New Yearbook Lays Bare Brazil’s High School Learning Crisis and Stark School Infrastructure Gaps

Overview

• Only 4.5% of students in the public 3rd year of high school reached adequate learning in Portuguese and mathematics in 2023, and just 7.7% did so across public and private networks, below the 10.3% recorded in 2019.
• Basic infrastructure remains deficient: 48.2% of public schools are connected to the sewage network and more than 20% lack trash collection, while fewer than half have internet suitable for classroom use, 29% connect only staff, 4.6% have no connection or adequate power, and just 2% reach speeds fit for labs.
• Regional inequities are acute in the North, where the ‘fator amazônico’ raises costs and three in ten schools in Acre and Roraima lack potable water, about a third in Acre and Amazonas lack reliable electricity, and a quarter in Roraima lack bathrooms; states like Minas Gerais also face low classroom comfort and weak learning results.
• Progression indicators improved over the past decade with falling age‑grade distortion and higher completion by age 19, yet Unicef estimates 4.2 million students remain two or more years behind, with sharper delays for Black students and boys.
• The Education Ministry says more than 65% of schools now have internet suitable for classroom use and plans to transfer R$ 305 million this year for connectivity, while the yearbook also flags the rapid shift of teacher training to distance education, which rose from 31% to 64% of graduates in a decade.