Ten years, one long road: what Brazil learned while reinventing upper secondary education Leandro CostaDanilo Leite Dalmon June 25, 2026 This page in: English Portuguese

https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/latinamerica/ten-years--one-long-road--what-brazil-learned-while-reinventing- In 2015, Brazil's upper secondary education system was falling short by every measure. School days lasted just four hours. And for too many young people, the classroom felt entirely disconnected from their futures. By age 19, barely 55 percent of students had graduated, nearly three in ten were two or more years behind their expected grade, and only 21 percent met minimum proficiency in Portuguese — just 3 percent in mathematics. That was the starting point for one of the most far-reaching education reforms in the region.