A educação escolar no Piauí do XIX: a precariedade do ensino público

The aim of this article is to present the general picture of school education in Piauí in the 19th century. Analyzing the following question: what are the investments made by the provincial government in the schooling of the Piauí population with regard to primary, secondary and professional education? It is noticed that public education was precarious and developed in parallel with private education according to Odilon Nunes. From this perspective, government negligence encouraged the emergence of private schools sponsored by landowners to teach literacy to their relatives, classes were generally held at home, as there were almost no buildings for such activities. Therefore, school education in Brazil, including in Piauí, has never been a matter of priority, but of privileges, especially for the dominant classes. This is a bibliographical research work, in which authors were consulted who corroborate this discussion about education in Piauí in the 19th century, such as: Costa Filho, Odilon Nunes, Teresinha Queiroz.