13 de July de 2026
On August 25, Beatriz Cardoso, Labedu’s director, took part in the panel “Why is it so difficult to know how many students in the country are literate?”, during Jeduca’s 9th Congress, held in São Paulo. Alongside Katia Schweickardt, Secretary of Basic Education at the Ministry of Education (MEC), and Ernesto Faria, founding director of Interdisciplinarity and Evidence in the Educational Debate (Iede), Beatriz contributed reflections on the pedagogical challenges that shape the understanding of literacy data in Brazil.
In her remarks, Beatriz highlighted the complexity of the pedagogical field and the need for greater visibility of the processes that take place inside classrooms when educational assessment is discussed. “There is an entire world alongside assessment. There is the world of the school, and also the world of pedagogy, which is very sophisticated and complex. The teaching profession is one of the most demanding if we really break down everything that is at stake in a simple classroom situation,” she said.
She also drew attention to the role of journalists in increasing public interest in pedagogy by including this topic in coverage of assessment results. Making pedagogical challenges visible, then, is essential to promote real advances in learning. “For us to turn the tide, it is essential to give visibility to pedagogy. People need to be interested, understand, and want to talk about it.” According to Beatriz, the focus of public policies should be on the consistency of teaching practices and on building pathways that raise learning levels for everyone, rather than highlighting isolated initiatives by good teachers.
Beatriz also criticized the accountability logic that falls on teachers in light of the results of assessments such as Ideb, pointing to the lack of spaces for pedagogical discussion and concrete support for teaching practices. “What we have often seen is a real obsession with teaching to the test, to improve Ideb. That’s all anyone talks about. Very little is said about pedagogy, about the resources and mechanisms that exist to support the teacher, so that they understand the challenges and can translate that into classroom activities.”
The panel was moderated by Folha de S.Paulo journalist and Jeduca member Paulo Saldaña and brought together different perspectives on the challenges of measuring and ensuring literacy in the country, highlighting the importance of broadening the public debate on the pedagogical pathways that underpin this process.
Watch the panel “Why is it so difficult to know how many students in the country are literate?”: