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Overcoming a national failure

A collective effort needed

Fazle Hasan Abed
THIS year is the first year of the International Literacy Decade (2003-2012). The motto of the decade is "Literacy as Freedom". More than 800 million people in the world and almost sixty percent of the people of Bangladesh do not know this freedom. A confusion exists, among claims and counterclaims about progress in literacy, regarding the status of literacy of the people of Bangladesh. The study by Education Watch, carried out with scientific rigour and based on the administration of a literacy test to a nationwide randomly chosen sample, provides a baseline. This baseline should end the confusion about our literacy status and serve as the benchmark for future planning for literacy, continuing education and nonformal education programmes.
The study is about the state of literacy, not about nonformal education in general or primary education. The findings, however, point out some very relevant and critical aspects of primary education and nonformal education, which have vital policy implications. The study reveals the dominant role of primary education as the means for acquiring literacy; but it also shows that the very poor quality of mainstream primary education is a serious obstacle to better literacy outcomes, since one-third of those who complete primary education still remain illiterate. Nonformal primary education shows a better performance. The question then is what should be done to incorporate some of the positive features of nonformal primary education into mainstream Primary Education.
It has been found that literacy courses in general
including the government-run Total Literacy Movement (TLM), at least in the manner these have been conducted in Bangladesh, have had an insignificant impact on the literacy situation. The study reveals a large 12 percentage point gap between male and female literacy and a staggering 26 percentage point disadvantage for the rural people compared to their urban counterparts. The urban slum dwellers fare the worst with a literacy rate of 19.7 percent against the national average of 41.4 percent. The study also underscores the need for a broader and integrated vision of non-formal and continuing education in which the literacy effort should be embedded.
The study, like all research reports of Education Watch, presents an objective picture of an important facet of basic education in the country, based on collection and analysis of data in a professional manner. It is not intended to apportion blames or point fingers for deficiencies and failures. The findings on literacy do indicate a major national failure -failure in seriousness of effort, in setting priorities right, in applying professionalism to management and decision-making in education, and in lacking a vision and understanding of how literacy and nonformal education programmes work. This is our collective failure as a society and as a nation. We -the public authorities, the academics, the NGOs and the larger civil society - need to work together to overcome this failure. I hope that this is the message that will be heard from the findings and conclusions of Education Watch 2002.
Mr. Abed is the Chair of the Campaign for Popular Education