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Adult Literacy and Non
Formal Education and the Community
Adult Literacy / Non Formal Education programs encourage participants to participate in the life of
his or her community. At the individual and the societal
levels, these programs allow individuals to:
- respond to democratic aspirations
- create a culture of peace
- reinforce identities
- cultivate an educated and active citizenry
- reduce inequality between the
sexes
Empowerment
Through education, participants in Adult
Literacy and Non Formal Education programs gain higher
self-esteem. The participants in those programs acquire greater confidence in themselves and a greater sense
of self-initiative. Empowerment is one of the most significant benefits
of Adult Literacy and Non Formal Education programs. The effect of education on self-esteem and
self-confidence is especially significant among women in strongly
male-dominated societies.
Social Change
Individuals empowered through Adult
Literacy and Non Formal Education programs have a higher capacity
and desire for
social change. The cycle of processes that leads from individual empowerment
to social change was researched and brought to light by Brazilian
educator, Paulo Freire. Freire stressed that a person is
fundamentally a social being and that each individual is unique.
He taught to ‘Be yourself’ and respect other peoples’
‘self’. He developed this insight and linked it to
social and educational processes. He argued that in order to
transform the world, the world had to be 'humanized' and that it is
important to humanize the self in order to humanize others’ reality.
Some of the key concepts in Freire's work are as follows:
- it is not
possible to split theory from action
- learners
must be given the space and capacity to develop their own theories
- top down
transfer of knowledge does not work
- people’s
involvement in the creation of knowledge through struggle is the key
to ensuring a proper learning process
The World Bank and Social Funds
"Social Funds allow poor people and communities
to become actively involved in their own development. Social funds
support small projects ranging from infrastructure and social services
to training and micro enterprise development which have been identified
by communities and presented to the social fund for financing. Social
funds appraise, finance and supervise these grants, which then may be
managed by a wide range of actors, including local governments, NGOs,
line ministries, community groups and local project committees".
http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/HDNet/hddocs.nsf/2d5135ecbf351de6852566a90069b8b6/37f283c2c782f76d8525688e00813c44?OpenDocument
Social Funds - evaluations:
http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/impact/practice/socfund.htm
Democracy
The creation and the preservation of
democracy begins with well-informed citizens. Every citizen is
responsible for protecting his or her own rights. Adult
Literacy and Non Formal Education programs raise participants' awareness of their rights
and provide them with the information and skills to protect them.
Equality
In many countries, girls do not have equal access
to education as boys. Adult Literacy and Non Formal Education programs provide a means for girls and
women to gain literacy and other functional skills and offer an
opportunity to attend schools and to advance their
studies. Adult Literacy and Non Formal Education programs provide a woman with the skills and
knowledge necessary to provide for herself and her family.
In many societies, the woman is responsible for the livelihoods of her
extended family. In addition to learning to read, to write and to calculate,
literacy class and NFE classes teach women technical and
income-generating skills. Such skills help women to gain their economic
independence.
As mentioned above, Adult Literacy
and Non Formal Education programs improve the self-esteem and self-confidence of
female participants. Women often face discrimination and violence
at home and in their communities. These programs provide the
knowledge and means to confront issues of inequality.
Knowledge, skills and attitudes acquired
through an Adult Literacy and Non Formal Education program allow women to take more active roles in their
communities. By familiarizing themselves with communication skills,
technologies and social and administrative processes, and by having
greater access to information, women are in a better position to defend
their rights and to achieve equality.
Conflict Situations
With its capacity to reach adults and
youth who missed formal schooling opportunities, Adult Literacy and Non
Formal Education programs can play a key role in conflict and post-conflict situations.
These programs may be used as opportunities for adults and youth to identify the
sources of conflict and to take steps to mediate and negotiate toward a
solution.
Adult Literacy and Non
Formal Education may be the last resort for education for
vulnerable populations, such as those who have lost everything and find
themselves in refugee camps or young soldiers who have returned from
civil war.
