The Ministry of Education (MEC) and the National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira (Inep) released this Thursday (26) the results of the first stage of the 2025 School Census. The survey indicates growth in the coverage of full-time education, at all stages of basic education, in the last four years. Full-time enrollment is considered when the student is at school 7 hours or more per day, or 35 hours per week.
According to the data, the percentage of full-time in-person enrollments grew by 10.7 percentage points in the public education network, between 2021 and 2025. Attendance increased from 15.1% to 25.8% of students.
With this result, Brazil reaches the goal set out in the National Education Plan (PNE) 2014-2024, which provided for the expansion of the modality to serve at least 25% of full-time basic education students in the public network.
The purpose of the modality is the perspective of the integral development and training of babies, children and adolescents based on an intentional and integrated curriculum, which expands and articulates different educational, social, cultural and sporting experiences in spaces inside and outside the school with the participation of the school community.
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The biggest increase was in secondary education, where full-time enrollment increased from 16.7% in 2022 to 26.8% in 2025. Elementary school final years (6th to 9th year) recorded 23.7%, initial years (1st to 5th year) 20.9%. In preschool, full-time enrollment represents 18.3% of the total.
Advances
For the superintendent of Itaú Social, Patricia Mota Guedes, the data points to a very significant advance.
“There are 923 thousand new enrollments in a single year, exceeding 8.8 million students in the public network. This consistent growth since 2022 indicates that the country is consolidating full-time as a structuring strategy to face the challenges of learning and educational inequalities”, he states.
However, she highlights that it is not enough to simply extend the time spent at school. It is necessary for schools to develop pedagogical projects that expand real learning opportunities, using this extra time strategically.
“This means organizing a diverse curriculum, which includes artistic, sporting and cultural activities, which dialogues with the territory and the students’ reality, and which strengthens both cognitive learning and socio-emotional development. The expansion of time needs to be at the service of richer and more meaningful training experiences”, he points out.
Investments
According to the MEC, the data is the result of the MEC’s investment of R$4 billion in the Escola em Tempo Integral Program, created in 2023, to support education networks in expanding full-time enrollment, covering all stages and modalities of basic education.
About the School Census
The survey, carried out annually by Inep, covers data on all basic education schools, teachers, managers and classes, in addition to the characteristics of the students. The information includes all stages and modalities of basic education: regular education, special education, youth and adult education (EJA) and professional education.
Public and private schools participate in all stages of basic education from all education networks in the country.
