Context
The Essential Learnings (EL), approved in 2018, have established themselves as the common national reference for what all students should learn throughout compulsory schooling, adopting a curricular format that is "less prescriptive but more guiding".“ [1], framing the learning outcomes planned for each subject or subject area of the curriculum within the document of Profile of Students Leaving Compulsory Education and in the international curriculum guidelines of the OECD and UNESCO[2].
Its creation was part of a broader process of redefining the primary and secondary education curriculum, aimed at responding to the growing diversity of educational contexts and preparing students for a constantly changing world, marked by rapid scientific and technological developments and challenges that require lifelong learning.
This revision results from the accumulated experience in implementing the Learning Outcomes within the curricular work developed in classrooms, as well as the need to update them. It is a process oriented towards... perfectçoamento from the framework, reinforcing its internal coherence, consistency, and usefulness as a tool to support curricular practices.
In this context, the AEs are reaffirmed as the corpus Common and fundamental knowledge, skills, and attitudes that all students should develop throughout their schooling, until the completion of compulsory education, in conjunction with the Student Profile.
Anchored in this understanding of the meaning of the AE, the review process focused on three central aspects: the reformulation of the original documents, in light of the relevance of update specific knowledge in different disciplinary areas; alignment and harmonization of terminology and form, in the sense of defining a common curricular language, that is, saying in the same way what can be said in the same way, regardless of the differences between disciplinary areas; and the extending the guiding nature of the AEs to the area of evaluation..
In the course of this process, the internal coherence of the documents was also reinforced, promoting greater articulation between the different cycles of schooling and a more consistent progression of learning, valuing its deepening rather than a merely cumulative logic of content.
In parallel, the articulation of Essential Learnings with the Citizenship and Development component is highlighted, in line with the National Strategy for Citizenship Education, emphasizing its cross-cutting nature and the contribution of all subjects to the integral formation of students, presenting examples of articulation of a merely illustrative nature.
In the domain of assessment, Its centrality in the teaching and learning process is reinforced, while guiding dimension for student progress and pedagogical practice. In this context, performance descriptors, organized by domain, are introduced, constituting a national benchmark that allows for the characterization of different levels of learning development and contributes to the definition of evaluation criteria while respecting the autonomy of schools.
The definition of two levels of performance aims to make explicit references to the progression of learning, distinguishing a level (Proficient) which translates to the consolidation of the planned learning outcomes and a level (Advanced) which demonstrates a more consistent, autonomous and in-depth mastery. These levels are common to different disciplines and subject areas, constituting a cross-cutting reference to support the interpretation of learning development. However, they should not be understood as a uniform scale nor as equivalent to external reference frameworks, such as the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, but rather as a guiding function within each discipline.
Thus, assessment is valued as an integral dimension of the teaching and learning process, highlighting strategies that promote student engagement, feedback, and regulation of learning, as well as the pedagogical use of the information collected.
The existence of clear, coherent, and accessible documents is a central concern of this review, as it is a fundamental condition for the quality of curriculum development in schools, supporting the appropriation of Essential Learnings by all teachers, including those who are at the beginning of their professional practice.
[1] Curriculum for primary and secondary education: Towards the construction of essential learning based on student profiles., 2017, p. 4.
[2] Ibid., p. 4.
Publicado em March 27, 2026
