Language education for Dutch-speaking adults
The UNESCO Education For All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report 2009 shows that illiteracy and low literacy rates are not confined to poor countries. According to the report, in the Netherlands, some 1.5 million adults are classified as functionally illiterate, roughly 1 million of them native Dutch speakers. In metropolitan France, 9% of adults of working age had attended school in France but had literacy problems.
UNESCO suggests that meeting the lifelong needs of youth and adults needs stronger political commitment and more public funding.
How big a problem is illiteracy in your country? What can schools, governments and civil society do to remedy the problem?
I have no figures, but it is known that illiteracy levels among girls in Kenya was slightly higher than that of boys. I say ‘was’ because since free primary school education was implemented in 2004, many more girls have started to go to school. Infact, so many new children were enrolled that year the teachers were overwhelmed. Some may since have dropped out for various reasons, and they may never go back so they will basically be illiterate adults. Most illiterate adults in Kenya mostly live outside urban areas, especially in areas where the infrastructure is poor and they have to walk many miles to school. But in most cases, girls are forced to drop out of school due to early marriages. When they have children it becomes very difficult to go back to school. What should be done? Deal with marriage of very young girls.
The best starter to promote adult literacy is to understand functional literacy. I had the privilege of evaluating the Total Literacy Programme conducted by our Ministry of HRD in Mufussil, India. Women know how to read time and everyone knows simple calculations and of course they make out correct currency notes and coins. The primers printed had limited insight into what rural women and adults know and what should be taught with effective methods of teaching. With the introduction of mobile telephones the urban housemaids have picked up their functional literacy with amazing speed.
Appreciation of and the desire for improved lifestyles have taken women far ahead both in rural and urban India. What is required is the insight into their exact needs in daily life for which quick surveys must be conducted before starting literacy classes. The primers printed lacked insights into the exact needs of communities. The operational effort was hilarious and the external evaluators brought back amazing information of the conduct of adult literacy programmes.
Colleges of social work play an active role in the effective operational areas of literacy programmes. The poor have amazing survival and development strategies. Identification of existing levels of awareness and innovative operational programmes will work wonders towards social development.
Suunanda Koushik, UWA Pune India