25 years after national campaign, Nicaraguans again fight illiteracy

Published: 2005-09-20

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (CNS) -- Jesuit Father Fernando Cardenal recalled the excitement he felt 25 years ago when the leaders of the newly established revolutionary government in Nicaragua charged him with organizing a national literacy campaign. "I was delighted but very scared," said Father Cardenal. "I knew it was going to be a very complicated task." Father Cardenal coordinated the Nicaraguan National Literacy Crusade, during which the country's illiteracy rate dropped from an estimated 51 percent of the adult population to 12.9 percent. Some 100,000 young Nicaraguans taught more than four times that many adults to read and write in less than half a year. The effort was awarded with the UNESCO's Nadeshda K. Krupskaya Prize for Literacy. Now, Nicaragua's adult illiteracy rate has crept back up to nearly 34 percent, the second-highest rate in the Western Hemisphere after Haiti, according to the latest figures from the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The setback has led Nicaraguan education authorities and National Literacy Crusade veterans to renew efforts to teach people to read and write.

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