The rate of Brazilian young people who neither study, work, nor are in training or education fell by 4.4 percentage points between 2016 and 2024, according to the Education at a Glance 2026 report, released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The rate of people aged 18 to 24 in this condition dropped from 26.8% in 2016 to 22.4% in 2024.
In a press release, the Ministry of Education (MEC) highlights that the Brazilian statistic is "almost double the average reduction (2.3 points) recorded by the OECD over the same period."
The executive superintendent of the Unibanco Institute, Ricardo Henriques, acknowledges the progress, but stresses that it is still insufficient, since more than a quarter of young adults still do not have complete basic education.
"The task is to build a trajectory in which young people can stay in school, learn, complete their education, and find dignified professional placement. This depends on education, social protection, and labor policies working in an articulated manner," he suggests.
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Drop in young people without high school education
Another positive figure for Brazil in the study is that the proportion of young people aged 25 to 34 without complete high school education decreased from 35% in 2016 to 26% in 2024. But the Brazilian percentage is still higher than the 12% average verified by the OECD in the other countries analyzed.
The Ministry of Education (MEC) associates the progress with the implementation of public programs such as Pé-de-Meia (a financial-educational incentive to promote the retention and school completion of public high school students) and Bolsa Família (an income transfer program benefiting families in situations of poverty and extreme poverty).
High school completion
The OECD report also shows the gender difference in high school completion. In Brazil, women are 7 percentage points more likely to complete this stage of basic education than men, a difference greater than that observed in most other countries with data available in this edition.
The international organization points out that, in Brazil, of all students who entered high school, 20% drop out of school without graduating.
Another figure from the study indicates that 79% of new students who entered high school completed this stage within up to two years after the regular expected study period, compared to the average completion rate of 85% among the countries considered in the survey.
After this expected two-year completion period, only 1% were still enrolled in school trying to graduate.
When considering adults of different generations (25 to 64 years old) with complete high school education, in 2024, Brazil's proportion of 40% is similar to the OECD countries' average of 39%.
Higher education
According to the data, in 2024, 22% of Brazilian working-age adults (25 to 64 years old) had completed higher education, a little more than half of the OECD countries' average of 43%.
For Ricardo Henriques, the gap between Brazil and the OECD countries is the result of a historical educational deficit, and overcoming its consequences requires integrated actions on different fronts to guarantee a continuous trajectory. Among them are strengthening high school education and expanding access to higher education by offering more flexible courses for adults of different generations, financial support, and articulation between technical and academic education.
"The expansion of access [to higher education] needs to be accompanied by quality and retention policies, especially for those who face difficulties in balancing study, work, and family responsibilities," he said.
To Agência Brasil, he explained that when access to education is concentrated in a portion of the population, the country wastes talent and restricts the possibilities of social mobility. For the economy, this bottleneck limits the capacity to raise productivity, innovate, and incorporate technologies. "We can turn more schooling into better opportunities for people and greater development capacity for Brazil," he argued.
School transitions
The OECD considers transitions from one level of education to the next as important moments in a student's trajectory, with great influence on educational outcomes.
In Brazil, one year after completing the final years of elementary school:
87% of students continue their studies in high school;
4% repeat the last school year of the final years of elementary school; and
8% leave the formal education system, a percentage higher than the 5% of students who did not enroll in high school among the 22 countries and economies with data available on this issue in this edition of the report.
According to Ricardo Henriques, the OECD recommends that managers rigorously monitor school attendance and drops in student performance, as well as provide pedagogical support with an individualized focus.
The education expert advises schools to act preventively, before a possible dropout from studies, with targeted learning recovery in reading and mathematics, dialogue with families, guidance about high school, and a structured reception of the student in the first weeks of the new educational stage. "Good transition management follows the trajectory until the young person is attending, learning, and building bonds at the new school."
He also highlights the creation, in March of this year, of the National Unique Student Identifier (Inue), the legal mechanism that unifies the record of students' school trajectories in Brazil, based on the student's Individual Taxpayer Registry (CPF), accompanied by proper training of education professionals.
"The big question is how to support teachers and managers so they can make use of this data to better diagnose the needs of each student, acting so that all can progress in their learning," pointed out the executive superintendent of the Unibanco Institute.
Education at a Glance 2026
In Brazil, the national data that support the calculation of indicators for the Education at a Glance 2026 report have as statistical sources, annually, the Basic Education School Census, the Higher Education Census, and other surveys, such as those from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and graduate studies data from the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Capes).
The complete information from the report can be consulted on the OECD website.