Three Rs in Brazil

Brazil is three years into its most ambitious plan to teach adults to read and write. Since the program, called Mobral (Movimento Brasileiro de Alfabetizac,ao), started in 1970, more than 3,000,000 adults have achieved at least basic literacy; that number is expected to quintuple by 1980. To reach Brazil's 15 million illiterates (26% of the population), Mobral has established 67,000 centers throughout the country. Yet despite the scope of the program, the cost of making a student literate is only $9.33, about $25 less than a UNESCO-estimated average. "There is nothing very new in the didactic methods," explains Economist Mario Henrique Simonsen, head of Mobral. "The structure had to be simple, and it had to be cheap. We had to use the available assets in the municipalities. Additionally, the average Mobral teacher makes only about $15 a month." To see how the program works, TIME Correspondent Rudolph Rauch visited several schools and filed this report:

Nova Friburgo is a three hours' drive northwest of Rio, well into the mountains. The town's population is around 100,000, and most people work for the tourists. There are 150 Mobral centers there. Two teachers we spoke to claimed 90% of their students actually pass the final test--about double the national average.

"We have to work very hard the first few classes to make the students come back," says Nely Rodriguez, who has been teaching for Mobral since 1970. "They are wonderful people, but they get discouraged easily. They are undernourished and tired. Many have poor eyesight, and lots don't know how to hold a pen. If you can get them to stay for a few classes, the battle is won."

The classes are held in a school-house on a hill above Nova Friburgo. The road to the school stops just beyond the door and turns into a footpath that leads up the hill to the shantytown that is home for most of the Mobral students. There are three classrooms, and at night about 80 students crowd onto the two-man benches to learn to read under four naked light bulbs dangling from the ceiling. They are working people, as their rough hands and faded clothes attest. They are clearly still not used to handling a pencil; they clutch them as though they might escape. Copying words from the blackboard, the students trace every letter with infinite pains, eyes darting from paper to board two or three times for each word, erasers gripped in the other hand ready to rub out any slip.

Osmar Silva, 33, a construction worker, admits that "it's hard coming here every day. I get off work at 5:30 and have to be here at 6:30. We don't have any bathrooms we can use. But the teachers are interested in us, so it's worth it." Silva decided to come to Mobral because his seven-year-old can already read and write. "He's proud of me, and when he sees how hard I work, it encourages him to work hard, too."

Most Mobral students seem convinced that if they can learn to read they will get better jobs. Arlene Silva Bacca, 29, a domestic servant who attends a center in Copacabana, has been studying for three months. "When I get my certificate I will become a secretary," she says. Genival Silva Costa, 46, a plasterer, is studying because his boss promised him a job as doorman or elevator operator if he finishes the course.

With some 2,000,000 students enrolled yearly, Mobral's very size is attacked by critics--too many dropouts. a lack of real literacy among those who finish. In fact, so basic is the literacy of many graduates that they are referred to as being merely "alphabetized." "Obviously we could improve our productivity if we ran the program like a United Nations lab project," says Simonsen. "But that costs much more and it wouldn't remove the problem, which is adult illiteracy. We knew we would lose a lot of people when we started. If you want to teach 2,000,000 to read, you have to get 4,000,000 into school."

To get their literacy certificates, Mobral students must be able to read and write their addresses, calculate food prices and count change, write simple letters in the first person and read and interpret newspapers.

Senegal, Bolivia, Jamaica and even Brazil's mother country, Portugal, have all inquired about Mobral. Foreign observers may need convincing, but at least one Brazilian legislator is certain of the program's value. When the town council of the city of Campinas convenes, Councilwoman Clara de Oliveira says she will propose the inclusion of 150 prostitutes in the program. She is convinced that the ladies assumed their profession for want of education.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.