Ecobreves – GUATEMALA: Green Literacy Campaign

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GUATEMALA CITY, Jul 28 2003 (IPS) - A literacy campaign geared towards environmental conservation, with a primer titled “Madre Tierra” (Mother Earth), will get underway next year, says Francisco Moscoso, director of the National Literacy Committee (CONALFA). “The reading primer has two objectives: to teach students to read and write using ecological terminology and to achieve a change in attitude among students towards preserving the environment,” he told Tierramérica.

A thousand copies of the book are being reviewed by education officials in the country's 331 municipalities “to adapt the terminology to each community.”

Some 200,000 copies will be printed for the campaign aimed at reducing the illiteracy rate. Of the 11.2 million Guatemalans, 29.5 percent do not know how to read and write, said Moscoso.