The Quisqueya Learns with You (Quisqueya Aprende Contigo) literacy campaign formally starts on Monday, 7 January. Some 4,011 learning centers have been set up to teach 60,000 people to read and write in the first half of 2013, as reported in Hoy. The program was announced in the inaugural address by President Danilo Medina on 16 August 2012.
The National Literacy Plan seeks to reach out to more than 800,000 people who have been identified as illiterate. To achieve the goal of teaching 800,000 people to read and write, eight learning cycles have been planned, each lasting four to six months. The plan has a cost of RD$1.9 billion.
The director general for special Presidency programs and coordinator of the literacy program technical team, Pedro Luis Castellanos, said that each center would be responsible for teaching 10-15 people. Educational materials will be distributed over the weekend to prepare for the start on Monday.
President Danilo Medina and Minister of the Presidency Gustavo Montalvo will kick off the program officially at a school in El Almirante, in Santo Domingo East municipality.
The goal is that by 2014 there should not be a single Dominican who is illiterate so that UNESCO may declare the Dominican Republic free of illiteracy.
Castellanos said that the team is working with social, academic and religious organizations to meet the goals. The students will receive six hours of teaching every week. The students will be able to continue their studies through a flexible basic education program offered by the Ministry of Education.
www.hoy.com.do/el-pais/2013/1/3/460895/Estado-alfabetizara-desde-el-lunes-a-60-mil-en-4-o-6-meses