Literacy Drive Gains Support in Brazil

Rosalvo Amaral’s job prospects usually died when he showed his identity card. In place of his signature was a word he couldn’t understand: illiterate.

Francois Courtes, a French-born industrialist, needed skilled workers to improve quality at his strongbox factory in this Sao Paulo suburb. He was alarmed to learn that nine of his 46 employees couldn’t read or write.

Their common need brought them together. Today, Amaral is among 20 adults studying ABCs at a course in Courtes’ factory.

As Brazil painfully emerges from decades of market protections to compete in the global economy, illiteracy remains a major obstacle. Two-thirds of the work force--nearly 50 million Brazilians--dropped out before finishing high school.

The Sao Paulo Trade Federation says Brazilian workers spend on average less than four years in school, compared to 11 years in South Korea, nearly 9 in Argentina and 7 1/2 in Chile. Poor education often means poorer quality for Brazilian goods and a smaller chance for companies to compete in world markets.

As those markets shrink in a global economic crisis, Brazilians are learning that only the best will survive. And an unlikely alliance of unions and big business has emerged to try to improve labor and product.

In Ribeirao Pires and other industrial suburbs ringing Sao Paulo, South America’s biggest city, hundreds of adults are enrolled in literacy classes offered by factories and private businesses.

The project was proposed by the powerful Union of Metal Workers--and signaled an about-face in the confrontational tactics long used by labor.

Union leader Luiz Marinho knows both approaches. Twenty years ago, at age 15, he fought at street barricades in labor protests. Today he sits down with business executives, politicians and bankers, discussing ways to improve the quality of life.

“We now look at the entire society,” Marinho said. “We look for comprehensive solutions to the most pressing problems, from reinforcing riverbanks to building clinics.”

One result of cooperation is a dramatic decrease in strikes. Last year, there were just four strikes in Sao Paulo’s industrial belt, compared with 850 in 1978.

Better education also is an essential part of the cooperative atmosphere.

“We have to make the region attractive to private investments,” Marinho said. “They will choose places with good road networks, with good public utilities, where levels of education are high.”

For unions, the bottom line is jobs. Unemployment has soared since 1994 as Brazil wrestled inflation down from 50% a month to under 4% a year. Officially, the jobless rate is 8.2%, the worst in 15 years. But unions say the rate is really around 20%.

Everyone agrees it will get worse. After local financial markets tumbled and foreign investors pulled back from Brazil in August, the government ratcheted interest rates up to nearly 50% and promised to cut spending. For Latin America’s biggest economy the prognosis is stagnant growth or recession.

The auto industry, a big employer, has felt the pinch. After production last year hit a record 2 million vehicles, sales have slumped. In September, local Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. plants announced they will idle thousands of workers.

For industry, the goal of the literacy classes is to raise quality and competitiveness.

Courtes, the factory owner, saw his plans to obtain a quality certificate for his plant stymied by uneducated employees. “Some workers couldn’t read the instructions or fill out forms,” he said.

He has high hopes for the literacy campaign, which gives students the equivalent of a fourth-grade education. Already he notes benefits.

“People feel better and happier,” Courtes said. “This helps a lot in the production process.”

Evandro Salero, manager at the Irmaos Correia bus company, also noticed a dramatic change in his workers after he started a literacy program.

“In just weeks they were more confident and spoke up their minds articulately,” he said. “Look at them now. They want to continue; they want to go further.”

Amaral, the student at Courtes’ plant, is hoping to get a leg up in the job competition.

“Maybe I’ll be ready to learn a profession,” he said. “At least, things may change and I will find a stable job again.”

But already, his world is changing.

“I didn’t know how good it feels to see those letters and discover they form meanings,” he said.