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Participatory
approach revives adult education in Tanzania
By Mboneko Munyaga,
Special Correspondent, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania |
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 Tanzania
had almost wiped out illiteracy. Official figures put the literacy
rate at 96.8 per cent in 1986 and the country was hailed worldwide
as a model success for adult empowerment to read and write. |
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However,
the story changed drastically about ten years later. In 1998,
the Ministry of Education and Culture quoted literacy as standing
at 77 per cent. This figure is nevertheless disputed by other
agencies including the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) which believes literacy in
the country is much lower than that. |
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The
agency could be right. Long are gone the days when adult literacy
campaigns used to form the agenda at almost every village meeting
and political rallies. Also, there have been massive school
dropouts and failure to enrol for basic primary education by
children of the right school going age. All these factors have
contributed to the growing chasm between the literate and society's
ignorant lot. |
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However,
two innovative approaches to adult learning are now poised
to change all that. They both aim at reducing donor dependence
in favour of enhanced sustainability and greater sense of
community ownership of adult learning programmes.
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The
two programmes are the Integrated Community Based Adult Education
(ICBAE) and the Complementary Basic Education in Tanzania (COBET).
While ICBAE targets the traditional crop of adult illiterates,
Cobet aims at giving a second chance to orphans and children
of single parents especially girls, who for one reason or other,
could not continue with formal education. |
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Educationalists
believe that tackling the two problems together is the surest
way of achieving permanent and lasting results in the country's
drive against illiteracy. The African Development Bank (ADB)
is ready to give a helping hand and prefers that wherever there
is an ICBAE programme running, a COBET cell should also be established
there, says the Director of Adult Education Mr Charles Bugeke. |
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ICBAE
started on pilot projects in four wards from four far-flung
districts in fiscal 1997/98 and the results have been very encouraging.
However, the goal is to cover all the 20 Mainland regions by
the year 2002 well in time for the country's target of Education
For All (EFA) by 2003. |
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The
curriculum seeks to meet the requirements of basic adult literacy
that is reading, writing and arithmetic. However, the learning
approach is radically different from that of past classes. Whereas
in the past adults were subjected to child-oriented-classroom
learning conditions, the nucleus of learning under ICBAE is
the jointly owned development project. |
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Kiroka
village in Morogoro rural district about 200 km West of the
capital, Dar es Salaam was largely a sleepy place. Poverty,
defined as deprivation of the basic necessities of life, hung
over the village like the sword of Damocles. But now, an ICBAE
pilot programme there has stirred the villagers to new heights
of hope and sense of purpose in their lives. |
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The
participants, both male and female, are free to set their own
learning timetable. Theory takes only three days a week but
practicals continue throughout the week. Instead of teachers,
learning is dispensed by facilitators only. The difference between
the two is like the moon and earth, insists Mr Anthony Ntilema
an ICBAE desk officer at the Ministry of Education and Culture
(MOEC). |
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Teachers,
he says, usually behave like banks. They are supposed to be
the only ones knowing everything while their pupils or students
presumably know nothing. Facilitators, however, guide groups
or individuals to realise their potential on a mutual exchange
basis. |
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The
head facilitator is usually the manager of the communally owned
mini-economic project who helps with both theory and practice.
Two other volunteers assist him. They might include secondary-school
leavers or primary school teachers at the village. However,
they all have to be interested in adult education. |
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Using
this philosophy, the participants in ICBAE classes are involved
right from the very early stages, both in the design and production
of their learning materials. In a very practical and cost-effective
way, learning starts by drawing matrixes on the ground instead
of buying manila cards which are considered more expensive. |
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The
specific needs of a location are usually also taken into consideration
such that no two curricula are exactly the same. Because Kiroka
is on the slopes on the Uluguru Mountain ranges where soil erosion
is now part of the communal problem, the ICBAE curriculum for
the village contains tips on how to preserve the environment. |
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ICBAE
classes have borrowed heavily from the Paul Freire's philosophy
that encourages dialogue over lecturing. Thus, the learning
process always starts with discussing a common problem and how
best it could be solved by using matrixes. |
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When
the results are finally tallied, the villagers would have obtained
answers on the priority needs of their village based on their
own thinking and reasoning. Nothing can be more fun in learning
than the experience of suddenly finding yourself a decision
maker, says Mr Bugeke. "Involving the participants in decision-making
right from the word go is very important for the sustainability
of the programmes," declares Mr Bugeke. |
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MOEC
has high expectations for ICBAE when it is finally adopted for
all adult education classes in the country. Officials believe
that involving the villagers could lead to increased contributions
from the participants both in labour and money, for the social
and economic development of their communities. |
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"You
know, the early curriculum for adult education was based on
the objectives of the first five year plan that encouraged the
promotion of cash crops for export. Things have now changed.
