Mexico Reduces Its Illiteracy Rate to 3.8%: Public Education Secretariat

ByFernanda Monroy

This article by Fernanda Monroy originally appeared in the September 8, 2026 edition of Contralínea, an independent Mexican investigative magazine.

Mexico reduced its illiteracy rate from 4.1 to 3.8 percent in the first year of the National Literacy Strategy for Shared Well-being, reaching the lowest level recorded in the country’s history, reported the Secretary of Public Education, Mario Delgado Carrillo.

During the commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of International Literacy Day, on September 8, the official highlighted that more than 277,000 people learned to read and write over the past year. To this are added 323,000 people who completed primary school and nearly 542,000 who finished secondary school.

The Public Education Secretary attributed these results to the strategy launched in 2025 through the National Institute for Adult Education (INEA), and maintained that teaching literacy represents an act of justice and equity.

“It is one of the deepest acts of justice, equity, and love that can be carried out,” said the secretary, who linked the literacy policy to the Fourth Transformation’s principle of placing the most vulnerable people at the center of public policy.

“It is one of the deepest acts of justice, equity, and love that can be carried out.”

Mario Delgado Carrillo, Secretary of Public Education

He also noted that these advances are part of the goal of building an “Educating Republic,” one of the 100 commitments established by President Sheinbaum.

This effort involves the INEA and the State Institutes for Adult Education, through Community Centers (Plazas Comunitarias) and Study Circles. Volunteers and high school and university students have also been incorporated to support both literacy and the continuation of studies.

The Public Education Secretary maintained that reducing illiteracy will continue to be a priority, and assured that the federal government will not stop working until this lag is diminished.

He recalled that, 45 years after its creation, the INEA has helped more than 32.4 million Mexicans over the age of 15 complete some level of education, through free literacy, primary, and secondary school services.

The commemoration was held in Chiapas, where Governor Eduardo Ramírez Aguilar highlighted the Chiapas Puede (Chiapas Can) program, aimed at reducing the educational lag in the state’s communities.

The governor maintained that teaching literacy is a way to accompany and transform people’s lives, so he called on families, students, teachers, and young people to join the teaching efforts to extend the program to communities that still face difficulties in accessing basic education. “To teach literacy is to love,” he said, referring to the cases of people who have learned to read and write through this strategy.

During the event, literacy teacher Luis López Díaz stressed the importance of bringing these tools to communities where older adults and parents had not had access to reading and writing.

He explained that, through the Chiapas Puede and Alfabetizar es Amar (Teaching Literacy Is Loving) programs, some of these people can now identify letters and understand official documents, including those related to their identity.

In turn, the Assistant Director-General of UNESCO, Lidia Arthur Brito, recognized the work carried out by Mexico on literacy and noted that the experiences implemented in the country constitute practices that can contribute to the international exchange of strategies to address the educational lag.