|
Cuba collaborates on literacy
programs
in New Zealand
BY LILLIAM RIERA—Granma
International staff writer—
NEW
Zealand, a developed country in the Southern
hemisphere, but where there are still illiteracy
problems, is one the countries that Cuba is helping
in the that field.
Jaime Canfux Gutiérrez, coordinator of the Adult
Literacy and Education Chair at the Latin American
and Caribbean Pedagogical Institute (IPLAC) informed
Granma International that “eight Cuban
specialists are in that nation working as
consultants to the Greenlight Learning for Life
program.
According to Canfux, a participant at the 12th World
Congress of Comparative Education, held in Havana
with more than 1,000 delegates from 85 countries,
among them 258 from the United States – Greenlight
Learning for Life is an alternative Cuban literacy
program via television and video classes entitled
Yo sí puedo (Yes, I Can), suited to the
conditions of this bilingual nation, where English,
known as Kiwi English and with its very own
pronunciation and structure, and Maori are the two
official languages.
In a
very short time and with very few human and material
resources, the Yo sí puedo method, where
every letter corresponds to a number, not only
enables a large number of people to learn to read,
write and do basic mathematical calculations, but
also helps the participants to become fully
integrated into the socioeconomic reality of life.
With
a population of little more than four million
inhabitants (80% are the descendants of European
immigrants, mainly from Britain and Ireland; almost
15% are Maori; and the remainder Asian Pacific
islanders and other immigrants), New Zealand has
functional illiteracy problems that prevent many
people from leading socially productive lives.
The
1996 International Adult Illiteracy Survey revealed
that one in every five New Zealanders has a very low
literacy level. The levels range from one (very low)
to five (very high), with three as the minimum
required to confront the complex demands of daily
life and to work within the nascent information
society.
Greenlight Learning for Life would benefit the New
Zealand population in general and in particular the
Maori population with their low or minimal literacy
levels.
Granma International
learned that the literacy program began in June 2003
in three communities: two Maori and one Pacific
Island (Te Awamutu, Te Rapu/Nguarawahia and Puka
Puka) with 525 participants. In September of the
same year, the program became more widespread and
now covers more than 5,000 participants. It
subsequently piloted a program to monitor those who
had recently been taught how to read and write.
The
project is the result of collaboration that Te
Wananga and Aotearoa Universities requested from the
IPLAC in response to the New Zealand Ministry of
Education strategy for achieving adult literacy,
bearing in mind UNESCO recognition of the radio and
TV-video literacy programs developed by Cuba.
Data
was provided at the conference on the impact of
those Cuban literacy programs in several countries.
VENEZUELA: ONE
MILLION PEOPLE BECOME LITERATE IN SIX MONTHS
Luis
Ramirez Villasana, an educational research
methodologist in the eastern Cuban city of Bayamo,
explained, for example, that in Angola 712,018
illiterate people out of a total of 6,771,993 were
taught how to read and write over a five-year period
starting November 22, 1976. However, in Haiti, where
the radio was used to combat illiteracy, 150,000 out
of approximately two million illiterate adults were
taught how to read and write within 12 months
(starting February 7, 2000.)
In
the case of Venezuela, Ramirez explained that
between July 2003 and December of that same year one
million people were taught to read and write, and
the figure continues to grow.
Marcia C. Lanza Hernández, a member of the Physical
Education faculty in Pinar del Rio province, made
an interesting comparison on the literacy
process in Cuba (the first country on the American
continent to eliminate illiteracy in 1962) and that
in Venezuela, likewise “the first country in the
region to implement this type of modern, effective,
short-term campaign in the 21st century,” as she
observed.
Specialists agree that this result is essentially
due to the political will of governments to resolve
the profound and serious problems currently suffered
by their peoples, most definitely including
illiteracy, which condemns millions and millions of
people on the planet to live in misery and
ignorance.
|
