Mission Robinson is one of the

Bolivarian Missions The Bolivarian missions are a series of over thirty social programs implemented under the administration of former Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez and continued by Chávez's successor, Nicolás Maduro. The programs focus on helping the mos ...

(a series of anti-poverty and social welfare programs) implemented by Hugo Chávez in 2003.

Name

The name "Robinson" was given to the Mission in remembrance of the Venezuelan philosopher and educator

Simón Rodríguez Simón Rodríguez (October 28, 1769, Caracas, Venezuela – February 28, 1854, Amotape, Peru), known during his exile from Spanish America as Samuel Robinson, was a Venezuelan philosopher and educator, notably Simón Bolívar's tutor and men ...

because he adopted the pseudonym Samuel Robinson during his exile from

Spanish America Spanish America refers to the Spanish territories in the Americas during the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The term "Spanish America" was specifically used during the territories' imperial era between 15th and 19th centuries. To the e ...

History

On May 23 2003, the government implemented a pilot plan in the

Capital District A capital district, capital region or capital territory is normally a specially designated administrative division where a country's seat of government is located. As such, in a federal model of government, no state or territory has any poli ...

and the states of Vargas, Miranda and

Aragua Aragua State ( es, Estado Aragua, ) is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. It is located in the north-central region of Venezuela. It has plains and jungles and Caribbean beaches. The most popular are Cata and Choroni. It has Venezuela's first n ...

. The government considered the pilot a success and followed with Mission Robinson I, a nationwide literacy program, on July 1st. On September 15 2003, Mission Robinson II was created to continue the education to sixth grade for the first mission's graduates. The program uses volunteers to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic to Venezuelan adults who are

illiterate Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, hum ...

. The program is military-civilian in nature, and sends soldiers to, among other places, remote and dangerous locales in order to reach the most undereducated, neglected, and marginalized adult citizens to give them regular schooling and lessons. The lessons use the "Yo Sí Puedo" teaching method developed by Dr Leonela Relys Diaz.

Statistics

On the first anniversary of Mission Robinson's establishment, and to an audience of 50,000 formerly illiterate Venezuelans, Hugo Chávez Frías stated in the

Teresa Carreño María Teresa Gertrudis de Jesús Carreño García (December 22, 1853June 12, 1917) was a Venezuelan pianist, soprano, composer, and conductor. Over the course of her 54-year concert career, she became an internationally renowned virtuoso piani ...

theater in Caracas that “it was truly a world record, in a year we have graduated 1,250,000 Venezuelans". On 28 October 2005, Venezuela declared itself a "Territory Free of Illiteracy". The government claimed that 1,482,000 adults learned to read and write. According to Francisco Rodríguez of Wesleyan University in Connecticut and Daniel Ortega of IESA, there has been “little evidence” of “statistically distinguishable effect on Venezuelan illiteracy”. The Venezuelan government claimed that it had taught 1.5 million Venezuelans to read, but the study found that "only 1.1m were illiterate to begin with" and that the illiteracy reduction of less than 100,000 can be attributed to adults that were elderly and died. Previous reports had claimed that the eradication of illiteracy had been

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

-verified. In October 2006, Venezuelan Education Minister

Aristóbulo Istúriz Aristóbulo Istúriz Almeida (20 December 1946 – 27 April 2021) was a Venezuelan politician and academic who was vice president of the Constituent Assembly of Venezuela in August 2017; he was also the vice president of Venezuela from January 2 ...

clarified that Venezuela had not received a UNESCO certification because the organisation does not certify literacy programs.

References

External links

The Robinson Mission Venezuela
(unesco.org)
Misión Robinson
– Official government website Bolivarian missions Education in Venezuela {{Venezuela-stub