In the state of Maranhão, Brazil, a silent crisis has persisted for generations. Illiteracy rates remain high, and the issue goes beyond a simple lack of education. It represents a deep inequality that erodes citizenship, the economy, and democracy.
The core question is how a society can be transformed if its people, the sovereign in a democracy, are not educated. A person who cannot read is dependent on others for basic tasks. This includes understanding contracts, medicine instructions, government notices, and news. Such dependence weakens the individual and gives power to intermediaries.
Recent data shows the scale of the problem. In 2024, the illiteracy rate in Maranhão was 11.3% for people aged 15 and older. This means approximately 619,300 young people and adults in the state could not read or write. The rate is about 6.3 percentage points higher than the national average.
Nationally, Brazil has seen progress. In 2025, the national illiteracy rate fell to 4.9%, the first time it has dropped below 5% in recent records. However, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) reported that 8.4 million people aged 15 or older are still illiterate. More than half of this group lives in the Northeast region, which includes Maranhão.
The National Education Plan set a goal to eradicate absolute illiteracy and reduce functional illiteracy. The deadline has passed, and the goal was not fully met. This is seen as a moral failure, not just a technical one.
For a long time, people were called to vote more effectively than they were called to school. They were asked to legitimize governments but were not given the tools to become politically independent. A society that accepts mass illiteracy is also accepting a sophisticated form of democratic exclusion. Where reading does not exist, manipulation finds an easy path. A literate population asks questions, compares information, and demands results.
Literacy is not just a technical matter for education departments. It is a central political decision. It is about giving power to the citizen. It allows a person to stop just hearing history and start writing their own story. Maranhão has deep marks of social inequality, poverty, and historical neglect of entire communities. Illiteracy is a harsh expression of this process. It affects the elderly, rural workers, women, traditional communities, and people with disabilities.
It is important to note that illiteracy is not a lack of intelligence. It is a lack of opportunity. Many people who did not have access to school have deep knowledge of their land, culture, and work. The tragedy lies in a government that took too long to guarantee the basic right to read and write.
Adult literacy programs must respect the student's history and strength. Education for young people, adults, and the elderly needs to be redesigned with respect. This includes compatible work hours, transportation, food, adequate materials, and valued teachers.
Attention must also be paid to children. Maranhão recently showed progress in its literacy indicator for children, reaching 69%. This result is positive but also shows that a large group of children still needs help. A child who finishes the early school years without reading well is being pushed toward predictable failure. Literacy at the right age is the first step for all learning.
The fight against illiteracy requires two efforts at the same time. First, preventing new generations from reaching adolescence without reading skills. Second, rescuing young people, adults, and the elderly who were left behind. A policy that chooses only one of these efforts will always be incomplete.
Maranhão needs to treat literacy as a republican emergency. This means organizing a large pact between the state, municipalities, the federal government, universities, churches, social movements, unions, schools, businesses, the justice system, the press, and communities. Literacy cannot be a government program with an electoral deadline. It needs to be a state commitment with a generational horizon.
This pact must have public goals, transparent indicators, and permanent oversight. Each municipality must know how many illiterate people live in its territory. Each school must be an active center for finding them. Each community must have a strategy. Each manager must be held accountable. Public money needs to reach the classroom, the teacher, the materials, and the student's ability to stay in school.
Opening enrollment is not enough. It is necessary to guarantee that students stay in school. It is not enough to announce a program. It is necessary to measure learning. It is not enough to announce numbers. It is necessary to transform lives. Education policy must leave the office and enter homes, villages, neighborhoods, and rural communities.
The people of Maranhão do not need pity. They need rights. They do not need guardianship. They need tools. A sovereign without education is only a sovereign in speech. True popular sovereignty is born when every citizen has the conditions to understand, decide, question, and build. Literacy is the first technology of democracy. Before the computer, before artificial intelligence, before the digital economy, there is a basic condition: knowing how to read.
