Brasília, April 19, 2004 (Agência Brasil) - In the last decade Brazil universalized access to education, but there is still a large number of functional illiterates in the country. This information is part of the National Sample Survey of Domiciles (PNAD) for 2002, published by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

A person is considered a functional illiterate when he or she has fewer than four full years of schooling. This definition takes into account the fact that the process of learning to read and write only really becomes solidified among those who finish the fourth grade, in consequence of the high rates of regression to illiteracy among those who fail to complete this level of schooling. In 2002 Brazil had a total of 32.1 million functional illiterates, that is 26% of the population over 15 years old.

Since literacy instruction is nearly universal for young people in the 15-24 age bracket, this denotes that illiteracy is most heavily concentrated among adults 25 years old or more.

Translator: David Silberstein