Cuba's Contribution to Adult Literacy, Popular Education, and Peace Building in Timor-Leste

Abstract

In Timor-Leste, a national adult literacy campaign supported by a small team of Cuban advisers was launched in 2007. By 2010, three years later, over 70,000 people completed a 13-week basic literacy course, and the campaign looks set to have a major impact on the country's 50 percent illiteracy rate. This chapter, drawing on findings from in-country fieldwork funded by the Australian Research Council, outlines the achievements of the literacy campaign, and assesses the contribution that Cuba's adult literacy work is making to postconflict peace building and the achievement of postcolonial independence. This unusual and innovative experiment in mass popular adult education, undertaken with high levels of local involvement and minimal donor support, stands in sharp contrast with the more dominant neoliberal models of education and training for state building, favored by international agencies such as the World Bank.