Brazil
This country note provides an overview of the key characteristics of the education system in Brazil. It draws on data from Education at a Glance 2023. In line with the thematic focus of this year’s Education at a Glance, it emphasises vocational education and training (VET), while also covering other parts of the education system. Data in this note are provided for the latest available year. Readers interested in the reference years for the data are referred to the corresponding tables in Education at a Glance 2023.
Brazil features a small share of students enrolled in vocational upper secondary education when compared to other countries in the OECD. The share of upper secondary students enrolled in vocational programmes for students aged 15 to 19 is 11%. For 20-24 year olds, the share is also 11%. For OECD countries, the shares are respectively 37% for 15-19 year olds and 65% for 20-24 year olds.
Completion rates in vocational upper secondary are similar to the OECD average. In Brazil, 62% of vocational students complete vocational upper secondary education within the expected duration and 70% complete their programme after an additional two years. On average across countries and other participants with available data, 62% of vocational entrants complete their studies on time and 73% within an additional two years.
NEET rates of 18-24 year-olds in Brazil are high especially among women. In this country, 30% of women of ages 18-24 are NEET compared to 18.8% of men in the same age group in Brazil. The average NEET rates of 18-24 year-olds for women and men in OECD countries are respectively 14% and 15%.
In Brazil, the rate of students per staff member is higher than the OECD average. There are 25 students per staff member, in full-time equivalent terms, in general upper secondary programme higher than the OECD average of 15 in full-time equivalent terms.
Although an upper secondary qualification is often the minimum attainment needed for successful labour-market participation, some 25-34 year-olds still leave education without such a qualification. On average across the OECD, 14% of young adults have not attained an upper secondary qualification. In Brazil, the share is higher than the OECD average (28%).
Tertiary attainment continues to increase among the working age population. On average across the OECD, tertiary attainment is becoming as common as upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary attainment among 25-64 year-olds. In Brazil, 21% of 25-64 year-olds have tertiary attainment, a smaller share than those that have upper secondary attainment (38%).
On average across OECD countries, 14.7% of young adults aged 18-24 are not in education, employment or training (NEET), while in Brazil the corresponding figure is 24.4%. Reducing NEET rates among young adults is a particularly important challenge in all countries because those who become NEET face worse labour-market outcomes later in life than their peers who remained in education or training at this age.
Participation in high-quality early childhood education (ECE) has a positive effect on children’s well-being, learning and development in the first years of their lives. In Brazil, 33% of 2-year-olds are enrolled in ECE. This increases to 48% of 3-year-olds, 71% of 4-year-olds and 87% of 5-year-olds.
Compulsory education in Brazil starts at the age of 4 and continues until the age of 17. Students typically graduate between the ages of 17 and 18 from general upper secondary programmes. The age range for completing vocational programmes is just as wide, with students typically graduating from vocational upper secondary programmes also between 17 and 18. This is different from most OECD countries, where graduates from vocational upper secondary programmes have a wider age range.
The large majority of 15-19 year-olds across the OECD are enrolled in education. In Brazil, 44% of this age group are enrolled in general upper secondary education and 5% in vocational upper secondary education. A further 14% are enrolled in lower secondary programmes and 7% in tertiary programmes. This compares to an OECD average of 37% enrolled in general upper secondary programmes, 23% in vocational upper secondary programmes, 12% in lower secondary programmes and 12% in tertiary programmes (Figure 1).
Considering the perspective of developing the potential of the VET programmes for the coming years, the Brazilian senate passed in 2023 the Law 14,645/2023, which states that the articulation between the federal entities must formulate and implement a national policy of professional and technological education articulated with the National Education Plan (PNE). The deadline for preparing this policy will be two years, counting from the publication of the law and the actions will observe the needs of the labour market (Agência Senado, 2023[1]).
On average across countries and other participants with comparable data, 77% of entrants into general upper secondary education successfully complete their upper secondary studies (either in general or in vocational programmes) within the theoretical duration of the programme. The completion rate increases by an average 10 percentage points within two years after the end of the theoretical duration. In Brazil, 61% of entrants into general upper secondary education complete their programme within the theoretical duration, but this share increases to 68% after allowing an additional two years.
1. Year of reference differs from 2021: 2020 for Argentina and South Africa; 2018 for Indonesia.
2. Excludes students enrolled at tertiary levels
3. Breakdown by age not available after 15 years old.
4. Excludes post-secondary non-tertiary education.
Countries are ranked in descending order of the share of students enrolled in upper secondary vocational education.
Source: OECD/UIS/Eurostat (2023), Table B1.2. For more information see Source section and Education at a Glance 2023 Sources, Methodologies and Technical Notes (OECD, 2023[2]).
In most countries with available data, completion rates in vocational upper secondary programmes are lower than in general upper secondary programmes. In Brazil, 62% of vocational students complete upper secondary education (either general or vocational programmes) within the expected duration and 70% complete their programme after an additional two years. On average across countries and other participants with available data, 62% of vocational entrants complete their studies on time and 73% within an additional two years.
