A third-grade teacher approached her school’s principal to share news: one of her students, who just weeks earlier had still been struggling to read, had just shown her he could now do so fluently.
Freddy Antonio Cauich Abnal, principal of the “Felipe Carrillo Puerto” Primary School in Halachó, Yucatán, Mexico, described that moment: “When she comes and tells me, so excited — well, that also makes me… I get a lump in my throat. And it makes me say: Wow! So yes. Let’s keep going.”
Freddy’s story highlights how education policies can extend their benefits when built from the classroom up, alongside teachers, support teams, and education authorities, with tangible tools.
UNESCO works alongside the Fundación Instituto Natura and the state education systems of 11 Mexican states in implementing an Early Literacy Policy with a concrete goal: for girls and boys to learn to read and write during the first two years of primary school.
The tools provided are designed to integrate into what teachers already do, and include pedagogical and didactic strategies, monitoring indicators, and continuous support. Over four school years, pilot experience grew into a continuous presence in more than 17,000 schools, with around 25,000 accredited teachers and close to 6,000 mentoring figures.
Freddy remembers some teachers at his school who initially received the policy’s strategies with scepticism, perceiving them as yet another burden. Direct experience changed all.
Having clear proposals and applying them in class makes me feel more confident. That confidence is transmitted to students and is reflected in their attention and learning.
Briseida Cuevas Caamal, second-grade primary school teacher.
Briseida Cuevas Caamal and Leysy Balan Kantún, primary school teachers in Halachó, share that having access to a range of materials and teaching sequences — including diagnostic tools — enables them to adapt their approach to support each student according to their individual needs, whether they are at a syllabic or pre-syllabic stage. They also involve parents and school authorities to provide comprehensive support that builds confidence in girls and boys, both inside and outside the classroom.
Parents are realizing that this work is coming from here, from the school.
Leysy Balan Kantún, second-grade primary school teacher.
In Campeche, Lidia Berrón Osorno, from the state’s Ministry of Education, acknowledges that “the main challenge of any innovation is resistance to change.” What eased adoption was the usefulness of data in transforming realities: UNESCO’s monitoring system makes it possible to identify real progress and adjust actions where gaps remain. Its flexibility has been key.
It’s not additional work — it’s support that strengthens what we already do in the classroom.
Marina Elide Chan Marcos, primary school zone supervisor in Hopelchén, Campeche.
For the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, literacy is a complex, multidimensional, and ever-evolving competency. It is a continuous process that accompanies people throughout their entire lives, more than a goal that can be definitively achieved. So, early literacy is vital to the journey that every person undertakes.
UNESCO supports Mexico’s state education systems through indicators it developed to monitor both progress and gaps as they arise. This information enables teachers, school principals, and education supervisors to determine their own actions.
The states of Aguascalientes, Durango, Campeche, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Guanajuato, Nuevo León, Sonora, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, and Yucatán are currently implementing their own Early Literacy Policy alongside UNESCO, made possible through the systemic approach and sponsorship of the Fundación Instituto Natura.
read more: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/together-teachers-giving-every-child-right-read-time?hub=701