The thrust today is much more on development than anything else
so you cannot stick to old strategies. No one can read the same
material for twenty years," remarks adult education expert Mrs
Mary Eyakuze. |
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Mrs
Eyakuze is retired but she is now a consultant with the United
Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) in Tanzania. Her brief includes
giving technical backing for setting up Complementary Basic
Education in Tanzania (COBET) programmes. "UNICEF is not funding
Cobet. We are only giving the technical backing. Otherwise,
it is the responsibility of the government to offer education
to its citizens," she says. |
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"Cobet
therefore is not an alternative to primary education. It is
exactly just what it says - complementary basic education targeting
orphans and single-parent children especially girls, who for
some reason or other, couldn't continue with formal education,"
she points out. |
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Currently,
there are ten pilot COBET centres with 30 children each at Maneromango
Ward in Kisarawe district. The children, 119 girls and 181 boys
aged between 8 and 18 years old have been given a fresh chance
to acquire education. Another ten centres involved in a pilot
scheme can be found at Lisekese ward in Masasi district on the
border with Mozambique. The centres have a total of 381 children,
109 girls and 272 boys. |
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Both
Kisarawe and Masasi districts have traditionally very high ratios
of non-school enrolment or dropout that left the majority of
their inhabitants illiterate. Girls in particular are often
forced out of school by their parents in favour of early marriages
or confinement at home for initiation rituals into womanhood.
The later tradition still has a very strong cultural appeal
in both districts but girls largely end up the losers. |
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"It
was very saddening when we went to do the needs assessment survey
in the districts," says the MOEC COBET desk officer, Mrs Levira
Basilina. "At Maneromango alone, 460 children turned up. Of
course we couldn't take them all. It was heart-breaking to see
some of them return home crying," she adds. More than 600 children
turned up at Masasi but again only a few could be accommodated. |
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So
far, the COBET philosophy is no fees, no uniforms and no caning.
Like in the ICBAE classes, the children decide when to start
studying and when to end. Should a girl want to go and breast
feed her baby, the facilitator simply has to oblige. Similarly,
should a boy want to go and engage in his economic activity,
well and good. |
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However,
discipline is enforced through peer education, exposure to life
skills knowledge, civics and lessons in personality enhancement.
The results so far have been wonderful, claims Bugeke. Youths
who were considered lost cases in society are now working very
hard on their lessons. Similar programmes are also run in Bangladesh
and Uganda where the programme is known as Complementary Education
for Primary Education (COPE). In fact Mrs Basilina visited Uganda
as party of her study of the system. |
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The
children have been divided into two cohorts: those aged between
8 -13 years old and those in the 14 -18 bracket. Their study
materials also differ accordingly. "Those in the 8-13 age group
have more chances of integrating into formal education," says
Mrs Eyakuze. |
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Developing
the COBET curriculum brought together experts from MOEC itself,
the Tanzania Institute of Education (TIE), the Institute of
Adult Education (IAE), the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM)
and the national Examinations Commission of Tanzania (NECTA). |
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Under
normal circumstances, primary education in Tanzania takes seven
years. However, the COBET curriculum has been compressed to
fit into just a three-year period after which the children qualify
for entry examinations into secondary schools just like those
who went through the seven-year period. |
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This
is where COBET promises to be a major revolution in Tanzania's
educational thinking and practice. It is no longer far-fetched
to imagine a day when children won't be forced to do seven years
in primary school before they qualify to enter secondary schools.
Alternatively, times are not very far away when formal primary
schools shall be considered a thing of the past. |
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Should
that happen, a programme seemingly designed for the less fortunate
members of society, shall have in fact come to the rescue of
those considered more privileged. |
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