Perhaps surprisingly, the share of international students at tertiary level has not been negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in many OECD countries. However, a few countries experienced double digit declines in the share of international students. Brazil is not one of them, as the share of foreign students remained stable between 2019 and 2021 (less than 1% of all tertiary students).
All OECD and partner countries devote a substantial share of their national resources to education. In 2020, Brazil’s government spent USD 4 306 per full-time equivalent student on public institutions (below the OECD average of USD 11 560) in primary to tertiary education. Total government expenditure on education amounted to 11% of total government expenditure on all services in 2020, compared to 10% on average across the OECD.
On average across the OECD, total government expenditure on education grew by 2.1% between 2019 and 2020, at a slower pace than total government expenditure on all services (9.5%), which may be due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In Brazil, total government expenditure on education decreased by 10.5%, while the one on all services increased by 8.9%.
On average across OECD countries, more than half of government expenditure on primary to post-secondary non-tertiary education comes from subnational governments. In Brazil, 7% of the funding comes from the central government, after transfers between government levels, 44% from the regional level and 48% from the local level.
The total compulsory instruction time throughout primary and lower secondary education varies widely from country to country (Figure 2). Across the OECD, over the course of primary and lower secondary education, compulsory instruction time totals an average of 7 634 hours, distributed over nine grades. In Brazil, the total compulsory instruction time is lower, at 7 200 hours, over nine grades.
On average across OECD countries, 25% of the compulsory instruction time in primary education is devoted to reading, writing and literature and 16% to mathematics. In lower secondary education, the share is 15% for reading, writing and literature and 13% for mathematics. Brazil is one of the few countries where there is no fixed share of instruction time spent on reading, writing and literature or mathematics at one or both levels.
On average across OECD countries, in full-time equivalent terms, there are 14 students for every teaching staff member in general upper secondary programmes and 15 students per staff member in vocational upper secondary programmes. In Brazil, in full-time equivalent terms, there are 25 students per staff member in general upper secondary programmes, higher than the OECD average. In vocational upper secondary programmes, in full-time equivalent terms, there are 15 students for every teaching staff member (the same as the OECD average).
The average age of teachers varies across OECD countries. In some countries, the teaching workforce is much younger than the labour force in general, whereas in others, teachers tend to be older. In Brazil, 25% of teachers in general upper secondary programmes are aged 50 or older, compared to the OECD average of 39%. This is also the case for teachers in vocational programmes, were 24% of them are aged 50 or above (43% on average across the OECD).
Note: Instruction hours for each grade refer to average hours per grade for the level of education. Numbers in square brackets refer to the total number of years for primary and lower secondary education.
1. Estimated number of hours by level of education based on the average number of hours per year, as for some subjects, the allocation of instruction time across multiple levels is flexible.
3. The number of grades in lower secondary education is three or four, depending on the track. The fourth year of pre-vocational secondary education was excluded from the calculation.
Countries and other participants are ranked in ascending order of the total number of compulsory instruction hours.
Source: OECD (2023), Table D1.1. For more information see Source section and Education at a Glance 2023 Sources, Methodologies and Technical Notes (OECD, 2023[2]).
References
Agência Senado (2023), Legislação Informatizada, 14.645, Câmara dos Deputados. Brasilia, https://www2.camara.leg.br/legin/fed/lei/2023/lei-14645-2-agosto-2023-794499-publicacaooriginal-168642-pl.html (last accessed 28 August 2023).
OECD (2023), Education at a Glance 2023 Sources, Methodologies and Technical Notes, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/d7f76adc-en.
OECD (2023), Education at a Glance Database, https://stats.oecd.org/.
OECD (2023), Education at a Glance 2023: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/e13bef63-en.
For more information on Education at a Glance 2023 and to access the full set of indicators, see: https://doi.org/10.1787/e13bef63-en.
For more information on the methodology used during the data collection for each indicator, the references to the sources and the specific notes for each country, see Education at a Glance 2023 Sources, Methodologies and Technical Notes (https://doi.org/10.1787/d7f76adc-en).
For general information on the methodology, please refer to the OECD Handbook for Internationally Comparative Education Statistics 2018 (https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264304444-en).
Updated data can be found on line at https://doi.org/10.1787/eag-data-en and by following the StatLinks 2 under the tables and charts in the publication.
Explore, compare and visualise more data and analysis using the Education GPS:
https://gpseducation.oecd.org/.
This work is published under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of OECD member countries.
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Source: OECD (2023), “Brazil: Diagram of education system”, OECD Education GPS, http://gpseducation.oecd.org/Content/MapOfEducationSystem/BRA/BRA_2011_EN.pdf
Please refer to “Brazil: Diagram of education system” for information on the keys.