Education under Sarney

1985–1990 · 1985 (acting, Tancredo Neves ill)

Adults' mean years of schooling changed +0.1 between 1990 and 1991, the first years of the UNDP series; before that the catalog has no data. This government reorganized financing (regulation of the 1983 earmark and the 1988 Constitution), textbooks and adult literacy.

This visualization is descriptive and does not show that a government caused the change. See the methodology.

What started

Regulation of the education revenue earmark

1985-07-24 · Lei 7.348/1985 · Checked against the official record on 2026-11-01

Defines the revenue and how the Union, states, Federal District and municipalities apply the minimum share earmarked for maintaining and developing education (Calmon Amendment).

Source: www2.camara.leg.br
Series in the event's year (Brazil)
- Mean years of schooling (UNDP): no data years
- Adult literacy rate (% of people aged 15 and over): no data %
National Textbook Program (PNLD)

1985-08-19 · Decreto 91.542/1985 · Checked against the official record on 2026-11-01

Replaces the previous textbook program and lets teachers choose the textbooks distributed to public schools.

Source: legis.senado.leg.br
Series in the event's year (Brazil)
- Mean years of schooling (UNDP): no data years
- Adult literacy rate (% of people aged 15 and over): no data %
Educar Foundation

1985-11-25 · Decreto 91.980/1985 · Checked against the official record on 2026-11-01

Transforms Mobral into the National Foundation for Youth and Adult Education (Educar), the federal youth and adult literacy agency.
- Afterwards, 1990: Ended · Decreto 99.240/1990 — Dissolved in 1990 by the next government's administrative reform.
Source: legis.senado.leg.br
Series in the event's year (Brazil)
- Mean years of schooling (UNDP): no data years
- Adult literacy rate (% of people aged 15 and over): no data %
Education in the 1988 Constitution

1988-10-05 · Constituição Federal de 1988 · Not yet checked against the official record

Establishes education as a right, free compulsory primary education, university autonomy, democratic management and revenue earmarking, with a Union minimum higher than the Calmon Amendment's.

Source: www.planalto.gov.br
Series in the event's year (Brazil)
- Mean years of schooling (UNDP): no data years
- Adult literacy rate (% of people aged 15 and over): no data %

Cuts, withholdings and limits

No cut recorded for this period.

Change in the series over the period

From the year before the start to the last year of the period, with an optional lag. Compare with Latin America and neighbors: if all moved together, the change is probably not a government's doing.

Absolute change in the series unit (p.p. = percentage points); relative change, in %, only where shown.

no lag

Indicator	Window	Brazil	Argentina	Chile	Colombia	Mexico	Latin America & Caribbean
Mean years of schooling (UNDP) years	1984–1989 *	no data	no data	no data	no data	no data	no data
Adult literacy rate (% of people aged 15 and over) %	1984–1989 *	no data	no data	no data	no data	no data	+1.9 p.p.

1-year lag

Indicator	Window	Brazil	Argentina	Chile	Colombia	Mexico	Latin America & Caribbean
Mean years of schooling (UNDP) years	1985–1990 *	no data	no data	no data	no data	no data	no data
Adult literacy rate (% of people aged 15 and over) %	1985–1990 *	no data	no data	no data	no data	no data	+1.8 p.p.

2-year lag

Indicator	Window	Brazil	Argentina	Chile	Colombia	Mexico	Latin America & Caribbean
Mean years of schooling (UNDP) years	1986–1991 *	no data	no data	no data	no data	no data	no data
Adult literacy rate (% of people aged 15 and over) %	1986–1991 *	no data	no data	no data	no data	no data	+2.2 p.p.

Pace before and during the government

Yearly change in this window, against the same length immediately before. Talk of a change in pace only when the series moved differently before; even then it does not say why. If Latin America changed pace together, the cause is probably not the government.

Indicator	Before	During	Latin America & Caribbean: before → during

Mean years of schooling (UNDP)

Brazil
Argentina
Chile
Colombia
Mexico

years. Background bands: Brazil's presidents, not those of the chart's other geographies. Years with data: all series: 1990–2023.

