Even after the pandemic, only 58% of Brazilian primary and secondary schools have computers and internet access available for students. The majority (94%) have some connection to the web, but the quality is not good enough to allow the internet to be used by students as an educational tool.
The data is part of the TIC (Information and Communication Technologies) Education Survey 2022, released this Monday (25). The study has been carried out annually since 2010 by the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee, which brings together government and civil society representatives to establish guidelines for internet use in the country.
For this edition, 10,448 face-to-face interviews were carried out between October 2022 and 2023 with managers, coordinators, teachers, and students from 1,394 public and private schools.
The survey makes it clear that the reality of Brazilian schools is that of precarious access to the internet. Only 52% of state schools have more than 50 Mbps speed at their main connection point. To get an idea of what this represents, the ideal speed for using the internet as a pedagogical tool is 1 Mbps per student (considering the shift with the most students), according to the Interinstitutional Group for Connectivity in Education, formed by government organs, operators, technology companies and NGOs.
In the case of private companies, 46% have more than 50 Mbps, and in the case of municipal companies, only 29%. The results of this edition, however, reveal that there has been progress post-pandemic. In 2020, the number of state schools with this highest connection speed was 22%, private schools were 32%, and municipal schools were just 11%.
Translated by Cassy Dias