Promoting literacy through intergenerational learning

September, in the Education and Adult Learning and Education (ALE) sector is an important month, mainly because we mark World Literacy Day. In some quarters, a whole week is designated as Literacy Week to give prominence to literacy as a development imperative. Indeed, literacy is a critical skill enabling individuals and communities to function as independent and productive members of society and is, therefore, critical to individual, communal and national progress.

In Africa, initiatives in ALE have mainly, and sometime exclusively, emphasised literacy skills. More recently, there has been much discussion on teaching these skills using mother languages/tongue and not necessarily foreign languages or official languages as was initially the case. Literacy rates in many countries depict, somewhat, the precarious nature of existing literacy initiatives. Certainly greater investments are needed to boost literacy initiatives further, as was underscored by African Civil Society (CSOs) participating in pre CONFINTEA (International Conference on Adult Education) processes and at CONFINTEA VI.

But what kind of investments are we talking about? Is it always about getting more money from the north or is does it always boil down to institutional measures at central ministries and directorates to spearhead literacy programmes? Can African CSOs and literacy outfits innovate literacy initiatives and cultures beyond present literacy paradigms?

I want to draw from a recent engagement in Northern Ghana to demonstrate how using simple and sustainable approaches African CSOs, educators and the Adult Education Movement can back a popular continental literacy drive across the generations. The idea is to build on available resources in communities to promote a culture of intergenerational inquiry and learning. The resources I wish to draw upon are those of the learners themselves.

I was in Northern Ghana evaluating a programme for the Regional Advisory Information and Network Systems (RAINS), a local organisation that has been instrumental in promoting girls education in the Northern Region, as well as increasing school enrolment, retention and completion. RAINS has also pioneered mechanisms for community participation and governance using the school as a base for such involvement. Through the community surveillance teams (CSTs), self help groups (SHGs) and children’s community clubs (CCCs), RAINS brings together different sections of the community to address the problem of child migration, child labour and school drop outs with a reasonable amount of success.

I was, however, struck by the high levels of illiteracy among parents of the children who were benefitting from the school based programmes ran by RAINS. Upon further inquiry I learnt that official literacy or AE programmes were inexistent or had been discontinued after the death of the instructor in some places for a number of years. Sadly there was very little concern at both the official quarters or among CSOs about this void.

How could an organisation focus its work on education yet fail to address the problem of mass illiteracy in their midst? How could a CSO hope to influence parents to send and keep their children in school if the parents themselves have not appreciated the joy of being able to read, to count to learn new things on their own? How could a CSO promote greater community participation in its programmes and in the school if the participation of an important stakeholder i.e. the parents, is limited by their inability to read and follow project proposals, question reports and engage beyond physical presence at meetings?

RAINS is not the only organisation which finds itself in such a situation, a situation which evokes a contradiction in real terms – between what is claimed and what is practiced. The focus on the education of children which after all is the priority of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as well as numerous master education plans and development visions has blurred an equally pressing concern of nurturing literate adults. A single focus on formal primary education is not sustainable and has to be balanced by a parallel investment in informal and non-formal education targeting youths and adults.

The emphasis on informal and non-formal education is key in ALE approaches in that parents may not always have the time to attend ‘formal’ literacy classes. Also, it underscores the need for adults and youths to learn on the basis of their everyday experiences rather than being instructed in abstract terms. An additional consideration I wish to argue for in support of these approaches is to ensure reciprocity in the learning equation where acquiring knowledge is not a solitary event but a communal obligation that is discharged by all able members of the community, young and old.

To realise this CSOs and education/ALE activists have to undergo two important conceptual shifts. The first is in how they conceptualise the main protagonists in any education/learning endeavour and the other relates to methods required to motivate participation and learning. It is common for most education programmes to look at recipients of education as beneficiaries or as victims to be instructed and not as active agents who can partake and shape the processes of learning and instruction.

One way this could be altered is requiring children who are benefiting from education programmes supported by numerous CSOs like RAINS to undertake to impart basic literacy skills to a non-literate adult in their family or community. CSOs can be innovative in how they realise this in practice but it can be built in the school curriculum where homework essentially takes place in the home environment tackling learning gaps among family members. Alternatively, it could comprise an essential part of extra curriculum activities pupils are encouraged to do for a number of semester hours, which dedication will be monitored and tested at some point such as during literacy week. Pupils can earn credits or some of recognition for their effort.

Equally, whereas parents are often required by CSOs and governments alike to make substantial contributions/sacrifice towards the education of their children such as by participating in the construction of schools building and facilities, making financial contributions and the like in most cases such contributions are not welcomed because they tend to drain parents financially without parents seeing immediate results from their investments/sacrifice. Indeed, in a poverty and drought-stricken area, as in Northern Ghana where everyday survival is paramount, parents can’t wait 13 or more years to harvest the benefits from their children’s education.

We in the education and ALE movement, therefore, have to consciously operate with this understanding as we devise education interventions. Similarly, we have to challenge our own assumptions and biases about working with poor people, children, illiterate folks and rural populations. Why could a rural pupil not be the agent and impetus for literacy initiatives in their communities? Why could we not promote child-led literacy initiatives as an integral part of our child rights work? Why do we not enter into conversations with parents and communities about making homes and fields, not just the four walled classrooms sites for learning?

I raised one question to pupils I interviewed as part of my evaluation – why can’t your mother or father read or write while you can? Most of the children seemed surprised at the question. The children were however aware that their parents were going at length to keep them in school. If this is the case why did the children not recognise that they also have a duty to give back to their parents beyond being dutiful hard working children in the home of in the field? How could they give back in practical terms? How could what happens in the classroom be actualised in the homes enabling parents to experience firsthand the benefits of schooling?

Making these linkages, I believe, will set us off to building a learning culture across generations, a culture which emphasizes learning as a natural obligation to ensure our common development and survival.

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* © Salma Maoulidi
* Salma Maoulidi is a GEO (Gender Education Office) member representing the Africa region.
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