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There is much to comment on regarding the Women’s Education Program. Finally, in the past few months, several women were sitting and passing the INEA literacy exams – this was encouraging. We noted the long time period of months needed by all learners to grasp letters, syllables and simple words, and then suddenly they “get” the idea of reading. Enrollment was up and down, gradually increasing but slow. As we have discussed before, women in Tlamacazapa just do not believe that they can learn to read.
In April, however, a new PRD state government has focused on illiteracy as a priority problem throughout Guerrero, recognizing that Guerrero has the highest rates of illiteracy in Mexico. INEA (National Institute of Adult Education) at state level is now under tremendous pressure to respond quickly to the government’s decision and is scrambling to do something, especially in villages like Tlamacazapa. In June, INEA held a meeting in Tlama with all 800 women who receive money from the Oportunidades Program (basically a welfare handout every two months given to registered women), saying that all illiterate women are “obligated” to attend literacy classes. Right now it is not clear if there will be a small reward (for becoming literate) or a punishment (for not doing so) for the women in terms of the money each receives. Much depends on which decision the Governor takes. At this same meeting, 380 women signed up with INEA to take classes but that is a weak indicator of how many will actually attend.
Atzin-YNS is INEA’s community representative in Tlamacazapa (there can be other representatives as well but right now there is not). Four Atzin-YNS educators were already classified INEA “asesoras,” and this month, we quickly sent in papers and photos to register 20 more of our promoters as asesoras. Today they are enrolling the first lot of approximately 70 women, filling in their papers, taking their photos and setting up the teaching schedule. Although in the end I imagine that we will have about 100 women actually attending, I will keep you all informed of the numbers of women and their progress as the situation unfolds.
It is a super opportunity for Atzin-YNS to impact the literacy of the village women, provided that INEA allows our team to actually run the program locally, and doesn’t insist that we do what they have always done. The usual INEA program has too few exercises and types of exercises, insufficient repetition, too brief time allocation for each step, and close to nonexistent supervision and followup of asesoras. INEA is riddled with non-workable policies, for example, an asesora only receives payment from INEA when a woman passes an exam (80 pesos after what can be months of work) – this in itself discourages people from becoming asesoras.
Through experience, we collectively have a pretty good idea of what it takes for a local woman to learn to read and write. I anticipate that many women will start with enthusiasm, and we must respond strongly with the following: small groups of 10-12 women, each group with an experienced educator; three classes of 1.5-2 hours per week; and use of a variety of exercises (not just the La Palabra INEA book); provision of sufficient support and supervision to the educators. If not, the drop-out rate will likely be high as has occurred in past INEA campaigns.
Wish us luck! All for now, Susan Susan Smith,
PhD.Director, ATZIN in Mexico
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