Havana, December 21 (RHC)-- Cuba announced that it has updated the digital version of its literacy program 'Yo sí puedo’, ‘Yes, I Can’.

Jorge Tamayo Collado, PhD in Pedagogy and researcher with the Institute of Pedagogical Sciences, said that the teaching method is now available in digital format on virtual platforms and as a mobile app.

‘Yo, sí puedo’ or in English ‘Yes, I Can’ is a teaching method for adult literacy which was developed by Cuba, at the initiative of Revolution leader Fidel Castro.

A continuation of the 1961 National Literacy Campaign in Cuba, it constitutes the Caribbean island’s contribution to eradicating illiteracy worldwide.

The teaching method was first implemented in Haiti and Nicaragua in 2000. By February this year, 2021, the Cuban method has been used in 30 nations the world over, allowing over 10 million 600 thousand people to develop basic literacy skills.

The program was originally developed in Spanish and known as Yo, sí puedo. It has now been translated into many languages including Portuguese, English, Quechua, Aymara, Creole and Swahili. The program is also available in braille for the blind, and for deaf people, and for people with mild intellectual problems.

The process consists of three stages: a preliminary period of socialization and training, the actual lesson blocks in which literacy is taught and a third stage known as post-literacy.

Other programs are linked to Yes I Can, including ‘Yo, sí puedo seguir’ or ‘Yes I Can Continue’, which aims to consolidate and develop the basic literacy skills participants learn in the Yes I Can program.

The program has been tested in both rural and urban areas, and Cuban teachers have managed to design a model that contains measures which allow teachers to see the impact of developing literacy in the family and the community as well as the individual.

In 2002 and 2003, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) awarded Cuba's Latin American and Caribbean Educational Agency the King Sejong Literacy Prize for its Yo Si Puedo (Yes I can) literacy program. Other prizes include awards from Pakistan's National Human Development Commission, Turkey's Mother and Child Education Foundation, Morocco's Education Ministry, and the Permanent Education and Literacy Agency of the Indian state of Rajastan.