For the last 11 years, only four of the 27 state public school systems in Brazil could improve their high school students’ knowledge of language and math. The general conditions have stagnated at very low levels. There is actually a decrease in learning levels, even among the states that had the best results.

High school is considered the worst bottleneck in Brazil's K-12 education. Eight of ten high school students of the country go to public schools funded at the state level.

The results of the 2017 Saeb (Basic Education Evaluation System) were released on Thursday (30th) by the federal government. The Portuguese language and math results, with approval rates, make up the Ideb index (Basic Education Development Index), that assesses all schools in Brazil.

Students take the federal assessment in three different stages: fifth grade, ninth grade and the final year of school.

Evaluations for the first two grades, which assess students in elementary and middle school, overall improved as of last year, private and public schools considered. Only nine states had improvement in language and math in their public school systems at a high school level, in relation to 2015. But when the situation becomes worse when comparing the results from the last ten years.

Only the states of Espírito Santo, Goiás, Pernambuco, and Sergipe had significant improvement since 2007. During that period, these states increased at least 12 points in the grades for the two subjects. This increase is considered relevant and represents learning progress in the course of the school year.

_{Translated by NATASHA MADOV.}

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