Mean years of schooling (UNDP): Source: UNDP — Human Development Report · Source version: HDR 2025 · Collected on: 2026-10-26 · License: CC-BY-3.0-IGO
Download data (CSV) · View the code: collection code · chart.ts

View the data as a table

Year	Brazil	Argentina	Chile	Colombia	Mexico
1990	3.7	8.1	8.4	6.3	5.9
1991	3.8	8.2	8.5	6.4	6.0
1992	4.0	8.3	8.5	6.4	6.1
1993	4.1	8.3	8.6	6.5	6.2
1994	4.3	8.4	8.7	6.6	6.2
1995	4.4	8.5	8.8	6.6	6.3
1996	4.6	8.5	8.9	6.7	6.4
1997	4.8	8.6	8.9	6.7	6.4
1998	4.9	8.7	9.0	6.8	6.5
1999	5.1	8.7	9.1	6.8	6.6
2000	5.3	8.8	9.1	6.9	6.7
2001	5.4	8.9	9.3	6.9	6.8
2002	5.6	9.4	9.4	7.0	7.0
2003	5.8	9.9	9.6	7.0	7.1
2004	6.0	10.0	9.7	7.1	7.3
2005	6.2	10.1	9.7	7.3	7.5
2006	6.3	10.2	9.8	6.8	7.9
2007	6.5	10.3	9.8	7.2	7.9
2008	6.7	10.4	10.1	7.3	7.9
2009	6.8	10.5	10.0	7.3	8.1
2010	6.9	10.6	9.9	7.4	8.0
2011	7.0	10.7	9.5	7.5	8.3
2012	7.2	10.8	9.8	7.6	8.5
2013	7.3	10.9	10.0	7.8	8.4
2014	7.4	10.9	10.1	8.0	8.4
2015	7.5	10.9	10.3	8.1	8.6
2016	7.7	10.9	10.4	8.2	8.6
2017	7.8	11.0	10.6	8.4	8.7
2018	8.0	11.1	10.8	8.5	8.9
2019	8.1	11.1	10.9	8.6	9.1
2020	8.3	11.1	11.1	8.9	9.2
2021	8.4	11.2	11.3	9.0	9.3
2022	8.4	11.2	11.3	9.0	9.3
2023	8.4	11.2	11.3	9.0	9.3

† series break

Adult literacy rate (% of people aged 15 and over)

Brazil
Argentina
Chile
Colombia
Mexico

%. Background bands: Brazil's presidents, not those of the chart's other geographies. Years with data: Brazil: 1980–2024 (22 years); Argentina: 1980–2020 (4 years); Chile: 1982–2017 (7 years); Colombia: 1993–2024 (21 years); Mexico: 1980–2024 (25 years).

Adult literacy rate (% of people aged 15 and over): Source: World Bank — World Development Indicators · Source version: 2026-10-08 · Collected on: 2026-11-01 · License: CC-BY-4.0
Download data (CSV) · View the code: collection code · chart.ts

View the data as a table

Year	Brazil	Argentina	Chile	Colombia	Mexico
1980	74.6	93.9	–	–	83.0
1982	–	–	91.1	–	–
1990	–	–	–	–	87.6
1991	–	96.0	–	–	–
1992	–	–	94.3	–	–
1993	–	–	–	91.1	–
1996	–	–	–	91.2	–
2000	86.4	–	–	–	90.5
2001	–	97.2	–	–	–
2002	–	–	95.7	–	90.3
2004	88.6	–	–	92.8	90.9
2005	–	–	–	92.8	91.6
2006	89.6	–	–	92.3	91.7
2007	90.0	–	–	92.7	92.8
2008	90.0	–	–	93.4	92.9
2009	90.3	–	–	93.2	93.4
2010	90.4	–	–	93.4	93.1
2011	91.4	–	96.7	93.6	93.5
2012	91.3	–	–	–	94.2
2013	91.5	–	96.3	–	94.0
2014	91.7	–	–	94.2	94.6
2015	92.1	–	96.9	94.3	94.5
2016	92.8	–	–	94.7	94.9
2017	93.1	–	96.4	94.9	95.0
2018	93.2	–	–	95.1	95.4
2019	93.9	–	–	95.3	95.4
2020	94.7	99.1	–	95.6	95.3
2021	94.8	–	–	95.7	95.7
2022	94.4	–	–	95.3	95.1
2023	94.6	–	–	95.5	95.8
2024	94.7	–	–	95.3	95.6

† series break

How to assess a government and its policies critically

Other factors that moved the same series

Very high inflation and stabilization plans (Cruzado, Bresser, Verão) eroded teacher pay and public budgets; states and municipalities, not the Union, held most enrollments. The 1988 Constitution raised the federal minimum for education spending, with effect on budgets in the following years.

Limitations

The items on this page were written from research in secondary sources, without access to the official texts in the development environment; each item shows whether it was checked against the official record.
Mean years of schooling and adult literacy move slowly by construction and reflect decades of enrollment; a change within one term does not measure that term's policies. Enrollment series by level only start in 2007 or 2012, and the catalog has no learning series or federal spending in reais.

Sources

#	Number	Origin
1	+0.1	undp_hdr.mys Δ BRA 1990→1991 · UNDP — Human Development Report · Source version HDR 2025 · Collected on 2026-10-26