Over One Million Angolans Learn How to Read and Write through Cuban Method

HAVANA, Cuba, Jul 3 (acn) Angola is the first African country to surpass the figure of one million people that have learned how to read and write by way of the Cuban literacy teaching method Yes, I Can, according to statements by Alfredo Diaz, adviser-consultant with the Angolan Education Ministry.

Under the coordination of 42 supervisors of the island, one million 139,729 Angolans are today registered as persons who can read and write thanks to this program, the Prensa Latina news agency reported on Friday.
Diaz confirmed that the method is applied in all 18 provinces of the country and that in only 13 weeks people over 15 years of age learn how to read and write.
He said that starting from 2012 the Angolan government decided to implement a strategy of rehabilitation of education in general, especially for adults and one of the objectives was to reestablish literacy teaching.
This African nation is a priority within the agreements of the Ministries of Education of Cuba and Angola, and therefore our consultants, working in 176 municipalities, have achieved remarkable results, Diaz said.
He insisted that it is a very hard work: two consultants per province, except in Luanda, where there are six, and three in Uige and Malange.
He highlighted the aid received from churches in many villages, from the military, the women's organization (WCO), the Interior Ministry and youngsters of the JMPLA of the ruling party Popular Movement of Liberation of Angola (MPLA).
The official underlined that this year classes are also being given in prisons, and that inmates from jails in Luanda, Bie, Huila have already graduated.
In several provinces the method is applied by the Ministry of Interior and facilitators are prisoners trained by us, he added.
The Angolan government wants that 85 percent of the Angolan population knows how to read and write by 2025, Diaz stressed, but in 2017 wants to have promising and competitive outcomes within the Millennium Development Goals of the U..
In 2006, the Cuban literacy teaching method received the Sejong Prize from the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO).