More Than Half of Brazilians Over Age 25 Have Not Completed Basic Education

By Arkady Petrov

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – More than half of Brazilians aged 25 and over failed to complete basic education, according to data from the National Continuous Household Sample Survey (PNAD) for 2018, released on Wednesday, June 19th, by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). The primary learning cycle ends when the student graduates from secondary school.

The data show that 52.6 percent of Brazilians in this age group failed to complete the minimum expected level of study.

Within that percentage, 33.1 percent have not completed elementary school. Another 6.9 percent have no schooling at all, 8.1 percent have completed elementary school, and 4.5 percent have an incomplete secondary school education.

Only 16.5 percent of the population over the age of 25 have completed university.

The lack of interest in pursuing a better education is higher among those with lower schooling levels, according to IBGE data.

Among the uneducated and those who failed to complete elementary school, 34.3 percent said they were not interested in resuming their studies.

Another 32.9 percent said they are not going back to school because they are working or looking for a job, and 15.9 percent said they are not studying because they need to work at home.

Among the population aged 15 to 29, the realization that household chores or caring for others take up study time is higher among women: 23.3 percent of women interviewed by IBGE in 2018 said that this is the reason for not studying, while less than one percent of men gave this reason.

For men, the main reason for not attending the classroom is work or searching for a job: this is true for 47.7 percent of men and 27.9 percent of women.

IBGE data show that the schooling rate is above 90 percent among the population from age four to fourteen, but decreases among those age 15 or older.

The number of Brazilians age 15 and over who are unable to read or write a simple note fell 1.73 percent in 2018 as compared to 2017, but there are still 11.3 million illiterate Brazilians, or 6.8 percent of the population.

However, according to one of the researchers, Marina Águas, this decline is more closely connected to the aging of the population rather than to public literacy policies, .