Some
say that it is inefficient to spend money on literacy
programs for adults who would have little to offer the
national economy. First, the 20 million people learning
to read and write would become a considerable workforce.
Second, it may even be inefficient, but it is decent.
by: Cristovam
Buarque
When
our flag was created in 1889, at least 70 percent of Brazilian adults
were illiterate. Even so, the leaders of the new republic chose a flag
that would only be understood by 30 percent of the population, those
who knew how to read Auguste Comte’s words "Order and Progress"
on it. The remaining 70 percent did not matter to the leaders. By law,
the flag of 30 percent of the population became the flag of all Brazilians,
including those who did not know how to recognize it completely.
One
hundred years later, the percentage has diminished but there has been
an increase in the absolute number of Brazilians impeded from completely
recognizing their flag. In the Brazil of today, 20 million Brazilians
do not know their flag because they are unable to read the slogan written
upon it.
One
year before the creation of the new flag and the new Republic, Brazil
was still experiencing the shame of being a slave-ocratic country. One
hundred thirteen years later, the process of abolition has still not
been completed, and neither has the republic.
The
social inequality, especially in education and health, is shameful,
incompatible with a republic. As is, for example, the fact that Brazil
spends, as a lifetime average, R$ 240 thousand (US$ 81 thousand) on
the education of a person of the middle or upper class, while spending
only R$ 3,200 (US$ 1081) on a poor person since a rich person spends
an average of 20 years in school while the average poor Brazilian stays
only four.
In
none of the modern monarchies is there such a large differentiation
between the poor and the aristocracy. Brazil has the most aristocratic
republic of the modern world, and its flag is an example of this. Even
today, the Republic has a flag that is not recognized by 15 to 20 percent
of its adult population.
To
correct that absurdity, we could change the flag, removing the letters
so that the illiterate could recognize merely the stars. After all,
instead of changing the reality, the Brazilian elite customarily only
pretend to solve the problems of the poor.
Thus
it was with the prohibition, for appearance sake, of the trafficking
in slaves with the Lei do Ventre Livre (Law of the Free Womb)
and the Lei do Sexagenário (Law of the Sixty-Year-Old),
which emancipated babies born of slaves and slaves over the age of sixty-five,
respectively. Thus it was with the false aristocratic republic, with
the economic growth without income distribution, with the dictatorship
in the name of liberty, and with the new democracy without any sort
of social reform, the latter continuing to the present, 18 years later.
Instead
of changing the flag to pretend that it is everyone’s, we must adopt
the banner of literacy for all Brazilians. And put an end to the mere
continuation of programs that emancipate only some from the slavery
of illiteracy, programs that would take decades to solve the problem.
Rather, we should take concrete actions to make all Brazil literate
in four years.
As
is usual when services to poor people are radicalized, many are raising
doubts about the feasibility of this objective. Some say that it is
inefficient to spend money on literacy programs for adults who would
have little to offer the national economy. In the first place, the 20
million people learning to read and write would become a considerable
workforce. Therefore, economy. In the second place, perhaps it may even
be inefficient, but it is decent. And decency should take precedence
over efficiency.
Others
say that it is technically impossible, without perceiving the absurdity
of thinking one hundred million literate Brazilians could not succeed
in teaching the other twenty million to read. If each of the three million
university students would dedicate the time of an additional class for
the length of the course, six hours per week for a semester, 20 million
adults could be taught to read and write in a single year.
As
a country that produces R$ 1.321 trillion (US$ 446 billion) per year,
exports R$ 208 billion (US$ 69.6 billion) and spends R$ 13.7 billion
(US$ 4.62 billion) upon advertising so that Brazilians will be familiar
with the goods and services produced by their economy, couldn’t Brazil
reserve, at the maximum, R$ 250 thousand (US$ 84,459) annually so that
its compatriots could recognize the flag of Brazil? This would be the
amount it would take, not counting any volunteers in the literacy campaign.
But
it is not enough to teach adults to read and write. It is necessary
to turn off the faucet producing new illiterate Brazilians each year.
This is the case of the children without schools who do not learn to
read and who, consequently, will not continue their studies.
Brazil
has the resources. It has a President of the Republic who has made a
commitment to the education of the Brazilian people at a time in which
all perceive the necessity of overcoming the 115 years of an incomplete
abolition and of an aristocratic republic that never invested in the
education of its poor people.
It
is possible. And the time is now.
As
this is being written, the Biennial of the Book is underway in Rio de
Janeiro. This is one of the major cultural events of the planet; yet
millions of Brazilians are excluded from the beauty and richness offered
by this cultural fair. Excluded even from the right of recognizing the
National Flag flying. Besides displaying and selling books, the Biennial
could have a goal as its banner: within four years, no Brazilian will
be excluded from the right to enjoy the Biennial of 2007. The slogan
would be: "Let all Brazilians be capable of knowing the Brazilian
flag."
Our
banner is to make our flag belong to everyone.
Cristovam
Buarque (cristovambuarque@uol.com)
is the Brazilian Minister of Education.
Translated
by Linda Jerome (LinJerome@cs.com)
document.write(“Email this article“);
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