O World Literacy Day was created in September 8, 1967 by the United Nations (UN), through the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco). The date aims to highlight the importance of literacy for world social and economic development.
Importance of literacy
Literacy is the basis of education, which, in turn, is a human right based on Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). However, access to quality basic education is still a distant reality for many people, who find it difficult to become literate or continue their studies through the social differences, due to different prejudices, gender disparities and cultural taboos.
Without access to education, there is no development, there is no full exercise of citizenship. To seek support from governments and social organizations, the UN established its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), goals in different areas to be achieved by 2030. quality education it's the ODS number 4 and aims to ensure the right to education in an inclusive way, for all genders and all ages, promoting a healthy school environment that goes beyond literacy, treating teaching as a training method citizen.
functional illiteracy
About 617 million young people in the world cannot read or do simple math of math, even though two-thirds of them have attended school or are studying regularly. People who find themselves in this situation of precarious or almost non-literate literacy are known as functionally illiterate.
O functional illiteracy it is described as the lack of ability to read and interpret sentences, paragraphs or texts, as well as not being able or having great difficulty in performing basic mathematical calculations.
The functionally illiterate is not necessarily someone who did not attend school or stopped studying. In Brazil, for every ten people, three cannot write correctly, read and interpret simple texts or do math. According to the Functional Literacy Indicator (INAF), 13% of the Brazilian population that completes secondary education has functional illiteracy.
Read too: Social inequality: what is it, data, consequences
Illiteracy in Brazil
Access to basic education programs and literacy plans applied in Brazil resulted in a drop in the number of illiterates. However, the reduction of Brazilian illiterates is still slow.
Data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) show a gradual fall in illiteracy in Brazil, considering the population over 15 years of age. For example, in 2017, there were more than 11.4 million illiterates, a number that dropped to around 11.3 million in 2018.
Brazil has literacy as one of the goals of National Education Plan (PNE). The plan's objective is that illiteracy in the Brazilian population is completely eradicated by 2024. Unfortunately, the evolution of the goal is below expectations for 2015 – the year used as a parameter – when I expected people aged 15 or over to have a literacy rate of 93.5%, but the level reached was 93,2%.
See too: New high school – understand the reform
As regional inequalities interfere with access to education, the Ministry of Education's plan is that the Common National Curriculum Base (BNCC) be able to promote basic education equally across the country, establishing a curriculum profile to be worked on by all schools. If there will be benefits from the BNCC, it is still not possible to have any idea as it is a recent decision and one that will take a few years to be implemented. The challenge is to unite content, physical structure of schools and human resources trained equally in regions that are so different in economic and geographic aspects.
Literacy is necessary!
Not to be literate is to hinder access to health, information, the labor market, the most dignified living conditions. Not promoting basic education is transforming the human being into just another number in millions, taking away from individual the chance to express their opinion, to exercise their citizenship fully, in addition to making them vulnerable to manipulation. That society can move forward in accordance with article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and, finally, affirm: “All human beings have the right to education”.
Image credits:
[1] Reproduction: UN
By Lorraine Vilela - Journalist
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/datas-comemorativas/dia-da-alfabetizacao.htm