Brazilians' functional illiteracy drops to 28%
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Transtlate A total of 28 percent of the Brazilian population can be identified as functionally illiterate in 2009, according to the national indicator of functional literacy (INAF) released on Wednesday.
The index, which has been calculated since 2001 by the NGO Educative Action and the Paulo Montenegro Institute (IPM), represents a 6 percentage drop over that in 2007.
INAF measures the level of functional illiteracy among Brazilians aged 15 to 64, and divides them into four levels: illiteracy, rudimentary literacy, basic literacy and full literacy. Those who belong to the first two levels are considered functionally illiterate.
There are different concepts to identify functional illiteracy. For the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, an individual with less than four full years of study is classified as functionally illiterate.
However, the IPM study shows that attending school is not a guarantee of learning: 10 percent of Brazilians who have attended the fourth grade are illiterate. Among those who attended grades 5 to 8, 24 percent are still in the rudimentary level of literacy, and only 15 percent could be considered fully literate.
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