Reaching the marginalized: EFA global monitoring report, 2010; 2010

PROGRESS TOWARDS THE EFA GOALSYouth and adult literacyBox 2.21: Brazil — ‘making people literate’Around 14 million Brazilian youth, adults and elderlypeople lack basic reading and writing skills. TheLiterate Brazil Programme (Programa BrasilAlfabetizado) initiated by President Luiz Inácio Lulada Silva in 2003 is the first concerted national effortto consign illiteracy to the history books.The programme is coordinated by the Ministry ofEducation but operates through a highly decentralizedstructure. It functions in 3,699 municipalities, justover 1,000 of which have been accorded prioritystatus because they have illiteracy rates over 25%.The effort primarily targets disadvantaged groupssuch as indigenous people, small farmers and farmworkers, child labourers (as part of the Programmeto Eradicate Child Labour) and people covered underthe Bolsa Familia social protection programme.Literate Brazil is open to anyone over 15 with less thana year of education. Thus far it has provided literacytraining to about 8 million learners. Literacy classestypically last six to eight months and are attendedby groups of eighteen to twenty-five learners. Federaltransfers cover the cost of training and providinggrants to literacy facilitators, many of whom areteachers. Literacy textbooks are produced in locallanguages and reflect local circumstances and needs.Innovative pedagogical approaches have beendeveloped. Teaching is organized around the ideaof ‘making people literate’ through dynamic learningprocesses that lead to the acquisition of reading,writing and numeracy skills. Students’ abilities areassessed and recorded by government agencies,and qualifications are provided that can be usedto enter formal education.Literate Brazil has been about more than providingservices. Political leaders have challenged the cultureof silence and indifference surrounding illiteracy.A Ministry of Education programme has put thedevelopment of textbooks for literacy, a previouslyneglected subject, on the same footing as books forprimary and secondary school. Prizes are awardedfor the development of literacy materials and the bestentries are integrated into national programmes, withspecific prizes for black Brazilians, an educationallydisadvantaged group.Sources: Brazil Ministry of Education (2008);Henriques and Ireland (2007); Ireland (2007, 2008);UIL (2009); UNESCO Brasilia (2009).Many literacy programmes also continue to sufferfrom low rates of uptake and completion.On the other hand, programmes that provide foractive learning through a relevant curriculum andoffer follow-up have achieved results. Many suchprogrammes are built on partnerships, extendingfrom local communities to non-government actorsand government agencies. One prominentexample is Reflect. Developed and coordinatedby ActionAid, an international charity, it focuseson the learners’ own literacy objectives, motivationand skills (Riddell, 2001). It not only promotes theuse of real texts from the environment but alsoencourages participants to generate their owntexts. It further aims to transform the broaderliteracy environment, for example by campaigningfor newspapers to use local language or texts moreaccessible to adult literacy learners (Aderinoyeand Rogers, 2005). The programme is currentlyapplied in Bangladesh, Pakistan and many othercountries (Duffy et al., 2008).Bilingual education is critical to the success ofliteracy programmes aimed at indigenous peopleand ethnic minorities. Here, too, many governmentshave openly acknowledged the mistakes of the past.Several governments in Latin America – includingthose of Chile, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay andPeru – and the UN Economic Commission for LatinAmerica and the Caribbean have developed aregional poverty reduction strategy incorporatingbilingual literacy training for indigenous groups(Latin American and the Caribbean DemographicCenter, 2009; Stockholm Challenge, 2008).ConclusionMuch has been achieved through the scaling upof literacy initiatives since 2000. However, themonitoring evidence is unambiguous: the 2015targets will not be reached on the currenttrajectory. Far more has to be done to accelerateprogress. This will require stronger politicalleadership. Governments across the world continueto attach too little weight to literacy in nationalplanning. This is short-sighted. Illiteracy imposeshuge costs on society and the economy – andinvestments in literacy have the potential togenerate large returns in both areas.The Literate BrazilProgramme hasprovided literacytraining to about8 million learners103