Public Early Literacy Policies

Abstract: In the 2016 National Early Literacy Assessment (ANA) (INEP, 2017), 2,160,601 students from Brazilian public schools were evaluated at the end of the 3rd year of the Early Literacy Cycle, in reading and writing, among whom only 12.99% reached the aimed level (4) in reading and only 8.28% reached the aimed level (5) in writing. However, in the town of Lagarto (Sergipe State), which, according to the aforementioned evaluation, had ranked last in Brazil, with only 3.02% of students at the aimed level in reading, and penultimate place in writing, with only 1.84%, things became quite different. Being taught by the Scliar Early Literacy System, seventy children were reading with fluency and comprehension and, above all, with pleasure, by the end of their first year, in 2017. I analyze two documents on early literacy public policies: The final version of the Common National Curricular Base (BRAZIL, MEC 2017) and the decree 9.765 of April 11, 2019, which establishes the National Literacy Policy, and I explain why the lack of knowledge about advances in sciences such as linguistics, psycholinguistics, neuropsychology and neuroscience leads to failure in early literacy.