A survey by LPG Datos, the social research unit of the newspaper La Prensa Grafica, shows that in 2019, there were 45,255 illiterates between seven and nine years of age, in 2020 it rose to 46,408 and in 2021 it rose to 51,486.

These figures show that between 2020 and 2021 alone, 5,078 more children who cannot read or write were reported, which increases illiteracy rates.

Teachers from the public and private sectors assure that in order to face the problem, it is necessary to return to the classrooms as soon as possible, and pointed out that children from second to fourth grades cannot read or write, which is translated into educational backwardness to which attention must be paid.

According to the research, the absence to classrooms due to the Covid-19 pandemic led to sequels in the last two years such as illiteracy, deficiencies in fine and gross motor skills, lags in education and damage in the socialization of children, in which teachers, doctors and experts in education agree.

The Multipurpose Household Survey (EHPM) of 2020 indicated that the illiteracy rate at national level was 9.6 percent, being more accentuated in rural areas with 304,267 people (15.1 percent) aged 10 and older who do not know how to read or write.

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