Brazil, literacy for development

Convinced that with education a child can always become a good man, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed a new decree to subsidize actions to promote literacy and guarantee it until the end of the second year of primary education in Brazil.

“The commitment is not an idea that the Ministry of Education pulled out of its hat, on the contrary, it was built after much dialogue with specialists and managers from other federative levels.

It was born from collaboration and with cooperation it will come out of paper and will make a difference in the classrooms”, affirmed Lula, who expects the adherence of the 27 governors to the initiative.

After the signing at the Planalto Palace, the seat of executive power in Brasilia, the president denounced that the “Brazilian State has failed miserably in recent years,” without citing former President Jair Bolsonaro.

For the founder of the Workers’ Party, the ex-military man was shipwrecked because he thought that transferring funds to primary schools was an expense that would compromise the fiscal balance. “It failed because it did not guarantee quality school meals, because when the pandemic (of the Covid-19 ) led to the closure of the classrooms,” he said.

He insisted that the previous ruler did not formulate emergency solutions for education, preferring denialism and hate speech. “The result could not be otherwise,” he remarked.

The new decree will subsidize specific actions in the states, municipalities and the Federal District for the promotion of literacy for all children in the country.

This initiative tries to meet the goal set forth in the National Education Plan, in addition to trying to address the impacts caused by the Covid-19 pandemic on the learning of children.

Data from the Alfabetiza Brasil research reveal that non-literate students reach 56.4 percent due to their performance in the Basic Education Assessment System in 2021.