Young Brazilians Studying Less, Dropping Out More During Covid

School dropouts hit 15-year high among kids 5-9 years old
Hours studying declined most among Black, poor, young children

Students attend a class in the library during the first day of mandatory return to classes at a public state school in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Monday, Oct. 18, 2021. Sao Paulo mandated a return to in-person classes even as many Brazilian states recorded a high number of weekly cases among children.Photographer: Patricia Monteiro/Bloomberg

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By Daniel Carvalho

January 19, 2022 at 8:14 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Young Brazilians are studying less and dropping out more during the pandemic, reversing decades of educational advances and exacerbating the country’s demographic inequalities, a new study found.

School dropout rates among children aged 5-9 years old rose from 1.4% in 2019 to 5.5% by the end of 2020, the highest percentage seen since 2006, according to research from the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a Brazilian think tank. Although the dropout rate improved to 4.25% in the third quarter of 2021, that was still 128% higher than before the pandemic.