The increasing sophistication and demands of reading and writing in daily life have forced us to go beyond the concept of literacy restricted to the initial learning of reading and writing, and to extend it in order to contemplate the preoccupations with the conditions, the opportunities and skills people have – or need to have – to meet these diverse demands.
With this in mind, Paulo Montenegro Institute and Ação Educativa announce the results of the Inaf – 2004, which, like the previous three editions (INAF 2001, 2002 and 2003), provides Brazilian society with up to date information on reading and calculation skills and practices of our young and adult population.
The objective of systematically carrying out these national surveys on youth and adult literacy, and of the constant generation of this information, is to contribute to the understanding and dimensioning of Brazilian education problems in order to foster public debate and guide the formulation, implementation and evaluation of educational policies and pedagogical proposals.
In 2004, repeating what had already occurred in 2002, Inaf focused on the mathematical skills of the Brazilian population which are required in everyday tasks. In odd years, as it happened in 2001 and 2003, and will occur again in 2005, INAF deals specifically with reading and writing skills.