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The study suggests offering critical and reflective education inspired by Paulo Freire's Social Pedagogy. The objective was to quantitatively and qualitatively analyze the distribution of young people from Brazilian high school who studied in the state public education network, by gender and age group from 15 to 17 years old, in the year 2020. Methodologically, it was a documentary analysis of information from the Instituto Unibanco Education Observatory with subsequent interpretation of the data obtained. It was found that, in all regions of the country, the frequency of girls in secondary school was higher than that of boys. Therefore, instruments and measures must be valued to reduce the percentage difference and it is suggested the implementation of educational policies that encourage the critical and reflective formation of students. It is concluded that the permanence of young people of both sexes in high school, with critical and reflective training, enables them to exercise citizenship, for active participation in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]