Seven months ago, some elementary school students could barely read every third word in this paragraph in a minute. Today you can tour it completely. Evaluations from the Ministry of Education show progress in the reading fluency of second, fourth and fifth grade students, with improvements that ranged between 11 and 16 words per minute and notable cases in several schools.
The text you just read contains 63 words, the amount that students from a rural school in Poptún, Petén, managed to read, who went from reading 18 to more than 63 words per minute, according to an evaluation carried out by the Ministry of Education (Mineduc) in 2025.
Students took an initial reading test in April 2025 to find out how many words they read per minute. Second-grade students read an average of 48.2 words, according to the results, which was below the minimum level, which ranges between 50 and 70.
In fourth grade, the measurement established that the children had a fluency of 92.08 words per minute, so they were at the minimum level of 50 to 97 for the grade. While in the fifth year of primary school they read an average of 101.66 words in the established time, when the lowest level ranges between 50 and 104.
As part of the National Apprenticeship Strategy (ENA), last October the Ministry of Education carried out a second evaluation to establish progress in reading fluency. The results show an improvement, to the point that fourth and fifth grade children reached a advanced rhythm.
In the case of second grade, the children went from reading an average of 48.62 words per minute to 64.83. It is an overall improvement of 16 more words although below the advanced level.
However, there are educational centers that managed to surpass these data: the students of the Official Rural Mixed School (EORM) of the village El Cerrón, Olopa, Chiquimulathey went from reading 41.92 words per minute to 75, achieving an improvement of 33.08 additional words and reaching the advanced fluency level.
Some establishments obtained an exemplary improvement, such as the Official Rural Mixed School of the Corozal hamlet, Poptún, Peténwhere in the initial evaluation it was recorded that the children read 18.14 words per minute and, in seven months, they increased 45.43 words, so in the final test the reading pace reached 63.57.
Fourth grade students also showed progress, increasing an average of 11 words in the established reading time; However, there are educational centers that had better results: the Official Rural Mixed School of the neighborhood San José, El Chal, Peténwent from 88.58 words per minute to 115, an improvement of 26.42. The most significant progress was made by the Rubén Darío Mixed Urban Official School, in the municipality of Santa Lucía Utatlán, Sololáwhose students went from reading 66.25 to 110.75 words per minute. The increase was 44.5. The result shows a advanced fluency.
However, speed is not everything.
National Reading Program
When a person does not have reading fluency, it is difficult for the brain to understand what they read. Therefore, for Mineduc it was necessary to level or improve the reading rate of students, which has been achieved with the Learning Leveling Strategy (ENA), which enriches the National Reading Program, which the ministry relaunched on May 15 with updated matrices.
According to Francisco Cabrera, technical vice minister of Mineduc, the program will also give a space to writing, since in modern education both processes are associated and complement each other so that students achieve the necessary skills for life.
The emphasis is on pre-primary and primarywhich is where the reading process begins, and will be extended to both cycles of secondary school. Specific periods will be dedicated to reading and writing, with materials and techniques that develop them.
“Reading is a different process from writing, but many elements complement and share each other, such as vocabulary, its mastery and breadth, and the way of articulation; when writing, the ability to understand is also reinforced,” says Cabrera.
The focus of the National Reading Program goes beyond the student reading; aims for the school to become the center for children and young people to develop affective and cognitive skills that allow them to go from literal understanding towards the critical understandingwhich is not automatic, but is generated through induced processes that translate into learning activities before and after reading.
“We learn to speak naturally, simply by listening to other people speak and sharing with them. But the human brain does not learn to read naturally, it needs training.”
Francisco Cabrera, Technical Vice Minister of Mineduc
Reading, the official adds, requires certain parameters, structure and intentionality to achieve progress.
“We want children not only to decode or spell; we want them to know how to say what the main idea was, give a summary of what they read or explain what they think about what they have read, which are activities of a different complexity,” he says.
The low results of the graduating tests They are a reflection of the limitations that students have in their school career in the area of Reading, according to the vice minister. In 2025, only 23% of students reached an excellent level and 12% were classified as satisfactory; for the remaining 65%, achievement was unsatisfactory.
If a student learns to read “well,” academic success is assured, but they also acquire the necessary tools to learn in other contexts and in other languages, which will allow them to develop in life.
As part of the National Reading Program, the Mineduc launched the collection Never Told Stories, which are inspired by the Guatemalan author Miguel Ángel Oxlaj Cúmez.
The importance of reading
According to Diana López de Sánchez, children’s literature editor and director of IBBY Guatemala, it is important to develop a good reading competence in children, especially to avoid functional illiteracy, which occurs when people know how to read, but do not understand what they read. In Guatemala, the PISA tests show a worrying increase in this problem, which affects people’s academic and social performance in the long term.
He adds that reading is not only for entertainment, but is essential for language development, he complex thinking and the cognitive abilities. Through this, children enrich their vocabulary, improve their communication and develop the ability to analyze and transform reality.
Furthermore, it is essential for learning, university success and the formation of a society with critical thinking, capable of making informed decisions and demanding rights.
“A society that does not know how to read and that does not practice the use of its language has no capacity to communicate, much less to demand rights, nor to create new realities,” López reflects.