Literacy
and non-formal education
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Literacy and
non-formal education are specifically mentioned in three
of the six Dakar goals. This is a measure of their importance
or achieving Education or All.
The magnitude of the EFA challenge implies that, in addition
to ensuring primary schooling, more e orts are needed to
develop literacy and non-formal education so as to reach
those children, youths and adults who are unreached by the
formal system.
While many educational authorities are fully aware of the
need or literacy and non- formal education, these sub-sectors
suffer from a lack of recognition. This translates into
insufficient training, low salary and status of literacy
teachers, insufficient co-ordination between non-formal
education providers (government and NGOs)and inadequacy
of public investment. Often perceived as second class, literacy
and non-formal education are undervalued by parents and
communities and receive less national and external funding
than the formal system.
As a consequence, most literacy and non-formal education
activities are run by NGOs and non-profit organizations
rather than governments and, despite the extent of the problem,
projects are relatively small-scale.
What is literacy?
Considerable evolution in thinking about literacy has occurred
in recent years. Illiteracy is now viewed as a structural
phenomenon and a social responsibility. Likewise, whereas
literacy used to be viewed as a panacea or educational development,
it is now seen in the broader context of educational and
socio-economic interventions.
Literacy is always "functional", that is, meaningful
and useful or children, young people and adults. And literacy
learning needs and uses change over time. Being able to
read, write and calculate in today ´s complex world
is not enough. Skills training, health and environmental
education, and computer literacy are increasingly considered
part of the literacy endeavour.
The scope of illiteracy
There are today worldwide still more than 550 million female
and 300 million male adult illiterates. To achieve the Dakar
literacy goal, the world 's adult illiteracy rate has to
be reduced from its current level of 21 per cent to about
10 percent by 2015. In other words, the literacy rate or
adults must reach at least 90 percent by 2015.This means
that the number of adult literates will have to increase
annually by 92 million, or 42 percent more than the current
figure. Such a rate represents 1.3 times the previous effort.
While some regions
of the world, notably East Asia, the Pacific, Latin America
and the Caribbean, could meet the Dakar literacy goal by
maintaining almost the same e orts as in the past decade,
other regions ace substantial challenges. The challenge
is particularly acute in the least developed countries,
where success will require more than a doubling of past
efforts. Egypt and India will have to double their efforts,
while Bangladesh and Pakistan will have to triple them.
Who is doing what in literacy and non-formal education?
Governments, non-governmental organizations and UN agencies,
mainly UNESCO, are active in literacy and non-formal education.
Some examples of government activities include Egypt 's
National Campaign or Literacy and Adult Education and India
's National Literacy Mission. Other examples to be mentioned
are Guatemala 's Basic Education or Work Project which targets
sixty communities in the country 's poor rural areas. UNESCO
Bangkok 's APPEAL programme has or many years promoted community
learning centres in the region, providing literacy and non-formal
education to communities.
UNESCO focuses on support or literacy and non-formal education
at the international, regional, national and community levels,
with particular emphasis on women 's literacy and on projects
addressing marginalized youth, and rural and indigenous
populations. Actions include policy advice, capacity building
and concrete country-and community-based activities. Considering
the new vision of literacy, UNESCO 's activities in this
field include health, basic skills training ,income generating
schemes, and civic and cultural development.
NGOs have promoted new methods, such as Action Aid 's participatory,
learner-centred approach (known as REFLECT).In many countries
NGOs link literacy with local income- generation and cultural
development. Since adults learn what is useful and relevant
or them in their own circumstances, It is often local NGO
programmes which are most effective. Frequently they promote
literacy in the local language, as well as in widely- spoken
languages which adults want to learn.
Monitoring non-formal programmes
Current EFA monitoring systems are mainly based on formal
education. The role played by non-formal programmes is often
underestimated. Non-formal education information systems
need to be set up to facilitate comprehensive monitoring
and evaluation. In 2000, UNESCO initiated a programme to
develop a comparative and adaptable methodology or monitoring
non-formal education initiatives and the UNESCO Institute
or Statistics has also taken preliminary steps to develop
new indicators or the non-formal sector.
Next steps
Mindful of the magnitude of the problem and the enormous
task ahead, the United Nations General Assembly is planning
to proclaim in 2002 a United Nations Decade or Literacy
within the global e orts or Education or All and is expected
to entrust UNESCO with the task of leading the ten-year
challenge.The prime purpose of the decade is to mobilize
governments and civil society to recognize the importance
of creating literate environments and providing quality
non-formal learning opportunities.
