8 de July de 2026
In 2025, Brazil reached the milestone of 66% of children being literate by the end of the 2nd year of Elementary School, surpassing the target of 64% set for the year. The result, measured by the Literate Child Indicator (ICA) and released by Inep last week, represents an advance of 7 percentage points compared to 2024 and continues the positive trajectory of recent years. This performance demonstrates that the federal cooperation effort, with the Union, states, and municipalities acting in a coordinated manner, has produced concrete progress for students.
Maranhão stood out among the states that exceeded the target: 69% of children are literate by the end of the 2nd year, an increase of 9 percentage points since 2024, positioning it above the national average. As literacy is the first stage in which children’s learning is assessed on a large scale, the result measures not only the teaching and learning processes that occur at the beginning of Elementary School, but also the investments in public policies that begin much earlier, in Early Childhood Education. In this sense, the National Literate Child Commitment (CNCA) has included, since its inception, Early Childhood Education as a fundamental stage of the national effort to guarantee the right to literacy. The project “Aprender: Dentro e Fora da Escola” (Learning: Inside and Outside of School), developed by Labedu in partnership with Seduc-MA since 2019, is part of this effort.
The relationship between the quality of Early Childhood Education and the learning of reading and writing in the literacy cycle is backed by consolidated evidence: language experiences in the first years of life are one of the most important foundations of the journey leading to literacy. The more children are exposed to intentional practices of reading, listening, and speaking from daycare and preschool, the more solid the conditions are for them to learn to read and write in the following years. This requires teachers trained to understand language development in early childhood and to act with pedagogical intentionality in the daily routine of their classes.
“Maranhão’s results in the 2025 ICA show us what happens when a continuing education policy is built with consistency, over time, and through a collaborative regime. It is not an isolated action, but a systematic investment in the qualification of teachers and pedagogical practices that reach children every day, from Early Childhood Education to Elementary School. It is this accumulation that translates into learning,” states Nicole Paulet Piedra, Executive Director of Labedu.
Since 2019, the project “Aprender: Dentro e Fora da Escola” has supported Early Childhood Education educators in understanding language development in early childhood and strengthening reading, listening, and speaking practices in the daily routine of daycare centers and schools. Through a cascading training flow that covers all levels of the Maranhão collaboration regime, the project reached 217 municipalities, trained 22,000 teachers, and reached 290,000 children aged 0 to 5. In 2025, the cycle reached the autonomy phase: starting in 2026, Seduc-MA will fully assume the leadership of the training policy, sustained by the instruments, methodologies, and the network of professionals qualified throughout the entire journey.
The progress is significant and deserves recognition. At the same time, 34% of Brazilian children still complete the 2nd year of Elementary School without being literate, which reinforces the importance of maintaining and expanding investment in ongoing policies. Every child can learn, and guaranteeing this right depends on continuous investment in teacher training and the quality of pedagogical practices that reach children every day, starting from Early Childhood Education.