[Education For Tomorrow: No 88, 2006]International NewsMexico‘More than 266,000 Mexicans are now studying under the innovative "Yes, I can do it!" Cuban literacy program, which is being taught in ten different locations, according to the Cuban diplomatic mission in that country. The total of those being taught via the method, also known as Alfa-TV, stood at 266,827 on December 13, with 118,537 already graduated 148,290 are enrolled in the courses, which last seven weeks. ‘Most students are located in the state of Michoacan (more than 62,000) and Oaxaca (37,570), where the greatest concentration of students is located: close to 70,000 and 76,000, respectively. ‘Supervised by Cuban experts, the program is administered by almost 10,500 facilitators, most of them young college graduates who are voluntarily teaching illiterate adults how to read and write. ‘In addition to the two above-mentioned states, the "Yes, I can do it" program has been implemented in Tabasco, Puebla, Guerrero, the state of Mexico, Veracruz, San Luis Potosi, Nayarit and the Federal District. ‘In the south-western state of Oaxaca, where 454,377 people are illiterate, and the total of those who have never completed elementary education exceeds 1.43 million, the campaign was named "Margarita Maia de Juarez". According to Cipriano Flores, head of the State Institute-for Adult Education (IEEA), this name pays tribute to the wife of former President Benito Juarez, who had to educate her children at home because it was impossible for them to attend school. ‘Flores noted the importance of the fact that increasingly more women are joining the literacy campaign, given that almost a quarter of a million women in that state are illiterate, representing 66.3 per cent of that state's illiterate population. The "Yes, I can do it" program, created three years ago in Cuba, was first implemented in Venezuela, where it helped one million people to learn how to read and write. ‘The program is also being used in other countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Haiti, Honduras, Uruguay and New Zealand.’ Granma, 8/1/2006 |