Just as it brought consequences in the labor market – mass layoffs, in some cases, or, at best, the alternative of the so-called ‘home office’ – the pandemic also hit the educational area hard, as attested by the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (PNAD), in early June last.
One of the main results of the study is that the share of children aged between four and five enrolled in schools in the country recorded a drop from 92.7% in 2019 (before, therefore, the health crisis) to 91.6% in 2022 (shortly after the peak pandemic).
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Although it seems insignificant, the statistical retreat is quite expressive, points out the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), responsible for preparing the Pnad Contínua, starting with the fact that this was the first drop in the index since the beginning of the historical series, in 2017. This without taking into account the fact that the reduction in the number of enrolled students makes compliance more distant. the goal of universalizing access to preschool, which was not achieved in 2016, as set out in the National Education Plan (PNE).
According to current legislation, enrollment in this phase of education is mandatory. However, the restrictions on urban mobility imposed by the pandemic (aggravated by difficulties in accessing remote teaching by families and the delay in childhood vaccination), have led many parents to withdraw their children from school, even if not in definitive.
Recognizing that “the youngest children were the most affected, precisely because of the greater difficulty in maintaining an online study routine”, the educational policy analyst at the NGO Todos For Education, Natália Fregonesi, for whom, “with the return of face-to-face classes, they returned to schools with large learning gaps, which generate demotivation to continue studying".
The Maria Cecília Souto Vidigal Foundation analyst, Beatriz Abuchaim, admits her concern with recent school dropout data: “We already know that children outside of preschool are missing out on important learning opportunities that would create solid foundations for primary education and teaching average. In general, they are black children, in poverty, daughters of younger mothers and with low education”.
In Rio de Janeiro, the picture is no different. According to a survey by the Associação Brasileira de Educação Infantil, the number of students, up to four years old, enrolled in state presented a reduction of 30%, in the first semester of this year (1H23), in relation to the same period of 2019 (1H19), before the pandemic.
