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Cuba Celebrates 50th Anniversary of the Literacy Campaign.

By: Yuniel Labacena Romero
CUBA, January 5th, 2011.- The Cuban National Federation of University Students (FEU) and the Ministry of Education are preparing an activity to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Cuba’s Literacy Campaign, which began on January 5, 2011, guided by Fidel Castro’s words that “Education is one of the most noble and humane tasks to which a person can dedicate their life.”

The National Act will take place at the Conrado Benítez University in Cienfuegos and special meetings will be held across the country in education centers to remember the significance of the historic campaign.

The Cuban Literacy Campaign  was a year-long effort to abolish illiteracy in Cuba after the 1959 triumph of the Cuban Revolution. It began on January 1, 1960 and ended on December 22, 1961. The period of the Literacy Campaign is referred to as the “Year of Education” in Cuba. During 1961, the literacy rate of Cuba increased from 76% to 96% and continued until it was completely wiped out in Cuba.

The literacy campaign was part of the revolutionary reforms immediately implemented by Fidel Castro that included agrarian reform, healthcare reform, and educational reform, all of which dramatically improved the quality of life among the lowest sectors of Cuban society.

The Literacy Campaign also aimed to create a collective identity of unity, an attitude of combat, courage, intelligence, and a sense of history.

It is estimated that 1,000,000 Cubans were directly involved (as teachers or students) in the Literacy Campaign). There were four categories of workers:

“Conrado Benitez” Brigade (Conrado Benetiz Brigadistas)—100,000 young volunteers (ages 10–19) who left school to live and work along with their students in the countryside. The number of students leaving schools to volunteer was so great that an alternative education was put in place for 8 months of the 1961 school year.

Popular Alphabetizers (Alfabetizadores populares)—Adults who volunteered to teach in cities or towns. Some13,000 factory workers held classes for their illiterate co-workers after hours. This group also includes the numerous individuals who taught friends, neighbors, or family members out of their own homes.

The Patria o Muerte Brigade—A group of 15,000 adult workers who were paid to teach in remote rural locations through an arrangement that their co-workers would fill in for them, so that the workforce of Cuba remained strong.
Schoolteacher Brigades—A group of 15,000 professional teachers who oversaw the technical and organizational aspects of the campaign. As 1961 progressed, their involvement grew to the extent that most teachers participated full-time for a majority of the campaign.

The government provided teaching supplies to volunteers, and workers that traveled to rural locations to teach received: clothes, books, blankets, lamps, and hammocks.

Many of the Literacy Campaign’s volunteers went on to pursue teaching careers, and the rate of teachers is more than 10 times higher than it was before the revolution. Before the revolutionary government nationalized schools, private institutions often excluded large segments of society; wealthy Cubans often received exemplary instruction in private schools, while children of the working class received low-quality education, or did not attend school at all. Education became accessible to all after 1959 triumph of the Revolution.

Reudenys Salas Hartemant, a member of the FEU national secretariat, said that 2011 is a transcendental year for the Cuban people with the 50th anniversary of the proclamation of socialism and the Playa Girón (Bay of Pigs) victory among other anniversaries.

Activities will run through to December 22, the day Cuba was declared illiteracy-free; among these include the presentation of the Tiza de Oro Award to some of the protagonists of this historical campaign, and on January 28, a series of workshops will begin dedicated to the anniversary. (Cubaminrex-JR)

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