Report released this week details the reality, advances and bottlenecks in the 1st stage of basic education in Brazil
Report data Perceptions and Challenges of Public Early Childhood Education show that municipal education networks, responsible for managing early childhood education, adopt more literacy strategies and experiences with language than with mathematics. 
They also reveal that, while almost half (48%) of the municipalities adopt mathematical literacy strategies in early childhood education, progress is greater when it comes to practices focused on language and written culture, present in 76% of the municipalities.
The survey also reveals that 20% of municipal education departments say they do not have this type of initiative for early childhood.
Completed at the end of 2025, the report was released on Monday (May 25, 2026) by Itaú Social in partnership with the National Union of Municipal Education Directors. The diagnosis details the reality, advances and bottlenecks in the 1st stage of basic education in Brazil. Here is the study (PDF – 2 MB).
The research included the participation of 2,712 municipal education networks (49% of the country’s total). In each region, the research covered around half of the municipalities, except in the North (62% coverage) and the Southeast (33% coverage).
Another fact that draws attention is that 23% of city halls cannot say whether affiliated preschool units also adopt these literacy strategies in mathematics and language. The partners are partner units, hired when the municipality needs agility to meet local demands for vacancies.
The Development and Solutions Manager at Itaú Social, Sonia Dias, cited the need for monitoring mechanisms, technical support and minimum standardization to avoid educational inequalities within the same education network.
“It does not mean that, in the municipality, they are creating two parallel education networks. But, the role of the education departments in monitoring the service offered by the partner networks becomes even more important, just as they [secretarias] they do on their own networks”he declared.
Consolidated routine
Regarding the Municipal Education Departments, the publication points out that:
- 62% of networks support schools in bringing children into contact with nature and the environment;
- 58% offer continuing training focused on child development;
- 56% take active actions to guarantee student access and retention.
The national president of Undime and Secretary of Education of Nova Odessa (SP), Luiz Miguel Martins Garcia, reiterates that early childhood education is a decisive stage in the educational trajectory that impacts the entire school and social life of children.
“Municipal networks need to plan public policies for early childhood that consider listening to the school community, analyzing inequalities in each territory and a permanent commitment to guaranteeing the right to quality education.”, these.
Collaboration regime
The study also shows that 67% of municipal networks receive some support from the respective state education department for early childhood education, mainly for training and technical support.
However, a third of municipalities do not receive any support from the State Department for early childhood education. The main needs identified are: financial support, training and donation and/or loan of teaching materials.
For manager Sonia Dias, the coordination carried out by the Union, States and municipalities still needs to advance to reduce regional inequalities and support smaller and more vulnerable networks, in a collaborative manner.
It calls on States to be responsible for distributing their resources to support municipalities with more specific financing and technical assistance needs.
The expert also cited initiatives at the federal level such as the Fund for Maintenance and Development of Basic Education and Valorization of Education Professionals and the Direct Money at School Program.
“In addition to the transfer of resources, it is essential that schools, municipalities and education departments can also have access to technical assistance and guidance on the use of these resources.”
Pedagogical organization
Most municipalities (63%) adopt the state curriculum matrix, on a collaborative basis in the early childhood stage; 34% adopt their own curriculum in the classroom; and 2% do not have a curriculum for early childhood education.
In preschool, 78% of municipalities adapted the Political-Pedagogical Project to the adopted guidelines. The PPP is the document that guides the pedagogical organization of each school, defines its objectives, goals and the way in which the educational guidelines will be implemented in practice.
Among municipal education departments that have a PPP, 37% report difficulties in adapting this plan to the standards of the National Common Curricular Base.
In partner preschools, non-alignment of the PPP with the curriculum occurs in greater numbers compared to the direct network.
“All education units in that municipality must follow the PPP or the municipal education plan to have the same curricular guidelines, with the supervision of the education department”said Sonia Dias.
Transition to fundamentals
According to the report, the transition of children from preschool to the 1st year of elementary school is still fragile.
The study reveals that 17% of networks do not carry out any coordinated planning between the two stages and 13% do not adopt elementary transition strategies, such as the use of monitoring portfolios.
The report highlights difficulties in moving from an environment focused on games and interactions, such as early childhood education, to an environment with greater content routine, such as the early years of elementary school.
The greatest difficulties are associated with reception and management actions that guide the transition process.
The manager of Itaú Social, Sonia Dias, explains that the lack of pedagogical continuity between these two stages can significantly weaken the child’s educational journey, for example, generating trauma, school resistance and delays in the literacy process.
“These transition processes help to facilitate this moment that the child will end up dealing with as they continue their school journey. If they have a careful and welcoming process, it will facilitate their transition from one stage to another and, often, from one school to another.”
Deficient infrastructure
The study also heard from municipal leaders about the 3 main challenges in managing early childhood education. The inadequate physical infrastructure of teaching units leads the respondents’ responses, highlighted by 23%.
The complaints involve payments for the maintenance and operation of daycare centers and preschools, lack of resources or scarce investments in infrastructure, acquisition of teaching materials and the expansion of places in daycare centers.
Inclusion and diversity
Another pedagogical obstacle described by 15% of education managers interviewed in the survey is the inclusion of children with disabilities and/or neurodivergences.
The study suggests that policies to expand access to early childhood education need to be accompanied by environmental qualification strategies, which involve architectural accessibility, purchase of adapted materials and consolidation of inclusive practices in everyday life to guarantee effective learning conditions for this public.
“Depending on the disability presented, the child may need to be accompanied by an assistant to provide this service and support the teacher in the classroom. This demands resources, infrastructure and puts a significant burden on the municipalities, which are committed to providing this specialized service with quality, but they really need support and resources.”
In terms of educational provision for historically vulnerable populations, only 28% of municipal departments are able to implement proposals aimed at rural, indigenous and quilombola education modalities.
Continuing training
Among the biggest challenges facing municipal teaching networks in early childhood education, the following stand out:
- lack of adequate training for teachers and school managers on child development;
- lack of teams to provide ongoing training;
- low adherence of professionals to the ongoing training offered;
Still regarding teacher training, the research reveals that themes with a monthly frequency are more related to the pedagogical scope. Training sessions on inclusion and diversity themes are offered every six months.
Although continuing training mostly occurs on a bimonthly or monthly basis, 20% of education networks do not offer any type of training to their partner units or this training lasts for a shorter period of time compared to their own units.
Specialist Sonia Dias reinforces the need for policies that guarantee continued training, including in partner units, including to correct deficiencies in the initial training of teachers, especially due to the high number of teachers trained exclusively in distance learning (EAD), with little workload within the school.
“Continuing training is necessary. But it must be more in-depth and not just to compensate for deficient initial training, when applicable”.
Expansion of Full Time
The report concludes that national public policies, which previously focused only on opening vacancies, urgently need to be replaced by environmental qualification policies.
The excerpts on the management of new vacancies in daycare centers and the expansion of full-time early childhood education appear tied with 8% of mentions on the main challenges in managing education in Brazilian municipalities.
This text was originally published by Agência Brasil, on May 25, 2026. The content is free for republication, citing the source, and was adapted to the standard of Poder360.
