Joel Mayor Lorán

• THE Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) is casting an illuminating influence on its member countries. It is bearing education like a banner, using it as an essential tool for eliminating poverty and social exclusion. It is turning to the finest language, that of solidarity.

Miguel Díaz Canel, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba and minister of higher education, explained how it has been at the center of ALBA efforts to create a different society.

"Everything began with a group of projects with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. From the beginning, the direct participation of educational programs has stood out and higher education has taken on a very significant role."

Since then, diverse summits and workshops have insisted on the need to create uniting mechanisms, have delineated common positions, have improved projects, and approved their implementation.

"At the 1st ALBA Higher Education Workshop in 2008, which we attended with the minister of education, participants confirmed the priority of the grannacional project of teaching literacy and post-literacy through the "I Can Do It" method."

"In subsequent meetings, like the first meeting of ALBA education ministers in March 2009, the objectives were enriched. On that occasion, the importance of combining efforts to design programs to train educators in areas of common interest was stressed.

"And at 7th Summit of ALBA Presidents in Bolivia in October, we approved the Grannacional ALBA Education Project, which endeavors to train professionals in undergraduate Comprehensive Community Medicine and Education, as well as to draw up postgraduate and research programs.

"The idea includes the recognition of titles and diplomas; professional academic exchanges; launching an informatics platform for educational management and distance learning; founding a Education University for member countries; creating the ALBA University Network to articulate educational plans, programs, and projects; and seeking a quality accreditation system."

Meanwhile, the light of truth is reaching millions on the continent: illiterate people are not only learning to read but are also continuing along the long educational road with the goal of reaching increasingly higher levels.

Four ALBA countries (Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Nicaragua) have declared themselves free of illiteracy.

"But the students are still there in the classrooms, now with the post-literacy classes, a more complex process because it attempts to bring literate students up to sixth grade level. If that is not enough, the success of the Cuban "I Can Do It" method has prompted another group of countries interested in applying it."

In its next meeting, the ALBA Social Ministerial Council is to develop actions for implementing the UNIALBA University Network. This revolutionary idea entails each country naming one or two universities where programs for sharing are to be located, according to the needs of our nations.

"Bolivia has asked for training programs for hydrocarbons management, so Cuban experts are working in conjunction with Venezuela to organize courses, university degrees, and Masters programs; a whole training sequence with the aim of likewise offering it to oil producing countries like Ecuador and Venezuela. Nicaragua, Bolivia, Venezuela, and Ecuador have also asked us for a Masters program in educational computer science. And we are setting out to meet those demands.

"Cuba is willing to share experiences in the development of networks and to offer methodological assessment, human resources and undergraduate and post-graduate training programs as requested."

"At the Havana Summit? We are taking a proposal for expediting implementation of the recognition agreement for university titles and diplomas in ALBA countries, advancing the development of the Grannacional ALBA Education Project and the UNIALBA network, and of offering to host the second meeting of the working group for the improvement of educational quality and accreditation."