The Ministry of Education began a Jornada Nacional de Alfabetización which seeks to reduce to a minimum the number of persons who do not know how to read and write, eliminating illiteracy by the year 2000. Minister of Education Ligia Amada Melo de Cardona said that the effort will benefit over a million Dominicans. The Dominican Association of Professors has endorsed the effort. The Ministry has plans this year to teach to read and write nearly half a million of the population, most of which are adults.
