Literacy program well received in rural areas

Officials from the National Literacy Campaign visited the Department of Corrections last week to observe the program being implemented by inmates. This is just one of the many activities being conducted as part of the Ministry of Education’s campaign against illiteracy. The program which began on the 15th of July and runs until August thirteenth, offers basic lessons in reading and writing to people in the Stann Creek, Cayo and Belize districts. Since the program started, over a hundred facilitators have been trained and about twenty-five centers in three districts have been offering evening classes to participants ages fifteen years old and up. Andy Palacio, the campaign’s coordinator, says as the program reaches its halfway mark there has been considerable progress.

Andy Palacio, Coordinator, National Literacy Campaign

“There have been several successes. I am proud to say the energy that the facilitators have put into it is paying off and the satisfaction from the learners themselves has been coming to us even in the form of a request for additional facilitators and the opening of new centers.

Illiteracy has been identified as a major problem in Belize especially in the last twenty years when the influx of immigrants from the Central American republics took its toll on Belize’s literacy levels. Fortunately this program is now underway and is addressing that problem. However, there are certain sectors of society who do not want to admit that they have a problem with literacy and in urban areas the turnout is not as high as it is in the rural areas where people have chosen to take advantage of this program to the max.”

And the rural communities want even more. Following a petition signed by the residents of St. Margaret Village along the Hummingbird Highway a new literacy center was just established. Two facilitators from the Stann Creek District were reassigned to the village.