The study regarding schooling in rural settlements in the State of São Paulo, based on data from the National Research on Education in the Agrarian Reform 2004 (Pesquisa Nacional de Educação na Reforma Agrária 2004), verified that the right to education was only assured to those children who frequented the initial years of primary education; at the other levels and modalities, including youth and adult education, the offer of schooling is insufficient. Absolute illiteracy affects 12% of the youth and adult population and 40% among them have, at the most, four years of formal studies. There are educational centres in only 30% of the settlements, which is a reflex of the public policies that privilege school transport to the cities. Although the material conditions of study were reasonable, the schools had few resources with which to enrich the curriculum and pedagogical practices, for which the overriding reference is urban culture. This policy is contested by the social movements which demand the construction, in the countryside, of schools that are able to develop an educational proposal integrated with the cultural universe of the peasants and their political project of social transformation.
education and social movements in the countryside; rural settlements; youth and adult education
