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Learning
Hebrew Ethiopian-style
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New Zealand:
the right medicine
Libby
Middlebrook, education reporter for The New Zealand Herald |
Programmes are tailored for Maori, who tend to be at the low end of the literacy
scale. |
Rich
or poor, no country is spared from a literacy problem. In New Zealand, caregivers
in a retirement home have gained a new grasp on their job thanks to Workbase, one
of this month’s International Literacy Day prize-winners
When Julie Ahloo was
first employed as a rest home caregiver four years ago, she hardly spoke to her work
mates. She kept quiet to hide her difficulty with reading and understanding the medical
terms on patients’ care plans. The 34-year-old Samoan woman did not have the courage
to ask for help either, in case her poor literacy skills caused her to lose her job.
At the time, Julie Ahloo was not the only caregiver in this position at Auckland’s
Mercy Parklands Hospital and Retirement home. The 94-bed private institution, owned
by the Sisters of Mercy, had noticed rising inaccuracies and lack of detail in patient
care plans, on which caregivers are supposed to record a resident’s food and liquid
intake and other issues relating to their health. Many of the 45 caregivers, employed
to feed, dress and bath patients, were also having problems reading basic flow charts
and detailing a patient’s weekly activities, including dates and times.
Overcoming
shame
“We
thought the flow charts were quite simple to understand, but we started to realize
that many of our workers couldn’t understand basic math,” said Jacki Richardson,
the chief executive of Mercy Parklands. In an effort to improve the business’ day-to-day
operation, Mercy Parklands decided to offer its staff on-site literacy and numeracy
programmes, with the incentive of being paid to improve their skills. Richardson
said the business also wanted to boost the confidence of its caregiver staff members,
who were largely unqualified Maori and Pacific Island women. Most spoke English as
a second language. Mercy Parklands was also committed to running community outreach
projects, which could benefit staff and their families. “We really wanted to improve
staff morale...the caregivers didn’t feel like they had anything to say, but we wanted
their input into the business,” she said.
Mercy Parklands employed Workbase, New Zealand’s national centre for workplace literacy
and language, to design a programme to help any non-qualified staff who wanted to
improve their skills.
Established in 1996, Workbase is a non-profit organization that works in partnership
with business, the education sector and the government to improve English language,
literacy and numeracy skills in the workplace. New Zealand’s participation in the
OECD’s International Adult Literacy Survey (1998) found that 40 percent of people
employed in New Zealand businesses are below the minimum level of literacy competence
required for everyday life and work.
Today there are about 40 Workbase literacy programmes running in New Zealand businesses,
operating across a range of sectors, including manufacturing, forestry and construction.
The programmes, which predominantly reach Maori and Pacific Island people, are designed
to build literacy skills concurrently with the technical skills and knowledge needed
within a particular workplace. Since 1997, more than 20 staff at Mercy Parklands
have attended weekly sessions with a Workbase tutor. Twelve caregivers have just
completed National Certificates in Support of the Older Person.
All of them started out learning basic literacy, numeracy and oral communication
programmes, accredited by New Zealand’s national qualifications’ framework. “When
they started, some of them were too embarrassed to show me their answers,” said tutor
Andi McNish. “Now they’re a really feisty bunch, with heaps of confidence and ideas.”
Spending around 30 minutes with each caregiver once a week, McNish designs personal
study programmes for each caregiver, including homework and assessments. She also
has the help of a part-time registered nurse from the hospital, who has been trained
as a tutor to assist the caregivers.
Moving
up in the world
“Everything
has been tied in to their work. For example, if we were doing reading, then we would
look at the in-house staff newsletter,” said McNish, who works with several other
companies as a Workbase tutor. Mercy Parklands, which spends more than $30,000 a
year running the programme, has been rewarded with fewer mistakes and a more confident
and motivated workforce. Morale has soared.
Caregivers take greater interest in the operational side of the business and are
not afraid to offer suggestions about patient care, according to senior staff. Richardson
said the quality of documentation, required by health authorities, had improved dramatically.
“They are much closer to the patients and are able to advocate for their needs much
more. Because they [the caregivers] have achieved something, they’re so much more
confident. It’s like working with a completely different group of staff.”
Four years after beginning a basic numeracy and literacy programme through Workbase,
Julie Ahloo has just earned her first qualification – a National Certificate in Support
of the Older Person. She has received a pay rise and helps her young children with
their reading and writing homework after school.
“I’m a very different person now,” she said. “I used to have low self-esteem, I wanted
to speak up but I couldn’t. But I’m very assertive now, I’ve got so much more confidence,”
said Ahloo, who left school at age 14 with no qualifications. Today she is making
plans to study nursing. |
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Namtip
Aksornkool*:
Self-confidence and economic returns
When Moroccan
fisherman upgrade their skills, when women in India become financially self-sufficient,
when villagers in Rwanda pick up the pieces and move forward through a community
education programme, each and everytime, a life is changed, and a small victory is
won over the twin battles of poverty and illiteracy.
International Literacy Day, celebrated each year on September 8, offers a chance
to honour these achievements, notably through several prestigious prizes, but also,
to reflect on where we stand. Our planet counts 900 million illiterate adults, two
thirds of whom are women, a figure that runs the risk of rising if the over 110 million
out-of-school children fail to receive quality education of some kind.
The issues are complex: literacy involves more than simply learning the 3Rs (reading,
writing and arithmetic). It is closely interwoven with the economic, cultural and
political dimensions of a person’s life. Faced with expanding poverty and the ever-
widening gap between rich and poor, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, globalization of trade
and the exponential burst of new information and communication technology, providing
literacy has become a more complex task than ever before.
We must go beyond one shot programmes, projects or campaigns. Research and experience
have provided us with considerable insight into the nature of literacy acquisition,
yet outmoded teaching and learning approaches prevail. The long acknowledged and
emphasized need for a two-pronged approach to literacy, linking school and out-of-school
education, child and adult literacy, has seldom been incorporated into policy design
and programmes.
For literacy work to be worthwhile, it has to be up-to-date, carefully targeted and
useful for learners in tackling their varied and most pressing concerns. It has to
be attuned to the flux of complex changes affecting their lives. Economic independence
and spiritual well-being are but two examples of what literacy must help people achieve.
Above all, literacy has to help people develop self-confidence and take charge of
their own lives, equipped with the tools to tackle whatever challenges that might
arise.
Literacy programmes that work may not be called literacy programmes. They might be
called an HIV/AIDS prevention, or Information and Communication Technology programmes
for the poor. Call them what you wish, literacy is at the base of all these provisions.
The United Nations Literacy Decade, soon to be launched, must serve as an impetus
for investment. Eliminating poverty and illiteracy are two sides of the same coin,
and political will is the key to success on both fronts. The bottom line is that
without Literacy for All, the world’s goal of Education for All will remain an elusive
dream.
* UNESCO’s section for literacy and non-formal education
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