In 2011, ten years since the first edition of Inaf, it has come up an opportunity to reflect on the progress made and the demands that still persist with regard to the development of literacy levels in Brazil.
Large-scale assessments of school performance such as Prova Brasil, ENEM and others, at the state and municipal levels, have fueled public debate about the quality of education systems. Many governmental and nongovernmental initiatives have been put in action to transform the right to school into the effective right to learn, at school and throughout life.
In addition to the educational data, the mismatch between the supply and demand of skilled jobs and the difficulties to leverage the productivity and competitiveness of the Brazilian production in a global market reconfirm the need to prioritize education as a national project and a citizen’s right.
The Inaf Brasil, by portraying the literacy levels of the Brazilian adult population, brings unpublished and complementary data that demonstrate the need for implementing and strengthening strategies that combine public policies and initiatives of civil society that ensure the incorporation of increasingly bigger portions of Brazilians into literacy culture, information society, social and political participation and a range of decent, responsible and creative work opportunities.