Over 30,000 Argentineans Have Learned How to Read and Write with "Yes, I Can"

HAVANA, Cuba, Jan 6 (acn) At the end of 2015, the Cuban educational program "Yes I Can" in Argentina had reached the figure of 30,253 persons that can now read and write, since its implementation in 2003, asserted on Tuesday pedagogue Jorge Padrón, who oversees courses in the country.

Padron, in statements to Prensa Latina, pointed out: "At the end of December 31 we have 604 points of literacy, a figure that has increased thanks to the sacrifice and selflessness of Cuban advisers, the Foundation A Better World Is Possible (UMMEP) and the Juanita Moro NGO."
Currently involved in the implementation of the method are one thousand Argentineans under the guidance of five Cuban volunteer teachers, and it is taught in 19 provinces and 174 municipalities of Argentina.
He also referred to the support of the Embassy of Cuba, the Latin American and Caribbean Pedagogical Institute (IPLAC), provincial and municipal governments, coordination teams, facilitators, friends of Cuba, and social, political and religious organizations.
"Yes I Can" is an audiovisual, alphanumeric program aimed at young people and adults (15 and over), pure functional illiterates and /or special illiterates. It consists of 65 classes of 30 minutes each, with a maximum duration of three months and a half.
The method arrived in Argentina in 2003 through a group of members of social movements, and began to be implemented in Jujuy, Buenos Aires and Rio Negro. In the first six months 795 people learned how to read and write, Padron recalls.
From 2005 to 2014 it was possible to declare five municipalities territories free of illiteracy: Tilcara, Maimara, Caraguatay, Salsipuedes, San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca, and in 2015 the municipality of Wanda, Misiones province, reached that status.