Mexico Takes Literacy Into Communities and Workplaces to Reach Those Still Left Out

A UNESCO update published on 5 October 2026 highlights Mexican initiatives taking education into community centres, construction sites and Indigenous-language programmes.

Mexico has reached a national literacy rate of 96%, an achievement that leaves a pressing question for educators and communities: how can learning reach people who still face barriers to reading and writing? Indigenous-language speakers, migrant populations and disadvantaged communities remain among those needing greater access, with exclusion affecting people in remote rural areas and underserved urban neighbourhoods.

A UNESCO update published on 5 October 2026 highlights Mexican initiatives taking education into community centres, construction sites and Indigenous-language programmes. Universities, public institutions, civil society organisations, local authorities and private companies are contributing to this work, creating opportunities that fit more closely around people's lives. Several initiatives have received UNESCO International Literacy Prizes, which have recognised more than 600 individuals, organisations and institutions worldwide since 1967.

University volunteers bring learning into the community

Mirta Isabel Figueroa's Aprender enseñando, or Learning by Teaching, received the UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy in 2020, with the prize funds used to build a community centre in Barranca Honda, on the outskirts of Puebla City. The centre offers learning opportunities for children, adolescents and adults, giving residents a place to develop skills within their own community.

Figueroa began her literacy work as a volunteer and now directs the University Centre for Social Participation at the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, organising university students to teach literacy in communities. Her approach connects learners' progress with volunteers' understanding of their ability to bring about change, captured in her wish that students remember the woman who read her own name for the first time.

Puebla's membership in UNESCO's Global Network of Learning Cities allows it to exchange experiences with cities worldwide, supported locally by partnerships between authorities, universities and communities. Mayor Pepe Chedraui describes literacy as a route to education, greater awareness of rights, better employment prospects and active community participation, linking individual learning with the development of a fairer, more inclusive city.

Construction-site classrooms make education part of working life

Roxana Fabris, president of the Construyendo y Creciendo, or Building and Growing, Foundation, has developed private-sector partnerships, particularly with the real estate industry, to bring education directly to construction sites. In Mexico City's Las Américas neighbourhood, four students attend computer classes in a prefabricated classroom at a private school construction site, taking time away from work with the company's agreement.

The foundation received the UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, when student Sebastián Saldaña was learning to read and write as part of his primary-level studies. Fabris describes a substantial change in him since those early lessons, illustrating the personal significance of education that workers can access within their daily surroundings.

Indigenous-language materials help reach overlooked learners

Mexico's National Institute for Adult Education, awarded the UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize in 2011, is expanding learning opportunities in a multilingual country. Director-General Armando Castillo Contreras says 6% of Mexicans speak an Indigenous language, including six million bilingual speakers who speak Spanish and an Indigenous language, and around 800,000 monolingual speakers.

The institute has 66 learning materials in different languages serving 18 states with a greater presence of Indigenous-language speakers, covering around 100 of Mexico's 364 language variants. Castillo connects this work with growing pride in Indigenous identities and a broader vision of a country that supports learning throughout society, extending the ideas shared through UNESCO's Learning Cities approach.

The remaining 4% without basic literacy skills keeps the need for accessible education firmly in view, with Figueroa and Fabris stressing that support must reach people wherever they live. Mexico's experiences show how community volunteers, workplace classrooms and Indigenous-language materials can make learning more relevant and accessible, building confidence, participation and opportunity alongside reading and writing.