Recife, 5/3/2004 (Agência Brasil) – The Ministry of Education says that one of its priorities will be a program to increase the average years of schooling for youths and adults in land reform settlements.

The announcement was made by Ricardo Henriques, of the ministry's department of Continuing Education, Literacy and Diversity, during a graduation ceremony for 5,000 youths and adults from land reform settlements and camps linked to the Landless Rural Worker Movement (MST) who concluded literacy courses.

The students learned to read and write in eight months in a program run by the ministry's literacy program and the National Agriculture Cooperation Association.

Henriques explained that the goal of the program goes beyond reading and writing to knowledge access in a broader sense which will permit people to transform the world they live in. "We are working to get people who learn to read and write to seek more knowledge. We do not believe that just giving away land is going to result in development," he said.

MST leader Jaime Amorim declared that the literacy program was fundamental in the process of transforming socially excluded rural workers into conscientious citizens.

Translator: Allen Bennett