With Full Classrooms and Few Young Teachers, Brazil Faces Challenges to Reopen Schools, OECD Data Shows | Education

The data is from the report “Education at Glance 2020”, published on Tuesday (8) by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The analysis is carried out on 37 countries that are part of the bloc, in addition to 9 partners (including Brazil).

“Strengthening education systems must be at the center of government planning to recover from this crisis and provide young people with the skills and competencies they need to be successful,” said OECD Secretary General Angel Gurría at the launch the report in Paris.

“It is essential that every effort be made to ensure that the crisis does not exacerbate the inequalities in education that have been revealed in many countries. The current crisis has tested our ability to cope with large-scale disruptions. Now it’s up to us to build a more resilient society as a legacy, ”said Gurría.

The main highlights are:

• Schools closed: until June, Brazil had spent 16 weeks with schools closed, while the average for OECD countries and partners was 14 weeks;
• Complete rooms: while the Brazil has an average of 24 students per class In the first years of teaching in public schools, the other OECD countries have 21. In primary education, there are 28 students on average in Brazil, compared to 23 compared to developed countries. Under these conditions, the social distance necessary for the reopening of schools will depend on the physical space available;
• Limited resources: The OECD report warns that governments must face difficult decisions to reallocation of resources, disputed by the economic area (with economic aid to workers and companies) and by health.
• Schooling and unemployment: Before the pandemic, 14% of Brazilian young adults with a secondary education were unemployed. Among people with higher education, the rate was 8%. During the pandemic, there was an increase in unemployment and access to remote work was higher depending on the level of education. The conclusion is that the lower the level of education, the more vulnerable the person is to coronavirus.
• Teachers: The data in the report indicate that a large part of teachers in Brazil are not included among the “young people”, a public that would be further away from the risk group. Only 11% of primary school teachers are under the age of 30, which is slightly below the OECD average of 12%.

The OECD report also analyzed specific data on the evolution of technical and vocational education, in addition to early childhood and higher education. Check the data below:

Technical and vocational education

According to the OECD, the crisis hit the technical and vocational training sector hardest. This is a major concern, according to the report, as many of the professions that formed the backbone of economic and social life during the lockdown of the pandemic rely on these professional qualifications.

Brazil has 8% of its students enrolled in technical and professional courses, says the OECD report. The index is below the average of the rest of the countries analyzed, which is 32%. This teaching stage is the highlight of this year’s edition.

Among these students in Brazil, 53% take technical courses equivalent to high school and 47% take higher education.

Technical and vocational education plays an important role in the transition of students to the labor market, the report notes. However, as this type of learning involves hands-on classes and can include learning within companies, students in this segment were the hardest hit by the pandemic due to social distance rules and company closures, says the OECD.

The expansion of higher education in Brazil grew above the average for OECD countries in the last decade (2009-2019), although the percentage of Brazilians with degrees remains below the rest of the countries.

According to the OECD, in Brazil there was an increase of 10 percentage points of graduates in the period, while in other countries the growth was 9 pp.

However, growth has not yet led to universal numbers. In 2019, 21% of young people aged 25 to 34 had higher education degrees in Brazil, compared to 45% on average in OECD countries.

Women are still the majority. In Brazil, 25% of women aged 25-34 had higher education degrees in 2019, while the percentage of men was 18%. The average for OECD countries is 51% for women and 39% for men.

A higher level of education increases the likelihood that young people will get higher jobs and higher wages, says the OECD.

The rate of children enrolled in daycare in Brazil is still below the OECD averagesays the report. The classrooms are also more crowded than those in other countries.

By law, the registration of children in Brazil is only mandatory after 4 years of age. But experts point out that early childhood education (up to age five) is important to stimulate learning at a time when children’s brain development is in full swing. That is, the sooner the better.

In many OECD countries, early childhood education begins for most children well before the age of 5 and there are legal rights that guarantee a place for at least one to two years before the start of compulsory education.

In Brazil, 85% of children between the ages of 3 and 5 are enrolled in early childhood education programs. The OECD average is 88%. Within this age group, the most recent data from the organization indicates that 21% of children under 1 year of age were enrolled in these institutions in Brazil. In OECD countries, the rate is 34%. Among 2-year-olds, the enrollment rate is 43% in Brazil, 3 percentage points below the OECD average of 46%.

Here, on average, teachers at this stage of teaching serve 14 students per class. On the OECD average, there are 7 students for every teacher.

Regarding the salary of teachers, Brazilian teachers receive less than the average of other countries and OECD partners at all levels of education.

In early childhood education, the average annual value is US $ 24.7 thousand in Brazil, while the OECD average is US $ 38.6 thousand. In basic education, the amounts are, respectively, US $ 25 thousand and US $ 43.9 thousand. In high school they are US $ 25.2 thousand and US $ 46.2 thousand.

The data in the report indicates that a large part of teachers in Brazil are about to retire. Only 11% of primary school teachers are under the age of 30, which is slightly below the OECD average of 12%.

Investment in education

Brazil invests more in education than the average of the OECD countries. On average, Brazil applied 5.1% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in education, from basic to higher education. The index is 1 percentage point above the OECD average.

This year’s report does not indicate the resources invested per student. In the 2019 edition, the data pointed out that, although it invested more than GDP in education, investment per student in Brazil was below the average for developed countries.