literacy for life; EFA global monitoring report, 2006 - Institut de ...

GOOD POLICY, GOOD PRACTICE / 223
contributes to the relative lack of success
in many literacy programmes (Abadzi, 2003a
and 2004).
Organizing learning groups
Organizing literacy programmes to enable women
and men to participate in ways and at times that
suit their needs and circumstances is critical to
programme effectiveness. Adult learners are
largely voluntary participants. The demands of
work and family can affect attendance and lead
to drop-out. The cyclical patterns of life in rural
areas determine when investment in learning is
practical. At the same time, adults usually have
pragmatic, focused reasons for taking such
courses, and will stop participating if they feel
their goals have been met or if the programme
is not addressing their needs.
Some commentators have used drop-out
rates as an indicator of programme inefficiency
(Abadzi, 2003a). Care needs to be taken in the
measurement of these rates since irregular
attendance or ‘drop-in/drop-out’ may be common.
Whatever the circumstances, organizational
strategies should promote appropriate grouping
of learners, sensible organization of their time
and a friendly, suitable location.
Gender considerations matter greatly. In
societies where men are assumed to be the
principal family decision-makers, it is often as
important to gain their agreement to the
participation of their wives and daughters in
literacy courses as it is to appeal to the interest
of the women themselves. An understanding of
the cultural constraints under which both men
and women operate is important. In parts of rural
Morocco, a husband would lose face if his wife
attended classes taught by a male instructor or
where other safeguards were not provided. In
most cases, husbands are not actively opposed
to their wives attending classes, but they
require that the classes conform to the social
practices and conventions of the community.
If a woman instructor is not available, classes
might still be possible if they meet in a mosque
or the home of a respected community leader
(Bougroum, 2005).
In Uganda, the training of women as literacy
educators is a basic requirement for reaching out
to potential women learners, especially in the
more rural and conservative areas. Current plans
call for 40,000 literacy educators to be trained and
at least half of these will be women. This is in
response to a situation in which 70% of adult
learners are women but most existing educators
are men (Okech, 2005). In contrast, in Namibia’s
National Literacy Programme in the 1990s, the
majority of both learners and literacy educators
were women (Lind, 1996). In this case, men were
disinclined to participate in the classes because
of the numbers of women; moreover, the course
was seen as a woman’s activity, with a focus on
childcare, nutrition and health.
While gender analysis is essential, attention
to age, prior learning experiences and other
sociocultural factors is also important. The
Alternative Basic Education programme in
Karamoja, Uganda, serves both adults and
children, though the latter are the primary target
(Okech, 2005). Another Ugandan study revealed
that learners’ opinions about the desirability of
class homogeneity were mixed (Box 9.5).
The duration of instruction needs to be
flexible: long enough to achieve agreed outcomes,
but short enough to reduce irregular attendance
and drop-out (Lind and Johnston, 1996). In
Burkina Faso, class schedules respond to the
needs of female participants. Childcare is
provided to enable mothers to concentrate on
their courses (Napon and Sanou/Zerbo, 2005).
In Eritrea, programmes are scheduled at
different times of the year to reflect patterns
Box 9.5 Opinions on the composition
of learning groups in Uganda
In Namibia’s
National Literacy
Programme in the
1990s, the majority
of both learners
and literacy
educators were
women
Some learners believed classes worked best when participants were
of similar age and background. ‘Most of us learners are women aged
between 30 and 40 years of age. We interacted freely and could ask
our instructors any questions.’ For others, a mix of ages was an
advantage: ‘The age difference brought cooperation and love among
us, with the younger [ones] helping the older and vice versa.’ In the
latter group, however, some felt the age difference impeded learning,
with younger learners saying the older ones held them back, while
older learners observed: ‘Some male youth are stubborn, they refuse
to interact with us, saying you old people are rigid.’ Younger
participants felt uneasy when family matters were being discussed.
Some felt the learning groups would assist only the older adults.
There were learners who suggested that it would be best to have
separate days or classes for different age groups, with, for example,
older and slower learners in one class and younger, faster learners in
another, and that there should be two facilitators. Self-confidence was
another theme: ‘The old are the ones who always answer. The young
are always shy. Those who have been to school have a higher
reasoning capacity than we who did not go to school. In family affairs
such as cooking, it is women who always answer.’
Source: Carr-Hill (2001).