Colombia’s education minister reiterated her government’s commitment to ending illiteracy by the year 2018, a goal whose achievement means that some 676,000 young people and adults will have to learn to read and write.
Minister Gina Parody noted at an event, which she led together with Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands, that Colombia’s programs and cooperation strategies have made it possible for over 400,000 youths and adults to become literate over the past four years.
“In making minors and adults literate, we’re not just out to develop their basic skills but to go much further – we want to develop their citizenship skills and create lifelong projects that transform communities,” Parody said during the event.
She added that in 2015 Colombia helped more than 71,000 youngsters and grownups in that way thanks to programs like “A Crecer” (To Grow) that teaches reading and writing to the population, while at the same time training 3,040 teachers in the application of flexible educational models.
Princess Laurentien, UNESCO’s special envoy on literacy for development worldwide, also had the chance to hear about the experiences of a number of people who learned to read and write thanks to the government’s educational programs.