More than 79,000 Panamanians Have Become Literate with Cuban Method

Panama City, May 11 (Prensa Latina) The director of Literacy at the Ministry of Social Development (Mides) of Panama, Carlos Contreras, said that through the Cuban method Yo si puedo (Yes I can), more than 97,000 people have learned to read and write.

Interviewed by the local radio station KW Continente, the official said that since the Muévete por Panamá program began in 2007 and up to date, 97,193 citizens, mostly women, have been taught to read and write.

Contreras explained the scope of the innovative methodology created by Cuban educator Leonela Relis, which as a rule has a greater incidence in indigenous districts and areas of difficult access.

The program, according to Contreras, has never stopped, despite the necessary restrictions of the last two years and the biosecurity measures due to Covid-19.

In 2022, he indicated, we will resume with more strength this project that contemplates 65 theoretical-practical classes (two hours a day) distributed in seven and a half weeks, depending on the agenda of the illiterates and the volunteer teachers that he called “our angels.”

As a rule, the volunteer teachers are children, nephews or grandchildren of the illiterates themselves and the lessons take place in their own homes, he noted.

Featured image: Carlos Contreras, director of Literacy at the Ministry of Social Development (Mides) of Panama.

(Prensa Latina – English) by Alina Ramos Martin