Word: mobral
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...hard coming here every day. I get off work at 5:30 and have to be here at 6:30. We don't have any bathrooms we can use. But the teachers are interested in us, so it's worth it." Silva decided to come to Mobral because his seven-year-old can already read and write. "He's proud of me, and when he sees how hard I work, it encourages him to work hard...
...Most Mobral students seem convinced that if they can learn to read they will get better jobs. Arlene Silva Bacca, 29, a domestic servant who attends a center in Copacabana, has been studying for three months. "When I get my certificate I will become a secretary," she says. Genival Silva Costa, 46, a plasterer, is studying because his boss promised him a job as doorman or elevator operator if he finishes the course...
With some 2,000,000 students enrolled yearly, Mobral's very size is attacked by critics-too many dropouts. a lack of real literacy among those who finish. In fact, so basic is the literacy of many graduates that they are referred to as being merely "alphabetized." "Obviously we could improve our productivity if we ran the program like a United Nations lab project," says Simonsen. "But that costs much more and it wouldn't remove the problem, which is adult illiteracy. We knew we would lose a lot of people when we started. If you want...
...their literacy certificates, Mobral students must be able to read and write their addresses, calculate food prices and count change, write simple letters in the first person and read and interpret newspapers...
Senegal, Bolivia, Jamaica and even Brazil's mother country, Portugal, have all inquired about Mobral. Foreign observers may need convincing, but at least one Brazilian legislator is certain of the program's value. When the town council of the city of Campinas convenes, Councilwoman Clara de Oliveira says she will propose the inclusion of 150 prostitutes in the program. She is convinced that the ladies assumed their profession for want of education...