…Bolivia’s literacy rates, 2001 to present.
In nine days’ time, on December 20th, Bolivia will be declared “country free of illiteracy” by its president, Dr. Evo Morales. Since 2005 over 817,000 adults, mainly indigenous country dwellers who never previously had the chance, have learned to read and write.
UNESCO’s official definition of a literate country is one that has a 96% of its adult population that can read and write. In 2001, UNESCO measured Bolivia at a little over 85%. In 2005 that number was still under 90%. Then the education rate suddenly jumped from 1% annual gains to 2% annual gains in this key measure for education. Now take a wild guess at which year Morales became Prez………yeah, you got it, 2005.
The 817,000 people educated by this gov’t will now be able to learn and voice their opinion in a democratic way. Bolivia should be proud of its advancement in this sphere. Hell, it was about time, no? Makes you wonder what the advantage was for some previous governors not to educate their citizenry.
Evo Morales: Still your idea of a dictator?