Proposal that UNESCO should recognize Cuban method as a global education program

The International Support Front for the Cuban literacy and post-literacy program "Yes, I Can Do It" has called on UNESCO to recognize that initiative as a global education program.

During the International Seminar on literacy policies and programs a dossier of more than 2,000 signatures backing the application was presented to representatives of the UN Education, Science and Culture Organization, PL reports.

The innovative Cuban method of learning to read and write is being applied with excellent results in 15-plus countries as a concrete action to confront educational deficits and the alarming number of illiterate persons, standing at 771 million throughout the world.

With the "Yes, I Can Do It" program Cuba is contributing to reduce the total of illiterates, particularly in rural areas, marginalized communities, indigenous populations and other vulnerable sectors of the population.

University authorities, academics, journalists, campesinos, workers and organizations are backing that simple and scientific method of mass literacy with which a quality education for all can be attained in a short time period.

At the present time more than two million people in the world are participating in that literacy program, which is not confined to reading and writing, but offers the possibility of continuing basic education studies.

To date 1, 941, 890 illiterate people in Venezuela, Mexico, Mozambique, Ecuador and New Zealand have been taught via this method.

Those results endorse the "Yes, I Can Do It," which is enjoying growing international recognition, as expressed in the 1st Meeting of Asian, Caribbean and Pacific Education Ministers, which took place May 5 in Brussels.

Participants in that meeting recommended organizing South-South cooperation programs like the Cuban literacy method in the educational sector.

In parallel, it constitutes a support for the lack of teachers, as at world level 15-35 million teachers need to be trained for live classes, while this method uses audiovisual material.

"Yes, I Can Do It" is a social inclusion program that gives excluded persons the best tools to fight against exploitation, because being unable to read and write condemns people to the worst slavery, as various participants affirmed in the Havana meeting.