Comments on the Adult literacy Notes for Discussion of ICAE Virtual Seminar
 

By Agneta Lind

I think the notes are very thoughtful and I appreciate that they are original. I like the seven Ms. I will limit my contribution to the issue of the value of literacy, and to M number 3. Materials and Methods, and conclude with a brief comment  about Governance and finance.

The value of literacy

We have a tendency to underestimate the value of and the empowerment implied in access to literacy and learning to read, write and calculate (in written form). Literacy is just as important as training youth and adults in practical skills and in managing small businesses in adult education programmes. But, it does not work to integrate everything poorly literate adults need into one programme. Literacy is obviously a necessary tool and a life skill, as much as knowing how to make cement bricks, weave baskets, sew dresses or keep records. To apply technical skills you need money, tools, skills, and material for production. Literacy is a valuable skill in most environments nowadays. People are helped by literacy when they travel, when they sign agreements, when they vote, when they work, when they shop or sell, or just when they enjoy reading news, jokes or stories.

There are many ways to consider that adults who go to literacy classes, and most of those who need to learn to read and write, are people living in poverty. They are the ones who have not been given a chance to go to or finish school. They are the ones who do not have a place at home where they can read or write, or who cannot even afford to buy a newspaper, much less a book. They are among the disadvantaged who do not have electricity or water at home. They are the parents who do not always afford to have their children in school. They are the ones who do not always eat a full meal per day. They are the ones who more easily get sick than people with more education, and when they are sick, who cannot afford fast transport to the clinic or to buy the medicine they are pre-scribed.

However, it is not helpful to make people believe that providing initial literacy programmes for adults will eliminate poverty. Literacy helps people to cope better with their lives, but is not magic. Why do we not just accept that in today´s world everyone needs, and has the right to, literacy, i.e. the skills and practices of reading and writing all kinds of texts, pictures, graphs and numbers, whether digital, printed, or hand-written?

Let us try not to mix up the terminology using the term literacy when we mean other competencies. This contributes to blurring our cause and to weaken advocacy for proper funding of adult literacy as the base for adult education systems in a lifelong learning perspective.

Methods and Materials

It is generally considered important to adapt methods, as well as contents, to adult learners. Participatory methods are always best. Nonetheless, learner motivation has been found to be even more important for positive outcomes. Varying outcomes have been obtained from applying all kinds of methods.

The most important lesson drawn is that adults must at least be treated with due respect and patience, and that the chosen method must be within the reach of the teachers, otherwise they will relapse even more easily into the methods they remember from their own school experience. One of the challenges is that teaching numeracy and literacy skills often requires special teaching skills, while teaching other subjects related to literacy programmes requires a different set of skills and knowledge.
 
Failed adult literacy programmes have wrongly been blamed on the use of preconceptualized and printed primers and the top-down transmission of a dominant schooled literacy, allegedly not taking into account local knowledge and literacy. The idea of not using pre-conceived learner materials may work in literate societies, such as in the UK, where there is an abundance of written material and where highly qualified and trained adult education and literacy personnel is available, but can be counterproductive in less literate environments.
As pointed out by the Global Monitoring Report 2006 on adult literacy
( http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=43283&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html ), high quality literacy primers are often key to programme success. The use of real literacy materials, to provide practice in reading newspapers, filling in forms, reading and writing letters and timetables, calculating incomes and expenditures etc are useful both as complementary to and as part of such primers.

In fact, there is no magic method or approach that will fit all contexts and all learners. Every learner group will need to be addressed according to its motivations, living conditions, language habits, prior learning, knowledge and experience. And in every learner group there will be a diversity of learning needs and aspirations. A major challenge is thus to design programmes and train facilitators that are flexible enough to address a diversity of learning needs in multiple language situations, and at the same time give enough guidance and structure for participants to feel confident that they are steadily progressing. Modular systems with in-built continuous assessment and frequent evaluation points have the potential to provide both flexibility and structure.

Governments, and all providers, must invest in training, and in materials for adult literacy.

Finance and Governance

To promote literacy for all and literate societies is a complex challenge because it requires addressing both diversity and coordination at all levels. At national level, the negative repercussions of lack of coordination among international agencies are strongly felt. Aiddependent national governments in the poorest countries and NGOs working in the field of literacy should demand that the different international agencies and initiatives reconcile and coordinate their positions and approaches so as to avoid ambiguities, waste of resources, unpredictable stoppages, as well as undue and unnecessary complications in the development of inclusive and efficient literacy policies and strategies.

Finally, without significant increases in the funding of literacy programmes for youth and adults and for literacy development within and outside schools, and without sustained investment in the human resources necessary for implementing literacy promoting strategies, it will not be possible to address the literacy challenge at global, national and local levels seriously. The achievement of internationally agreed goals and targets requires renewed commitments, not least to adult and youth education, in order to enable the creation of inclusive literate societies.