UNESCO is preparing to release the results of the 2025 Regional Comparative and Explanatory Study (ERCE 2025), the region’s leading primary education assessment. The study will provide insights into how students are learning across Latin America and the Caribbean and generate new evidence to guide education policies and strengthen the region’s teaching and learning systems.
The first results will be presented in December 2026 and will focus on learning achievement in Reading and Mathematics in Grade 3, and in Reading, Mathematics and Science in Grade 6. This information will make it possible to analyse student performance, identify progress and challenges compared with previous assessments such as ERCE 2019 and TERCE 2013, and deepen understanding of the gaps that persist across the region’s education systems.
ERCE 2025 is conducted by UNESCO’s Latin American Laboratory for Assessment of the Quality of Education (LLECE), in collaboration with the 18 participating countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico—through the state of Nuevo León—Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. This is the fifth edition of the regional study, which has a history spanning more than three decades of generating evidence on student learning and the conditions in which it takes place.
The study seeks not only to determine how much students learn but also to understand the factors associated with their learning. Its results will therefore provide a broader perspective on the conditions and experiences that shape educational opportunities for children and adolescents, offering relevant information for decision-making and the design of public policies.
A broader perspective in 2027
The release of the ERCE 2025 results will continue throughout 2027. In a second phase, information on the socioemotional skills of students across the region will be released in April 2027. This area is increasingly important for holistic education and for developing educational communities capable of responding to current challenges.
The skills examined by the study include openness to diversity, empathy and self-regulation in school —which were assessed in the previous edition— as well as two newly incorporated skills: academic self-efficacy and co-operative work. These results will provide deeper insights into the dimensions that complement academic learning and are essential to students’ relationships with others, well-being and participation in their educational communities.
The results of the Writing assessment are also scheduled to be released during the second half of 2027, further broadening understanding of the learning and educational experiences of students across the region.
“ERCE results are a fundamental tool that enables countries to examine their education systems from both regional and national perspectives, identify shared challenges and, at the same time, recognise the experiences and conditions that can help improve well-being and learning. Evidence becomes meaningful when knowledge is translated into action and used to inform education policy decisions that provide the support needed to broaden opportunities for students,” said Carlos Henríquez Calderón, Coordinator of UNESCO’s LLECE Laboratory.
