This monograph attempts to redress the gap in published research on the effectiveness and effects of work in adult literacy and its role in development. The main focus is an assessment of the impact of Nijera Shikhi: a people’s literacy movement in Bangladesh.
The author looks at:
- the types of organisations working in development and literacy in the context of changes in development thinking in the last half century
- issues involved in testing literacy with a focus on the trial and modification of Ziegahn’s literacy test so that it can be used with a group of neo-literates to determine functional literacy in under two hours
The author then compares Nijera Shikhi to literacy work done by the government and ActionAid’s REFLECT method. By testing neo-literates at least 12 months following the completion of their course, and by interviewing neo-literates to assess the life changes that have occurred as a result of becoming literate, Nijera Shikhi is found to be both extremely low-cost – £1.20 per learner – and highly effective with 73% of those starting the course sustaining functional literacy.
The main conclusions are that good quality and well constructed literacy schemes with adults:
- can play a valuable part in development. The research indicates that literacy can lead to greater self-confidence, productivity and income generation – results suggest that Nijera Shikhi may have directly led to income gains in the region of 84% for men and 200% for women
- bring other benefits such as environmental improvement, improved health practices, increased school attendance and help others become literate and numerate
- can bring both retained literacy and changes in people’s lives at a low cost
The author argues that more attention must be given to the contribution of People’s Movements, using self-education and the resource of “social energy”, to literacy and development in general. Donors must:
- be more flexible in their approaches to people’s movements
- develop the capacity to identify quickly those movements which are effective and should be supported
- develop the ability to give adequate funding for their work without killing their essential elements with over-funding
Finally, educational planners need to expand their planning methodologies, especially in the area of non-formal education, to incorporate post-Newtonian as well as Newtonian ideas.