Survey considered 11 components of basic infrastructure, which are based on law sanctioned in March this year
Across the country, less than two in every 10 public early childhood education units have all the items considered basic for proper functioning. The data are from the 2025 School Census and are available at .
In total, 11 basic infrastructure items are considered: school building, public energy, public water, bathroom, sewage system, kitchen, food for students, garbage collection, accessibility, internet, library and/or reading room.
According to the data, only 17% of public daycare centers and preschools have all these components, which were sanctioned in March this year.
One of the biggest obstacles is having libraries or reading rooms. Of the total institutions, 64% still do not have these spaces. Furthermore, 33% do not use public water and 4% do not have a sewage system.
Food
On the other hand, food is an item served in all early childhood education schools in Brazil.
In addition to the basic items, specific infrastructure elements are analyzed: children’s bathroom, educational games and toys, artistic materials, playground and green area.
Considering these items, only 12% of public early childhood education units in the country are able to provide all of them. Less than half of schools have a playground (45%) or green space (36%).
Educational games and toys – important requirements for educational activities at this stage of teaching – are present in 83% of the units.
Early childhood education
The data was released on Wednesday (April 29, 2026), when the QEdu platform started to have data relating to early childhood education. It is possible to consult data from this stage of education at a national level, by Federation units and municipalities and make comparisons.
“Early childhood education needs to be at the center, we need to talk more about what quality early childhood education is”highlighted the executive director of Interdisciplinarity and Evidence in Educational Debate, Ernesto Martins Faria – co-creator of QEdu.
The inclusion of early childhood education data on the QEdu portal is part of a joint initiative by Iede, Fundação Bracell, Fundação Itaú, Fundação VélezReyes+, Fundação Van Leer and the Inter-American Development Bank.
The creation of a service indicator at the municipal level is also part of the initiative. This marker shows that, in 16% of municipalities, that is, in 876 Brazilian cities, at least one in ten children aged 4 and 5 do not attend daycare centers or preschools.
Ministry of Education
When contacted, the Ministry of Education informed, in a note, that it comes “intensifying actions to support municipalities, directly responsible for early childhood education, in expanding quality access to this stage of education”.
The ministry cites as one of the main instruments the National Commitment for Quality and Equity in Early Childhood Education, which brings together more than 2,500 federated entities.
“The objective is to unite efforts around the expansion of places, the permanence of babies and children in daycare centers and preschools and the implementation of national quality parameters, always considering the different territorial and social realities of the country.”
In the text, the MEC also highlighted that, through the New Growth Acceleration Program, 886 early childhood education units were delivered and 1,684 new daycare centers and early childhood education schools are planned.
Other priorities are the resumption and completion of suspended works. Of the 1,318 early childhood education units that expressed interest in resuming construction, 904 were approved and 278 were completed.
“These data demonstrate a change in priority in management, with the expansion of recent investments to provide municipalities with more conditions to open vacancies, guaranteeing full service and acting proactively to overcome the gaps that still exist in Brazilian early childhood education”the ministry added.
This text was originally published by , on April 29, 2026, at 7:53 am. The content is free for republication, the source is cited, and has been adapted to the standard of Poder360.
