This paper is primarily focused on analysing recent evidence on learning achievement in Peru from three different viewpoints: (i) levels of achievement; (ii) equity gaps in achievement; (iii) the relationship between achievement and teachers’ characteristics. The paper is focused on primary education and based upon nationally-produced information.The paper shows that student achievement levels are low and, at the same time, the important pace of progress recorded between 2007 and 2010 that has slowed down in the most recent period. At the same time, this aggregated progress has gone hand in hand with an overwhelming intensification of disparities in student achievement when results are observed by gender (the equity dimension with the smallest gaps); location (urban/rural); school management (public/private); class organisation (multi-grade/single-grade); mother tongue(Amerindian/Spanish); and socioeconomic status (measured at school level).Finally, the paper provides some reflections on current and recent educational policies and the need to conduct systematic evaluations of them to properly establish their relationship with changes in student achievement.