Major Blow to Illiteracy Among Native Groups

[Judi Lynn]

Major Blow to Illiteracy Among Native Groups
By José Adán Silva

MANAGUA, Aug 26, 2010 (IPS) - For 46 years, Nicanor García didn't know that his first name was seven letters long and that the first letter was also the start of the names of his country, Nicaragua, and his father, Norberto. He found out just eight months ago, when he finally learned how to read and write.

In January, a brigade of university students from cities on this Central American country's Pacific coast reached the remote village of Bilwaskarma in the eastern jungle area known as the North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN) as part of a literacy campaign targeting the Miskito Indians who have lived there for centuries.

Along with García, more than 60,000 adult members of the Miskito and Mayangna native groups have now learned to read and write in that inhospitable Caribbean coastal region that the leftwing government of Daniel Ortega has proclaimed an "illiteracy-free indigenous territory" because the illiteracy rate has plunged from 40 to just over four percent.

"I used to have to sign with an ink-stained thumb, but now I can write out my whole name," García told IPS on a visit to Managua this week, where he was taking part in the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the great National Literacy Crusade.

The 1980 literacy campaign was also promoted by Ortega, after the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) guerrillas -- now the governing party -- overthrew the 1934-1979 Somoza family dictatorship. The 1980 campaign, which brought the illiteracy rate down from 52 to 12 percent, was relaunched in 2007 when Ortega became president again. This time around, the National Literacy Campaign has used the Cuban "Yo si puedo" or "Yes I Can" teaching method that has been adopted by several other Latin American nations and a number of countries in Africa as well.

More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52628

[frebrd]

1. K&R n/t

[Igel]

2. Yes.

It's like the USSR. The USSR had nearly universal literacy. Until 1992, when it was realized that it had a less than perfect literacy score. Too much ideological promotion--similar to social promotion, but instead of promoting kids to prevent psychological trauma to the tykes the kids were promoted to prevent political trauma to the grown-ups.

Their definition of literacy would lead them to declare my 1st grader literate. By most definitions, he's not literate. I don't consider him literate.