Literacy: the core of Education for All
The six EFA
Dakar goals:
1.
Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood
care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.
2.
Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls,
children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities,
have access to, and complete, free and compulsory primary education of good
quality.
3.
Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people
and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and
life-skills programs.
4.
Achieving a 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy
by 2015, especially for woman, and equitable access to basic and continuing education
for all adults.
5.
Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary
education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a
focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to ad achievement in basic education
of good quality.
6.
Improving all aspects of the quality of education and
ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes
are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy, and essential life
skills.
Literacy is a
context-bound continuum of reading, writing, and numeracy skills, acquired, and
developed through processes of learning and application, in schools and in
other settings appropriate to youth and adults. Literacy helps people
understand decontextualized information and language, verbal as well as
written. Literate parents are more likely to be able to support their children
in practical ways, such as meeting with teachers and discussing progress with
their children. When literacy courses instruct parents on ways of helping
children in school and inform them about the content of the curriculum, the
children’s education benefit is even greater.
Literacy is
also a right, indeed an essential part of the right of every individual to
education. Some governments have recently begun to devote increasing attention
to literacy. Education—and literacy within it—does not concern only
individuals, as a rights and capabilities framework alone might suggest; it is
also has a critical social dimension. The types of educational inputs (e.g.
material and human resources), outcomes (e.g. reading, writing, and numeracy
skills), and processes (e.g. curricula, teaching and learning methods) that are
relevant to individuals are very much influenced by the social context.
Though the
notion of a literate society is highly context-specific, some common lessons
have emerged. First, literate societies should enable individuals and groups to
acquire, develop, sustain, and use relevant literacy skills. Second, literate
societies should provide and develop literacy that is of relevance to citizens,
communities and the nation, and at the same time, acknowledge the diverse need
and priorities of different groups—particularly those who are disadvantaged and
excluded.
Why Literacy Matters
Literacy
should be understood within a right-based approach and among principles of
inclusion for human development. Literacy has been recognized not only as a
right in itself but also as a mechanism for the pursuit of other human rights,
just as human rights education is a tool for combating illiteracy.
The benefits of literacy:
The rationale
for recognizing literacy s a right is the set of benefits it confers on
individuals, families, communities, and nations. Literacy programs and written
materials can be a mechanism to indoctrinate people to participate uncritically
in a political system.
Providing a systematic,
evidence-based account of the benefits of literacy is not easy, for several
reasons:
-
Most research has not separated the benefits of
literacy per se from those of attending school or participating in adult
literacy programs.
-
Little research has been devoted to adult literacy programs
and exiting studies focus mainly on women.
-
Research has focused on the impact of literacy upon the
individual.
-
Some effects of literacy, e.g. those on culture, are
intrinsically difficult to define and measure.
-
Literacy is not defined consistently across studies and
literacy data are frequently flawed.
v
The human benefits from literature are related
to factors such as the improved self-esteem, empowerment, creativity, and
critical reflection that participation in adult literacy programs and the
practice of literacy may produce. Literacy may empower learners—especially
women—to take individual and collective action in various contexts, such as household,
workplace and community, in two related ways. First, literacy programs
themselves may be designed and conducted so as to make participants into
authors of their own learning, developers of their own knowledge and partners
in dialogue about limit situation in their lives. Second, literacy programs can
contribute to broader socio-economic processes of empowerment provided they
take place in a supportive environment.
v
The empowering potential of literacy can
translate into increased political participation and thus contribute to the
quality of public policies and to democracy. The relationship between education
and political participation is well established. Educated people are to some
extent more likely to vote and voice more tolerant attitudes and democratic
values. Participation in adult literacy programs is also correlated with
increased participation in trade unions, community action, and national
political life, especially when empowerment is at the core of programs design.
The expansion of education may contribute to the expansion of democracy and
vice versa, yet the precise nature of the relationship between education and
democracy remains unclear and difficult to measure accurately.
There appears
to be no research into the impact on ethnic equality of either literacy or
participation in adult literacy programs. It is probably reasonable to assume
that the impact of literacy is likely similar to that of educational expansion,
i.e. that is has the potential to benefit disadvantaged ethnic groups but will
not necessarily do so. Literacy programs can have an impact on peace and
reconciliation in post-conflict context.
v
The cultural benefits of literacy are harder to
identify clearly than benefits in terms of political participation. Adult
literacy programs may facilitates the transmission of certain values and
promote transmission of other values, attitudes and behaviors through critical
reflection. They also provide access to written culture, which the newly
literate may choose to explore independently of the cultural orientation of the
literacy programs in which they participated. Literacy programs can help
challenge attitudes and behavioral pattern. Adults literacy programs can help
preserve cultural diversity. In particular, literacy programs that make use of
minority languages have the potential to improve people’s ability to
participate in their own culture.
v
Improving literacy levels thus has potentially
large social benefits, such as increased life expectancy, reduced child mortality,
and improved children’s health.
v
Economic benefits: the economic returns to
education have been extensively studied, especially in terms of increased
individual income and economic growth. Economies are increasingly based on
knowledge and less on physical capital or natural resources, and strong network
effects characterize knowledge. The more people with access to knowledge, the
greater its likely economic benefits. A country that focuses on promoting
strong literacy skills widely throughout its population will be more successful
in fostering growth and well-being than one in which the gap between high-skill
and low-skill groups is large.
