Abstract
According to official statistics, at the end of the sixties the illiteracy rate in Portugal was 30 percent. Even though in the last years of this decade the number of children receiving schooling in Portugal had increased significantly, especially in primary and secondary education, the high illiteracy rate remains a glaring reality among the most destitute classes, especially in the rural areas in the interior of the country. For this reason, successive governments have provided for the implementation of a National Plan for Literacy and Basic Adult Education, a plan already established by law but still awaiting concretization.