About 56.4% of Brazilian children are illiterate, reveals an exclusive MEC survey
At a meeting held in the federal capital, Minister Camilo Santana revealed that the federal government plans to launch a national literacy program soon with the aim of ensuring that children acquire reading and writing skills at the appropriate age.
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An exclusive survey carried out by the Ministry of Education (MEC) revealed that about 56.4% of Brazilian children do not have adequate literacy. The data were released at an event held in Brasília this Wednesday (31), the Minister of Education, Camilo Santana, and the president of the National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira (Inep), Manuel Palacios.
The search
Inep, linked to the Ministry of Education (MEC), conducted the research Literacy Brazil. The study involved the participation of 251 literacy teachers from 206 Brazilian municipalities. Between April 15th and 23rd, the survey was carried out in the following capitals: Belem, Recife, Brasilia, São Paulo and Porto Alegre.
During the survey, teachers shared their opinions based on their classroom experiences. They provide information about the tasks and competencies that a student of the 2nd year of elementary school must master to be considered literate. Only 40% of these children had adequate literacy levels in the country in 2021. According to the survey, there was also a reduction in the child literacy rate compared to 2019, in which more than 60% of children were considered literate.
Based on the results obtained, Inep established, for the first time, a cutoff score of 743 points on the scale used by the saeb to determine the literacy level of students.
"We know that when a child does not learn to read and write at the right age, dropouts increase, failure rates increase, dropouts increase. We are losing millions of young people and children in the country who need to have the right to be in school, to guarantee their complete basic education. Therefore, this is a right that the Brazilian State needs to guarantee to all children", said the Minister of Education.
Literacy
The students who were considered literate for the survey were determined by Inep after consulting literacy teachers and specialists in the field, in order to create a definition of literacy. This definition was based on a "standard related to fundamental reading and writing skills that were acquired by a literate student, with what is currently established by state and municipal assessment systems". In the study, students who possess the following skills were considered literate:
Ability to read small texts composed of short sentences and locate information on the surface of the text.
Ability to make basic inferences from the connection between verbal text and non-verbal elements, such as comic strips and comics.
Ability to write, even with some spelling errors, texts used in everyday life for simple communication, such as invitations and attendance.
New literacy program
The results obtained by the search Literacy Brazil offered support for the formulation and implementation of educational policies at the national level with a focus on literacy. During the meeting, the minister emphasized the importance given by the federal government to literacy, and announced that soon the president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will launch a comprehensive national pact aimed at ensuring that children achieve literacy at age, called the "National Literacy Pact". The launch date for this program has yet to be announced.
The minister also stated that this initiative is the result of successful experiences in several Brazilian municipalities and states, which have been strengthened each year. He mentioned that the policy was developed through dialogues with municipal education departments and the Union of Municipal Education Directors (Undime), without going into too much detail. The initiative should "support not only in technical induction, but also financially, an entire governance strategy, support and strengthening in the issue of training, qualification, teaching material, this great program in this pact for literacy in Brazil", he said.
