30-month literacy campaign launched in Bolivia

President Evo Morales launched a 30-month literacy campaign Feb. 3, for which he created the Vice Ministry of Literacy and Alternative Education.

Education Minister Félix Patzi tapped Benito Ayma, an agricultural engineer and literacy specialist, to head the Vice Ministry.

The program will include the participation of 26 Cuban specialists who will train Bolivian personnel in the audiovisual program called Yo Sí Puedo or Yes, I Can, in English, which has been successfully applied in at least 20 countries.

Created by Cuban educator Leonela Reylis, the method is based on an association between letters and numbers and consists of 65 30-minute classes transmitted by television.

A pilot program will go into effect in February in each of Bolivia’s nine departments, where 13.8 percent of the population is illiterate.

Starting in June, for one year, 33,000 volunteers will be in charge of the second phase of the program to teach 1.2 million people how to read and write. The campaign’s third phase of the literacy program will aim to reach citizens who did not receive training in the early stages of the program

The literacy program will be given in the indigenous language of more than 40 ethnicities, as well as in Spanish.