After two years of the pandemic, parents and guardians say that students need tutoring to recover their learning. According to families, at least two out of three students will need support with some content. For 28% of those responsible, the priority of schools in the next two years should be precisely the promotion of reinforcement and recovery programs. 
The data are from the survey “Non-face-to-face education from the perspective of students and their families”, carried out by Datafolha at the request of Itaú Social, the Lemann Foundation and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Questions were asked over the phone to 1,306 parents and guardians of 1,850 students nationwide in December 2021.
For them, students should receive support in mathematics (71%), Portuguese language (70%), science (62%) and history (60%). Considering only children in the literacy phase, this percentage rises: 76% will need more attention from schools in the resumption of face-to-face classes, according to the families.
“It was difficult to close schools for all stages of education, but especially difficult for younger children, especially in the literacy phase”, says the manager of Research and Development at Itaú Social, Patricia Mota Guedes. “This put a burden on families, with an expertise that is not theirs. Literacy is one of the most difficult tasks”.
According to a survey recently released by the organization Todos pela Educação, based on data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), more than 40% of children aged 6 or 7 could not read or write in 2021, which represents more than 2.4 million children in the country.
face-to-face teaching
The survey also shows that 88% of public school students had their schools reopened in 2021. According to parents and guardians, 83% of students who returned to face-to-face activities are evolving in learning.
According to families, students who returned to face-to-face activities are more excited (86%), more optimistic about the future (80%), more independent to carry out tasks (84%) and more interested in studies (77%) than those who continued in remote learning, respectively 74%, 72%, 72% and 60%.
“A very important point is the support of families for face-to-face resumption, vaccination and the role of teachers. We observe, once again, the very strong support for the role of the teacher and the need to prioritize and value this professional. After all, they were two years in which they had close contact with teachers as never before”, says Patrícia.
The study also shows the perception of families that educational management should prioritize more training opportunities for teachers (23%), guarantee a salary increase for teachers (43%), improve school infrastructure (30%) and expand the use of technology in education (22%).
According to Patricia, the partnership with families will be essential for learning to resume. “May this partnership between school and family only be strengthened even more, because it is in this resumption of face-to-face classes, with the diagnosis [de aprendizagem dos alunos]that we will have the real dimension and the real magnitude of the teaching-learning challenge ahead of us in the next two, three years, at least”.
inequalities
The survey identified that, in December 2021, more than 800,000 students still did not receive any type of school activity, even though they were enrolled. One in four students ended the year without any face-to-face activities. Among students from low socioeconomic level schools, this rate reached 34%.
In 2022, education networks in Brazil are looking for strategies to conduct the school year. According to the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) and the Brazilian Society of Pediatrics, safety in the return to face-to-face classes, amid the wave of covid-19 transmission caused by the Ômicron variant, depends on the engagement of the entire school community, including the responsible. In addition to being aware of symptoms and protocols, parents should vaccinate themselves, vaccinate their children and participate in the prevention day to day.
The survey reveals that, in December 2021, 89% of students aged 12 to 17 years old were vaccinated and that in the case of 76% of children aged 6 to 11 years, parents and guardians declared that they intended to vaccinate them immediately. .
