Corruption and Inequality—the Infallible Blend for Illiteracy in Guatemala

A civil war, peace accords, and some populist governments later, Guatemala is the leader in one thing: the country with the highest percentage of its population living below the poverty level.

Poverty is the cause of several other social problems: delinquency, illiteracy, and poor health conditions, but it is also the result of the worst ailment of a country—corruption.

Obstacles for Quality Education

Guatemala has a history of tragedy, civil war, and incompetent and corrupt governments that have neglected their inhabitants to benefit from the luxurious life of being a politician.

Although corruption cases have always affected Guatemala, lately, its population has grown more and more aware of who are the main stars of the fraud and crimes that have put the most vulnerable Guatemalans in the most precarious conditions due to the embezzlement of the country’s budget.

Severe and startling cases like the one of Jimmy Morales, former President and the one known for having expelled the one international entity that was finally unveiling corruption cases in the country (CICIG), where he was involved in the dramatic finding of Q122 million in a remote property in Antigua Guatemala.

Furthermore, current President Alejandro Giammattei has taken his time to block relevant investigations that could unveil many members of his cabinet as the ones involved in severe fraud cases. He has removed several independent judges from the Constitutional Court to appoint others that seem to be more of his “trust.”

Years ago, back in 2015, Guatemala was struck by the largest tax fraud case in their history, led by the current President and Vice-president, Otto Pérez Molina and Roxana Baldetti.

It has been clear for decades that governments and politicians have put their own benefits first and their country’s needs second…or last…or maybe not even on the list.

Because of this, the budget that should be destined for schools, hospitals, and other basic needs of Guatemala’s population tends to be directed towards others’ bank accounts, mansions, expensive cars, and trips, leaving the nation’s vulnerable populations hanging in the air.

Illiteracy: Its Causes and Impact

“It is necessary to change the socioeconomic conditions and work in areas under extreme poverty, where discrimination is evident, and where there are no opportunities for economic development.” - Otto Rubén Barrera, Executive Secretary of Conalfa

Conalfa is Guatemala’s National Committee for Literacy (Comité Nacional de Alfabetización in Spanish) and its labor is to coordinate, promote, organize and normalize the literacy program of the country through innovative and integral processes that are ethnically, culturally, and lingüistically accurate, according to the international mandates and responsibilities.

Conalfa has also tracked Guatemala’s literacy rates through the years, and although their data shows that the country’s illiteracy rates have been reduced, the current numbers are still concerning.

By 2018, the illiteracy rate was 18.5%, meaning that 2.3 million inhabitants didn’t know how to read or write. Sadly, women made up 21.7% of this number, meaning there were over 1.4 million women with no access to education.

By 2022, the illiteracy rate was 17.24%. Although the rate was reduced, it still represents a large percent of the population when we think about how small of a country Guatemala really is. It has become a priority for Conalfa to focus the literacy program on departments like Quiché, Huehuetenango, Alta Verapaz, Chiquimula, Baja Verapaz, and Sololá, since these departments had an illiteracy rate above 25%.

Otto Rubén Barrera, Executive Secretary of Conalfa explained that illiteracy represents Guatemala’s inequality and poverty, since there is a huge difference between people who have access to education and those who cannot even dream of going to school.

Conalfa also assures that even if the illiteracy rates can be lowered slightly, its causes are still unresolved.

There are a lot of areas to which educational establishments have not arrived yet, and many children have to walk long distances if they are lucky enough to have parents that can afford a pencil and a notebook for them to get to school.

Every year, 42,000 Guatemalans are added to the illiteracy rates. Children who enroll to the first grade and then drop out make up 60% of this group, and people who do not even make it to the first grade are the 40% remaining.

It’s known that 38% of the rural population has to live with under one dollar a day, which, as you can imagine, is not enough to be nourished properly, let alone pay for education and other necessities.

Furthermore, 59.3% of Guatemala’s population lives below the poverty level.

Public Schools and Children’s Situations

Guatemala has over 32,000 public schools, but this year, it was determined that nearly 9,000 of these were found in precarious conditions, completely unsuitable for children to have a proper educational environment.

Several departments in Guatemala have schools that lack access to clean water, electricity…and sometimes an intact roof. Some schools are lucky enough to have a whole zinc-sheet steady roof, but others even have holes in them that are a matter of concern when the rainy season begins.

Furthermore, other schools do not have desks for the kids to sit on, which makes it necessary for kids to sit on the floor—or ground, more accurately—or grab whatever cement block they find on their way to school so they can sit on it.

The simple, most logical, and appropriate solution for these problems would be to ask the Ministry of Education to use the budget they are given properly, so that it can cover the needs of every school and every child in the country. But asking for help to the entity that’s supposed to be in charge of this usually takes a five-year wait.

What all this means is that, even if the numbers indicate that many children can read and write and—at first glance—actually go to school, the quality of their education, the existence of a healthy environment, and the possibility of them to get to school with all the supplies they need are all just a utopian idea.