Adult Literacy

Putting Southern African Policy and Practice into Perspective.

Literacy is central to human existence in an everchanging world. Literacy facilitates access and engagement with issues that are key to the sustainability and ongoing development of society. Literacy strengthens the capacity and capabilities of individuals and communities enhancing their participation in economic, social, political and cultural activities. It serves as a mechanism through which social justice, gender equality, liberation from discrimination and the ongoing struggle against exclusion can be pursued and realised. As such, it can and should be, an agent for social change, as means to the creation of peace and stability and the promotion of poverty reduction and democratic governance.

This central position that literacy (and its bed-fellow numeracy) should occupy in education is emphasised in the foreword to the EFA Global Monitoring Report of 2006, by KoUïchiro Matsuura, who asserts that there are "good reasons why literacy is at the core of Education for All (EFA); a good quality basic education equips pupils with literacy skills for life and further learning; literate parents are more likely to send their children to school; literate people are better able to access continuing education opportunities; and literate societies are better geared to meet pressing development challenges."

On the other hand, as obvious as it may sound, 'illiteracy' reduces access, limits engagement, undermines self esteem and diminishes the capacity of individuals, communities and even countries as a whole to respond to the ongoing challenges of sustainability and development. And yet, literacy has remained the weakest link in EFA. Despite its centrality to the other goals, it has enjoyed less attention generally, and has failed to attract the levels of political interest, human resources, technical backstopping and community mobilisation & that it needs and deserves. The EFA Global Monitoring Report of 2006, indicates that by "conventional measurement, some 771 million adults are illiterate, two-thirds of them women. This represents a serious violation of human rights for nearly a fifth of the world's adult population."

And what of Southern Africa? The EFA Global Monitoring Report 2006, points out that no country in sub-Saharan Africa is close to achieving universal literacy and unless there is a heavy focus placed on achievement in this regard in the region, it is unlikely that the 2015 goal of universal literacy will be reached. This has serious implications, not just for literacy but also for the attainment of the other millennium development goals to which literacy is intrinsic.

Furthermore, the report highlights the fact that the majority of countries at risk of not achieving the literacy goal within the targeted period, are in sub-Saharan Africa. Moreover, deliberations during a conference in Nairobi, Kenya in January 2007 indicated that the number of illiterate adults in Africa, rather than decreasing, is growing annually. Factors which were seen to contribute to this increase include; poor achievement levels in primary schools, low transition rates from primary to secondary levels of education and the limited capacity of governments and other service providers catering for an ever-growing illiterate population.

In addition, the 2006 EFA report indicates that women account for 64 percent of the adults worldwide who cannot read and write with understanding, regions with the lowest GPIs for adult literacy include sub-Saharan Africa where only 76 adult women are considered literate for every 100 literate adult men.