Managua, August 23 (RHC) – Nicaragua’s Vice President Rosario Murillo recalled the epic story of the first Great National Literacy Crusade, which in Nicaragua is considered the greatest educational and cultural achievement in the country’s history.
In the media of citizen power, the Vice President recalled that this educational campaign began on March 23, 1980 and ended on August 23 of the same year. It involved 95,582 young people and educators who formed the “Popular Literacy Army.”
“And almost 100,000 young people and teachers were organized in the fronts of the struggle against illiteracy, organized by regions, paying tribute to the insurgent fronts, the insurgent struggle of the Sandinista National Liberation Front,” she said.
She noted that these fronts bore the names of Nicaraguan heroes such as Rigoberto López Pérez, Camilo Ortega, Benjamín Zeledón, Roberto Huembes, Pablo Úbeda and Carlos Fonseca.
The senior Sandinista leader stressed the importance of the initiative, since the illiteracy rate after Somoza’s legacy was 50.3% in 1979, but thanks to the literacy campaign it was reduced to 12.9%.
“And 406,056 protagonists of this great crusade throughout the country read, wrote and with the modality of adult education, a continuity in education was immediately initiated,” she said.
Murillo recalled that the first area to be declared illiterate was the municipality of Nandasmo, in the department of Masaya, which was declared illiterate on August 2, 1980. In September of the same year, a special day of literacy in indigenous languages was organized in the Autonomous Regions of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua.
He noted that this educational achievement has been documented and recognized by UNESCO and that the country has received the Nadieska Krupskaja Medal twice, in 1981 and 1987. In 1987, the entire department of Río San Juan was declared illiterate.
“Imagine if we had gotten our Río San Juan with 96.32% of people illiterate,” he recalled.
The Vice President stressed that in 2007 Nicaragua was registered under the Memories of the World program for the production of materials and documents in Spanish, Miskito, Mayagna and Creole English, which enabled the creation of a historical archive.
According to Murillo, illiteracy has returned to this Central American country with 16 years of neoliberal governments that have mistreated the poorest families and caused the illiteracy rate to rise again to 23%.
“Then after 2006, in this second phase of the revolution, in the face of the setbacks of these shameful neoliberal governments in the field of education, literacy struggles were organized,” she said.
In this context, the Nicaraguan Vice President mentioned the Alfaradio Nuevas Esperanzas project, with a radio program broadcast to protagonists of rural communities in collaboration with the Latin American and Caribbean Pedagogical Institute of Cuba, as well as literacy days in Matagalpa, San Ramón, La Dalia, Wiwilí, Jinotega and Waslala.
Then came the Cuban method, “Yes, I can”, and in 2007, in the second phase of the revolution, the Martí Fidel campaign began, and in August 2009 Nicaragua was declared a zero-illiteracy territory, succeeding in reducing the illiteracy rate to 4.7%.
“Since 2010, literacy and continuity programs for youth and adults have been expanded throughout the country, benefiting a total of 2,684,349 protagonists,” said the Nicaraguan vice president.
She added that the “Luz y Verdad” programme has been running here since 2006, through which 13,281 people have been taught to read and write and have also received training in various professions at the National Institute of Technology.
“How many heroic deeds, how much heroism, how much courage and how much will, how much commitment of the Nicaraguan people who walk, who believe and create the future that we deserve.” (Source: Prensa Latina)
