Beyond the traditional view of literacy

Solving the problem by herself. Photo: Munira Morshed Munni/ Drik NewsS.M. Zakir Hossain Sarker

TODAY, when we as well as the international community are observing International Literacy Day 2009, some 776 million adults lack minimum literacy skills. Every year Unesco observes this day and reminds to review the status of literacy and adult learning. The education ministry, in cooperation with other stakeholders, organises rallies, workshops and meetings. NGOs and civil society organisations also organise events on this occasion.

International Literacy Day is observed every year, but the achievements are questionable when we see the worldwide illiteracy rate. The events are organised by literate people, but the illiterate people are not involved in them -- which certainly disempowers them.

Literacy and Empowerment is the theme for 2009-2010 declared by Unesco. The government, in cooperation with Unesco, has published a poster on this theme and will hold a national level meeting on this issue today. Do we think that this is sufficient for empowering the illiterate people? Do they have the investment and programs to educate the adults? If not, how will Bangladesh achieve the Education for All (EFA) target by 2015?

EFA Global Monitoring Report 2008 noted that illiteracy is receiving minimal political attention and remains a global disgrace, keeping one in five adults (1 of 4 women) on the margins of society. In 2008, the adult literacy rate was 48.8% while it was 64% in 2000. The government as well as the other organisations focus more on the children and youth non-formal education and put less emphasis on the issue of adult education. However, a few organisations provide support for adult literacy and use different approaches/models to implement their adult literacy programs.

Reflect is an approach, which won UN literacy award in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2008, and is used by over 500 organisations in over 70 countries worldwide. In Bangladesh, it is used under different names by more than 100 organisations -- e.g. ActionAid, Bangladesh, Care, Bangladesh etc.

Reflect is a participatory approach to adult learning that fuses the philosophy of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire with the methodology of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA). When ActionAid first developed it in the early 1990s in Bangladesh, Uganda and El Salvador, Reflect focused on linking adult literacy to empowerment.

Groups of adult learners convened to learn literacy, and constructed maps, graphics, calendars and matrices to analyse different aspects of their own lives. These would be done on the ground and then transfered to paper, using simple pictures drawn by the non-literate participants (who thereby practiced the manual skill of holding a pen). Words would then be added to the visual images as labels and these would serve as the basis for literacy practice.

The facilitator would write up key conclusions from discussions and these would become texts for further study. Participants would identify action points to resolve issues and literacy would then be put to practical use in taking forward such actions (groups would write letters to government officials or NGOs etc). Each participant would end up writing his/her own book based on the language and issues discussed.

Over a year or so the group would end up producing its own collective local development plan. This was an inversion of traditional power dynamics in development -- giving the poorest and most excluded time to do their own analysis and come up with their own solutions.

Reflect is a way for people to discover that they can affect what happens to themselves and their families by influencing what happens in their groups, their wider communities and further afield. By focusing on what people know as opposed to what they don't know, Reflect works with groups which have often learned to see themselves as uneducated (because they are told they can't read and write) and hopeless, so that they rapidly become expert in describing, discussing and analysing their environment, and shaping it to better meet their needs. This is a very empowering experience, which has the potential to create a widening spiral of change.

A significant aspect of the empowerment process is developing the literacy needed to act confidently within a given environment, and to access basic human rights such as health, clean water, education and food security. This includes not only using existing services but also actively influencing their design, quality and provision to ensure that they meet the needs of those concerned.

Thus many facilitators and participants from Reflect circles go on to become members of school management committees, women's leaders or member of the local governments, taking on leadership roles through democratic processes. Others develop business skills, and increased income brings status, influence and new opportunities for their families.

Reflect circles play an important role in identifying the needs and developing the materials, with Reflect participants simultaneously being empowered through these activities and showing the way for others. (Source: Counting seeds for change, compiled by Kas Sempere for South Africa Reflect Network, ActionAid, DVV international, Open Society Institute, 2009.)

Education is a human right, and it also includes the adult. Denying this is not only the violation of an individual right but also the violation of collective rights since it is a prerequisite for human development. Bangladesh is a medium level (147) developing country in the world as per the Human Development Index (HDI). HDI combines three basic dimensions where one is kknowledge and education, which is measured by the adult literacy rate (with two-thirds weighting).

It is our dream and a right as well to see Bangladesh in the list of developed countries, for which it is a must meet MDGs and increase HDI ranking. So, more investment is needed for adult literacy programmes and an appropriate participatory approach/model is required for proper utilisation of the investment.

S.M. Zakir Hossain Sarker is an Advocate and Human Rights Activist. Email: lawforpoor@yahoo.com.