Managua, August 23 (RHC)-- Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Murillo recalled the epic of the first Great National Literacy Crusade, considered in Nicaragua as the greatest educational and cultural feat in the country's history.

In the media of the citizen power, the vice president recalled that this educational campaign began on March 23, 1980 and ended on August 23rd of the same year, with the participation of 95,582 young people and educators, who formed the Popular Literacy Army.

“And almost 100 thousand young people and teachers were organized in fronts of struggle against illiteracy, by region, paying homage to the insurrectional fronts, insurrectional struggle of the Sandinista National Liberation Front,” she said.

She commented that these fronts carried the name of Nicaraguan heroes such as Rigoberto López Pérez, Camilo Ortega, Benjamín Zeledón, Roberto Huembes, Pablo Úbeda and Carlos Fonseca.

The high Sandinista leader highlighted the importance of the initiative, since in 1979 the rate of illiterate people inherited from Somoza was 50.3%, however, thanks to the literacy crusade it was reduced to 12.9.

“And 406 thousand 056 protagonists of this great crusade throughout the country read, wrote and educational continuity was immediately initiated with the adult education modality,” she said.

Murillo recalled that the first territory free of illiteracy was the municipality of Nandasmo, in the department of Masaya, declared on August 2, 1980, and in September of the same year, a special literacy day was organized in the Autonomous Regions of the Nicaraguan Caribbean Coast, in the languages ​​of the native peoples.

He commented that this educational achievement was documented and recognized by UNESCO, and the country received the Nadieska Krupskaya medal on two occasions in 1981 and 1987, the latter when the entire department of Río San Juan was declared free of illiterates.

“Imagine, we had received our Río San Juan with 96.32% of people who could neither read nor write,” he recalled.

The vice president highlighted that in 2007, in the Memories of the World Program, Nicaragua was registered for generating materials and documents in Spanish, Miskito, Mayagna, and Creole English, which allowed the creation of a historical archive.

According to Murillo, illiteracy returned to this Central American nation with the 16 years of neoliberal governments, which mistreated the poorest families and the illiteracy rate rose again to 23%.

Then literacy battles were organized after 2006 in this second stage of the Revolution in the face of the educational setbacks of those nefarious neoliberal governments," she said.

In this regard, the Nicaraguan vice president mentioned the Alfaradio Nuevas Esperanzas project with a radio program that was transmitted to protagonists of rural communities and literacy days in Matagalpa, San Ramón, La Dalia, Wiwilí, Jinotega and Waslala, with the cooperation of the Latin American and Caribbean Pedagogy Institute of Cuba.

Then came the Cuban method, Yes, I Can, and in 2007, in the second stage of the Revolution, the Martí-Fidel campaign began, and in August 2009, Nicaragua was declared a territory free of illiteracy, managing to reduce that rate to 4.7%.

"From 2010 to date, literacy and continuity programs for young people and adults have been strengthened throughout the country, serving a cumulative 2,684,349 protagonists," said the Nicaraguan vice president.

She added that since 2006, the Luz y Verdad program began here, with which 13,281 people were taught to read and write, also training them in different trades from the National Institute of Technology.

"How many feats, how much heroism, how much courage and how much will, commitment of the Nicaraguan people who walk, who believe and create the future we deserve." (Source: Prensa Latina)