Latin America’s Schools Are Flunking Covid

Brazil’s college entrance exam is not for wimps. The yearly endurance test — eight hours of questions and essays over two days that can boost or bust careers — is a marathon of teenage aspirations, angst and energy drinks. And that was before the pandemic.

This year’s edition, which wrapped up on Sunday, has been a caveat about how unchecked Covid-19 has brought a whole new level of risk into already precarious Latin American classrooms. More than half of Brazil’s 5.7 million registered exam candidates — including my 16-year-old — stayed away, fearing contagion in the collective study halls. Many of those who showed up were turned away due to overbooking. At least Mexico’s National Autonomous University had the good sense to hold this week’s entry exam in a football stadium. Nonetheless, Brazil’s bullish Education Ministry declared the exam “a success.” My daughter saw a fool’s errand. “Why put yourself in danger of getting sick or spreading the virus?” she said.