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Literacy for a learning society

Manzoor Ahmed
LITERACY is a subject rife with symbolism and emotions. In the modern world, the incapacity to master the written word is a symbol of backwardness and underdevelopment for a society and an individual. We have seen, therefore, promises and efforts of governments and politicians to get rid of this unwelcome symbol. This probably explains repeated attempts to launch campaigns and movements against illiteracy in our part of the world and elsewhere . Almost all have been disappointing, but the politicians seem to fail to learn their lesson.
Symbolism and Reality
Historical experience shows ( as explained in chapter 2 of Education Watch 2002 report) that these campaigns have succeeded only in a few countries such as the former Soviet Union, China and Cuba, where these have been an essential component of an overall social and political revolution. In a few other countries, such as Tanzania, Nicaragua and Ethiopia where initial successes were claimed, but these petered out with the derailment of the respective revolution, depriving the educational movement its nourishing energy.
Symbolic or not, education, and by the same token literacy, has come to be recognised as a human right by constitutional provisions of many countries and by international treaties. Literacy, as the tool for learning, is the core of any educational process, and thus the foundation for social, economic and personal development.
It is essential to go beyond the symbolism and to achieve real progress in literacy as the core of educational development of a nation. With this end in view, the skills and competencies to be earned in literacy have to be such that they make a difference in the learners' life. These have to open the world of knowledge and information to the learner. These have to enable a person to communicate with written words, not feel helpless when a child seeks help
and guidance in his or her own pursuit of learning, to read for the sheer pleasure of it, to look up knowledge and information that one needs every day, and to continue to broaden one's world of knowledge and learning. These were seen as the uses of literacy by the respondents in the study.
Literacy, therefore, has to be an essential part of lifelong learning; part of an effort to turn every community into a learning community, the whole society into a learning society. In the learning community and the learning society, everyone will have the opportunity to pursue learning according to one's needs and inclinations, and every one will contribute to creating learning opportunities for others, as UNESCO's Edgar Faure Com-
mittee report Learning To Be put it as early as in 1972. This is also the promise of Education for All goals adopted in Jomtien in 1990 and re-affirmed in Dakar in 2000. With this broad vision of literacy and education, Education Watch designed its investigation of the status of literacy in Bangladesh. The aim was to get beyond the symbolism and tokenism to gauge real achievement of skills that can be used in life and can be developed further.
Policy Implications
The findings of the study, in the view of the Education Watch Team, provided a rich harvest of policy questions and policy guidance regarding the future course of literacy, continuing education, nonformal education and lifelong education.
1. A baseline for literacy. The findings on literacy rates for the population 11+ and 15+, for males and females, for urban and rural areas and for different regions of the country, based on scientific sampling and administration of skill tests, establish for the first time reliable baselines for future
planning and assessment of progress in literacy and continuing education.
2. The need for a comprehensive approach. The study confirms that a combination of quality primary education. nonformal basic education for adolescents and youth, and a network of nonformal and adult education centres is essential to combat illiteracy. effectively and sustainably.
3. The poor quality of primary education. The literacy results of primary education completers draw attention to the serious deficiencies in primary education and schooling in general. As the study shows, one-third of those who have completed five years of primary schooling are still illiterate and it takes ten years of schooling
to ensure that all of a population group are literate. On the other hand, 97 percent of those completing 4-5 years of nonformal primary education are literate. The aim clearly should be to enable children to achieve sustainable literacy with three years of primary education.
4. "One-size-fits all" campaigns don't work. Campaigns of fixed duration with a focus on "token" literacy and targets for declaring districts as "illiteracy-free" do not reflect an understanding of literacy and how it can make a difference in people's life. An expanded view of learning objectives and a more integrated programme approach combining basic literacy, consolidation of literacy skills, and their application through development activities need to be adopted.
5. Poverty alleviation calls for multi-purpose continuing education. Narrowly focused standard skill training courses are not the answer. Skill training needs ancillary support and responsiveness to employment market which education providers cannot handle. No large-scale successful
model of this type exists. On the other hand, poverty is not just a matter of income. Improvement in health and nutrition, knowledge and practice of family planning, priority to children's education, knowledge of and claiming entitlements to public services and so on affect people's wellbeing in important ways. A network of multipurpose community learning centres offering needbased locally adapted continuing learning opportunities are likely to have a greater impact on poverty reduction than poor quality skill courses detached from the necessary supportive components.
6. A broad vision of nonformal and continuing education. A wide spectrum of learning objectives, complementary to basic literacy and necessary to sustain and
develop it, need to be served by nonformal and continuing education programmes. This should be the new vision of literacy, continuing education and lifelong education, all of which can help create the learning society. Present public sector nonformal education pays little or no attention to:
+ early childhood care and education and preschool education,
+ nonformal alternatives for out-of-school children,
+ second-chance basic education opportunity for the drop-out and the left-out,
+ lifelong learning opportunities for personal fulfillment,
+ locally adapted and market-responsive nonformal training in vocational, occupational and entrepreneurship skills,
+ enhancement of the informal learning environment such as access to multi-media centres, promotion of self-learning and encouragement of cultural expressions.
7. Rethinking management of nonformal education. Management of literacy, continuing education and nonformal education needs to be based on govern-
ment-civil society partnership and decentralized enough to make it responsive to local conditions and accountable to the community. It is neither necessary nor very efficient for these activities to be managed by a government department, especially because the civil society including the NGOs, community organizations and the private sector have to play a major role in them. The role of a government agency such as DNFE can be that of a professional organization with facilitative and broad regulatory functions rather than executive functions.
8. Affirmative action for the disadvantaged. It is necessary for the government to promote and cooperate with all actors to support a policy of affirmative action, targeting the disadvantaged and marginalised sections of the population. Strategies and programmes that address specific needs of the different disadvantaged groups - such as the disabled, ethnic and cultural minorities, people living in inaccessible and remote areas - need to be developed and implemented. The dimension of gender should be a factor in all policy and strategy considerations.
9. The National Plan of Action for Education for All must reflect a broad vision of a learning society and lifelong learning. The NPA document prepared in fulfillment of the Dakar Framework for action for EFA should be based on a credible assessment of progress made in literacy and results achieved from literacy and nonformal education programmes. NPA should be linked to planning and budgeting of development programmes and not remain a statement of noble intentions.
It is the hope of the Education Watch team that the findings and conclusions of the study will be used to shape a new vision of and develop future plans for literacy, continuing education and lifelong learning.
Dr. Ahmed is the Convener of Education watch and a co-author of the Education watch 2002 report.