Piauí (48.9%) and Maranhão (40.3%) are the three states with the highest number of students enrolled in elementary school. In high school, Pernambuco (66.8%), Paraíba (55%) and, again, Ceará (49.1%) lead the list – a state that was governed by minister Camilo Santana.

The federal government launched the Full-Time School Program last year to increase the number of enrollments in this modality. According to the MEC, the program has an investment of R$4 billion, and the objective is to increase the number of full-time enrollments in basic education schools across Brazil by 3.2 million by 2026.

The measure may have some positive points, such as mitigating young people’s contact with crime, but researchers and education experts warn about the ineffectiveness of full-time learning, the exorbitant expenses to the detriment of the low benefit that this type of education entails, and for the error of focus, which should be on the quality of teaching offered, and not on the number of hours in the classroom.

Education Data 2023

In 2023, the private network maintained the growth trend (3.6%) seen in 2022, when participation reached 29.9%, after the decline observed during the pandemic period (2019 to 2021). In the public network, the increase was 5.3% last year. The difference between 2023 and 2019, in public daycare centers, is more than 296 thousand enrollments (12.1%).

● 76.7 thousand daycare centers were registered in operation in Brazil.​
● 66.8% of children are enrolled in public schools.
● 33.2% of children are enrolled in the private network.
● 50.4% of children in the private network are in institutions affiliated with public authorities.​
● 99.8% of children in public daycare centers are enrolled in municipal schools.​
● 57.9% of children are enrolled full-time.

Still in the world of early childhood education, the research shows an increase in preschool enrollments which, in 2023, rose 4.8%. The scenario is for recovery, both in the public and private networks, which had shrunk to 25.6% between 2019 and 2021.

There are 5.3 million students enrolled in preschool. The data points to the universalization of educational services in the age group of 4 and 5 years established by the Federal Constitution, when considering the information collected in the School Census and the population of this age determined in the most recent IBGE Demographic Census (5.4 million).​

● 78.1% of preschool students are enrolled in the public school system.
● 21.9% of pre-school students are enrolled in the private network.
● 15.8% of private students are in institutions affiliated with public authorities.
● 14.2% of students are enrolled full-time.

Enrollments in youth and adult education (EJA) continued to fall, as has been the case since 2018. In 2023, 2.5 million students were registered. Of these, 2.3 million are on the public network and around 200 thousand on the private network.

In 2023, there were 2.4 million teachers and 161,798 principals in basic education. Most of those who hold management positions have higher education (90.8%) and are women (80.6%).

*With information from the MEC Advisory/Inep