CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Cuban Program Helps 60,000 Guatemalans Learn How to Read and Write.

CUBA, December 15th, 2010.- A year considered as a year of consolidation for the Cuban “Yes I Can” Literacy Teaching Program, by way of which some 60,000 illiterates learned how to read and write, is coming to an end in Guatemala.

A total of 11 municipalities in that Central American country were declared Free of
Illiteracy, according to the parameters of the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization, the Prensa Latina news agency reported.

Osmany Justis, national coordinator of this task, offered a comprehensive explanation of the development of this cooperation when 2010 is about to end, a year in which the number of people who were taught how to read and write was tripled, following the decision to bring the program to the country’s 22 departments.

 

The National Commission for Literacy Teaching, already under the presidency of Alvaro Colom, adopted the Cuban audiovisual method, conceived to teach people how to read and write in three months, with few human resources.

 

Due to the short duration of “Yes I Can”, the rate of attendance and permanence in classrooms is higher. The program stands out for its flexibility, since it adapts to the characteristics and cultural conditions of the places where it’s implemented, and allows for the learning of illiterates in their own homes or near them.

 

Justis announced that educators are getting ready on the island to apply the method in mam and quiche, two of the most spoken languages among natives in Guatemala, a nation of Mayan roots. (Cubaminrex - ACN)