Last week, the Ministry of Education announced it would begin certifying an additional seventeen municipalities free of illiteracy before the end of the year, making for a total of 23 municipalities in the country that have erradicated illiteracy, all since the National Literacy Program (PNA) was initiated in 2009 by former Minister of Education and Current Vice President, Salvador Sánchez Cerén. One of the most celebrated and successful examples of the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) party’s push for greater social investment, it has already reduced the literacy rate from 17.9% in 2009 to 13.23% this year and aims to bring illiteracy down to 4% by the end of the first leftist government’s elected term in 2014.

Modeled on the renowned Cuban methodology, the volunteer-led PNA currently operates community Literacy Circles in 245 of a total 262 municipalities. In 2012 alone, some 37,000 have been certified literate, 71% of which are women, who have historically been excluded from formal education in El Salvador. You can read more about the program and its methodology here.

Municipalities that will be declared free of illiteracy this month and next include: San José La Fuente in the province of La Unión; Meanguera, in Morazán; Uluazapa and Quelepa, in San Miguel; California in Usulután; Santa Cruz Analquito in Cuscatlán; San Emigdio, Jerusalén, Mercedes La Ceiba, and San Juan Tepezontes, in La Paz; Las Vueltas, San Isidro Labrador, and San José Las Flores, in Chalatenango; Cinquera, in Cabañas; San Sebastián Salitrillo and Pajonal, in Santa Ana; and Turín in Ahuachapán, the first six of which were visited by the 2012 CISPES Literacy Brigade.

Traducciòn de inglès por Mauricio Berho.