Tarcísio wants to teach 90% of SP children to read and write by 2026 – 02/19/2024 – Education

Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) will launch this Tuesday (20) the Alfabetiza Juntos program, with the promise of reaching the end of the mandate, in 2026, with 90% of children in public schools across the state of São Paulo literate by the end of the 2nd year of elementary school.

The program will receive resources from the federal government, through the National Literacy Child Commitment, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s (PT) main banner for education.

Currently, only 40.62% of children in public schools in São Paulo reach the end of the 2nd year, around seven years of age, with a set of skills to be considered literate, according to the country’s main assessment, the Saeb (Basic Education Assessment System).

This means that, of the more than 2.3 million students in public schools in São Paulo, only 960 thousand finish the 2nd year being able, for example, to read short texts or write a simple message, such as an invitation. To reach the goal, the Tarcísio government will have to more than double the number of literate children at this stage.

The goal established by the governor is more ambitious than the MEC (Ministry of Education) proposal for the state. The federal government proposed that São Paulo commit to having 80% of children literate at the right age by 2030.

“We are very concerned about literacy, because it is the crucial point for the student to have a successful school career. Municipalities take care of the first years of education, we need to help them to better teach children literacy so that they reach the next stages in state schools with full learning potential”, he told Sheet the state secretary of education, Renato Feder.

According to him, the program was structured so that the state government provides technical and pedagogical support so that the municipalities of São Paulo are better able to guarantee that children reach this stage being able to read and write — municipal networks are responsible for 75% of enrollments in students in the early years of elementary school.

Several studies indicate that children who are not literate at the correct age have a greater chance of failing at school in the following years, failing and dropping out of school, which has consequences for their entire adult lives.

Alfabetiza Juntos was created in partnership with Associação Bem Comum, which receives support from Fundação Lemann and Instituto Natura. The association has a program drawn up based on the experience of the PAIC (Literacy Pact at the Right Age) created in Ceará, a state that currently has the best results in the country.

The proposal to be implemented in São Paulo will follow the same model. The national pact, drawn up by minister Camilo Santana, former governor of Ceará, intended precisely to encourage partnership between states and municipalities.

One of the main aspects of PAIC was the work of the state Department of Education in collaboration with municipalities, which concentrate stage enrollments — teacher training and teaching materials, for example, were centralized in the state government. The MEC program invests in a similar management architecture.

According to Feder, the São Paulo government will offer teaching materials (printed and digital) to municipalities to be used in early years classes. In addition, it will offer training for literacy teachers and external assessments to measure student progress.

Enthusiastic about the use of digital tools in education, Feder also invested in hiring an application that will allow teachers to assess students’ reading fluency, that is, the number of words they can read per minute and identify the mistakes they make.

The Elefante Letrado platform was contracted in January this year, at a cost of R$0.85 per student per month — the total number of students depends on the adhesion of São Paulo municipalities to the program.

Last year, the department administered a reading fluency assessment for the first time to 2nd year students from all education systems. Teachers recorded children’s reading and a system diagnosed their proficiency level.

According to the evaluation, 64% of the children were considered readers and 36% were in the pre-reading stage. Feder stated that the goal of reaching 90% of children literate at the right age will be measured by this indicator, not by the national test, the Saeb, which is the main thermometer of Brazilian education.

“The Saeb is only administered every two years, our reading fluency test will be administered annually for a more accurate diagnosis,” said the secretary. He did not explain the significant difference in the results obtained by each of the assessments.

Municipalities have the autonomy to adhere to each stage of the program. They may, for example, refuse to receive teaching materials from the state government, but only participate in the evaluation part.

According to the Department of Education, of the 645 municipalities in São Paulo, 480 expressed interest in the initiative and are already receiving digital materials. In the fluency assessment applied in 2023, 600 cities registered their schools.

“Municipalities are free to evaluate what works for their reality. They do not need to adhere to everything we are offering, but we are providing this support to improve literacy throughout the state. It is an effort by all federal entities”, said Márcia Bernardes, São Paulo coordinator of the Literacy Child Commitment.