Maranhão

22/10/21

Around 95 thousand copies of the “Literacy Trails” almanac – educational, playful, and fun material aimed at the culture of Maranhão – were delivered to schools in the 24 municipalities along the Carajás Railroad during the month of September. With a pedagogical proposal that sees the child as a producer of knowledge and culture, the works address fundamental themes for citizen education: sustainability, diversity, combating racism, digital security, traffic education and food and nutrition security. All public-school students from the 1^st to the 4^th year received the first edition of the Literacy Trails almanac.  

The publications are part of the Literacy Trails project, which serves 80,000 children in the 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd years of elementary school, promotes the continuing education of 5,100,000 educators and serves 1,030 public schools. The initiative is a partnership between the Vale Foundation and the Government of Maranhão, the Getúlio Vargas Foundation and the city halls of the municipalities involved.  

“Vale exists to transform the future together with society. It is yet another action to support our contribution to the Pact for Learning, signed by the State of Maranhão”, highlights Pamella De-Cnop, Executive Director of Vale Foundation. “These are publications with a light approach, which materialize the diversity of territories, favoring the strengthening of children’s identities and supporting the literacy process”, he adds. 

Work registers geographic, economic, and cultural diversity of the state 

A team from the publication visited territories to carry out research and produce an image collection, recording the geographic, economic, and cultural diversity of the state and its childhood cultures in the almanac. The project also included the participation of the Vale Maranhão Cultural Center (CCVM) team and works by talented people from Maranhão, such as Dona Faustina dos Santos (Ciriaco Town, Cidelândia), Arthur Galvão Costa (Pindaré-Mirim), Zeca Baleiro and João do Vale, by photographers Santos Guajajara and Albani Ramos and by the group of ox children from the Mata Boi Quilombola Community (Monção), among other local artists. Exclusive records were produced for the almanacs. 

The work is divided into the Gentes do Maranhão sections; Our way of speaking “Maranhês”; Curiosities of the Maranhenses Lands; Knowing our Cities; History and Geography of Maranhão; Art; Songs; Fabulous; Animals and Plants of Maranhão; Math games; Did you know? and Get the Hands Dirty. The cartoonist and children’s illustrator Claudius Ceccon signs the graphic design of the almanacs and the illustrations of the comic books, in addition to the playful activities, such as riddles, crossword puzzles, word searches, letter searches, tongue twisters, riddles, mazes and scrambled letters. 

The assistant secretary for Teaching and Learning Management at the State Secretariat for Education (Seduc), Nádya Dutra, highlighted that the material was produced to meet the demands of children. “The material is a very important step because it dialogues with the reality of our children, with their cultures, their relationships with their territories and spaces. So, passing through training, dialogue with city halls, we deliver the material to teachers and students to guarantee the right to literacy at the right age. It is a partnership that advances towards collaborating with the Pact for Learning and Dignified School”, he highlighted.