Study Shows Four Out Of Ten Students In The Second Year Of Elementary School Are Not Literate
On Wednesday, May 31, the Ministry of Education presented the results of Alfabetiza Brasil, a survey that was conducted by the National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira (Inep) and which had the participation of 251 literacy teachers, from the five regions of the country. They were asked to indicate, in their perceptions, which skills a child should have at the end of the second year of elementary school. Revealed data show that only four out of ten primary school students are literate. They also reveal a significant drop in children’s literacy: in 2019, 39.7% of children in this age group were illiterate. In 2021, this percentage reached 56.4%, surpassing the number of literate people, who represent 43.6% of these children.
The research produced data that subsidized the redefinition of the set of skills required for a child to be considered literate at the end of the 2nd year. This set of skills was associated with the scale used by the National System for the Evaluation of Basic Education (Saeb), which evaluates Brazilian education, to define the cut-off score that indicates whether or not a child is literate.
Inep, based on the results obtained, established that the cutoff score adopted in the Saeb scale, which defines whether a student is literate, is 743 points. This grade serves as a national benchmark for determining whether a student has mastered a series of skills by the end of secondary school.
“According to the results of this research, a child would be considered literate when he was already able to perform some written reading practices close to his daily life. They could, for example, read small texts and locate information in these texts; relate writing and image to understand what they read in texts such as strips or comics. They also need to show themselves capable of writing invitations and reminders, even if they do not fully comply with the spelling norms”, explains Emerson de Pietri, professor of Portuguese Language Teaching Methodology at the Faculty of Education at USP .
Changes
“It seems to me that there has been a very relevant change in relation to how, in general, the evaluation parameters of these large-scale evaluations are defined”, says the professor. He comments that, because they are in direct contact with the children, the professionals consulted are able to know and assess what learning is possible at school for the children with whom they work.
In his evaluation, this consultation would make the evaluation process more appropriate, as it takes into account the school realities in the country and brings a broader perception of the national reality.
He warns, however, that great care must be taken with what one does with large-scale assessments, as they can be used to inform public policy without considering the local needs of schools, teachers and students.
“Evaluation can be used to classify schools and teaching networks as worse or better, disregarding local and regional social and economic realities, and the challenges that these realities pose for teaching, for learning, for schools”, he says. .
It still points to a problem: the research shows that what is indicated as necessary for a child to be considered literate differs greatly from what is established in the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC) about what students should learn in these first two years of schooling . “This seems to me to show quite well how far this document is from the realities of Brazilian public schools”, he concludes.