Education during the pandemic reduces social mobility in Brazil

Students from private schools, with more educated and affluent parents or guardians, received significantly more face-to-face classes during the Covid-19 pandemic than the poorer public-school students and those dependent on less educated people.

The difference is even greater among Elementary and Junior High School students, which will represent an important marker in the reduction of social mobility in the country, in addition to signaling a future increase in income inequality – already extremely high in Brazil.

According to a study by the Institute for Mobility and Social Development (IMDS), based on data from PNAD Covid19 (National Household Sample Survey), regional differences are also significant in terms of school assignments received by students, even though online.

“ The general situation is much more critical for Elementary and Junior High School students. That is, even for those that had this opportunity, they were unable to absorb the content of online classes,” says Sergio Guimarães Ferreira, Research Director at IMDS.

"The data also show that the pandemic has increased the risk that the low level of schooling of guardians will end up being transmitted to their children, further restricting Brazilian social mobility."