Environment
Adult Literacy / Non Formal Education
programs offer the opportunity to increase awareness of environmental
issues. Dissemination of environmental information through these
programs may help to stimulate action among its participants. Lakshmanan
Ariasingam (1999) provided evidence in his paper, illustrated by case
studies from Colombia, Indonesia,
Mexico, the
Philippines and Trinidad and
Tobago, that empowering civil
societies to monitor the environment through environmental
education for primary and secondary students, environmental
awareness programs for the public, and efforts to improve the
functional literacy of targeted groups improve the effectiveness and
sustainability of environmental projects.
The example of China
China relies on citizen complaints for guidance in
addressing pollution problems when monitoring resources are scarce.
Dasgupta and Wheeler (1997) found that this process provides
useful information and helps encourage community participation in
environmental policy, but also directs a big share of inspection
resources to areas where people tend to complain. In their study they
found that provinces with relatively low literacy rates
have significantly lower propensities to complain about pollution.
Citizens with little or no formal education may not
understand the harmful effects of pollutants. In addition, argue
the authors, illiteracy may also have an important "silencing
" effect because people with little formal education
have no confidence in their ability to influence the authorities. A 1%
increase in the literacy rate seemed to induce a 2% increase in
environmental complaints (p.12). They conclude that in both cases,
the education effect significantly reduces the value of complaints as a
resource allocation signal to regulators.
Ecological
Education
This book publishes the papers from a
conference in Egypt and ends a series on non-formal basic education for
literacy. The editor defines basic education as knowledge transmission
practices in communities, and education practices that prove useful to
the needs of life. Within this context, ecological education is seen as
the strategic objective of lifelong education directed towards
sustainable living rather than as a specific niche within environmental
or educational sciences.
The introductory chapter describes the
background to the concept of ecological education used by the authors of
the book's chapters. He describes the history of Agenda 21, the
Education for All development goals and other events that have
influenced this concept. 16 researchers from Europe, North America and
the Arab world describe their experiences.
The book is divided into three sections:
* the first outlines the concept of ecological education as followed by
these authors * the second is titled 'stimulating participation through
social action' which looks at using existing community networks to
facilitate learning * the final section describes case studies or
project based experience of the application of these ideas
The editor states that the three main
aims of the work outlined in the book are to address three major issues
that affect the practices of ecological education in everyday life: the
fight against poverty, the fight against resource depletion, and the
building of a type of intercultural learning that respects difference.
He states that this book addresses the first two issues successfully but
has yet to address the third. (Hautecouer, 2002)
Available online at: http://www.unesco.org/education/uie/pdf/alpha2000eng.pdf
Top
References
Empowerment
- Kumari, V. P. (1999). People's
Empowerment and Adult Literacy Programs. Australian Journal of Adult
and Community Education, 39(2), 100-04. ERIC No. EJ596454.
Democracy
- UNESCO Institute for Education (UIE)
(1997). Adult
Learning, Democracy and Peace. In Adult Learning and
the Challenges of the 21st Century. Booklet 1a. Document from the
workshop held at the Fifth International Conference on Adult
Education, Hamburg (CONFINTEA V).
Equality
- UNESCO Institute for Education (UIE)
(1997). Raising
Gender Issues in Formal and Non-Formal Settings. In
Adult Learning and the Challenges of the 21st Century. Booklet 4b.
Document from the workshop held at the Fifth International
Conference on Adult Education, Hamburg (CONFINTEA V).
Conflict Situations
- Hammond, J. (1998). Popular Education
and Guerrilla War in El Salvador. New York: Rutgers University
Press.
Environment
Additional
- UNESCO Institute for Education (UIE)
(1997). Literacy,
Education and Social Development. In Adult
Learning and the Challenges of the 21st Century. Booklet 3c.
Document from the workshop held at the Fifth International
Conference on Adult Education, Hamburg (CONFINTEA V).
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