Universal literacy must for manpower development

According to the census report published recently, it is estimated that there would be about nine million illiterates in the country. Needless to mention that some of the vital national programmes, such as population control and family planning, increased food production, etc, are greatly hindered due to non-participation by the general masses who lack even the minimum of awareness needed for voluntary participation it these programmes. It does not need to be emphasised at great length that in order to involve the general masses in nation-building activities, minimum of education to raise their level of awareness is urgently needed.

Manpower development does not mean only the development of high-level manpower. It also means the development of capabilities of every citizen of the country for meaningful utilisation. In order to do this it is essential to gear up the primary education and at the same time organise adult education on a massive scale. It has been proved that sporadic efforts by voluntary organisations cannot be sufficient to educate nine million illiterates. Nation-wide planning and mobilisation of resources, both financial and material is essential for such a gigantic endeavour.

Basic education which includes both primary and adult education was never taken seriously in this country. We had heard of introducing universal primary education in the country even during the Pakistan days, but in reality very little progress had been made toward achieving this goal. Adult education also met the same fate. Only half-hearted efforts were made in this regard with no positive results at all. Many people believe that learning the alphabet and being able to sign one's name is enough of education for the adults. It is clear that in these days of technology literacy of this standard will never be useful and functional in order to participate in the development programmes. In order to be useful and functional, the standard of literacy should be of the standard of class V of the primary education level. Since this factor was totally ignored and literacy of a very low standard was imparted to the illiterates, they reverted back to illiteracy within no time resulting in nor progress in adult education.

We talk of democracy, but it is not understandable how democracy can function in a country where 60 per cent of the people are illiterate. It is not clear whether we give lip service or we mean business when we make statements. There is, however, the other side of the coin which means that an educated citizenry can cause trouble for those who engage in exploitation and is easy to keep one in dark and exploit. If we are serious about the need for developing our manpower, why it is that we are not assigning the proper priority to education sector, particularly to basic education which is vital for raising the level of awareness of the masse?

Since it has been proved that spoon-fed and paternalistic development approach has failed, the only remaining alternative is to let the people feud for themselves by providing the basic knowledge and skills required for survival. Toward this goal the following strategies are suggested.

It is necessary to determine the learning needs of the rural people before a programme is launched. This is very important to ensure that proper type of knowledge and skills are being provided to the illiterates. Different types of literacy porgrammes by different organisations without clear-cut goals are most undesirable.

On the basis of determined needs, a suitable curriculum has to be prepared which should be aimed at providing the needed awareness as well as skills that can generate some income for the participants. Appropriate textbooks and supplementary reading materials should also be prepared by specialists who are experienced in writing for the adults.

There is a notion that any one can teach in a literacy class. This is far from the truth and probably this has been the reason why literacy efforts have failed in the past. Training of special type is needed to teach the adults and such training should be undergone by all persons engaged in literacy programmes. In this regard the experience of BRAC who have been engaged in literacy work may be very useful.

Preparation and implementation come next which involve proper mobilisation of manpower and financial resources to launch the programme on a nation-wide basis. Appropriate management systems and monitoring and control devices should be established in order to ensure positive results as well as quality of the programme. An intensive course of three months to six months may be enough to make the literacy level quite functional for the participants.

Unless proper follow-up materials are prepared and supplied, the literacy newly attained by the participants may not be retained by them for long. In this respect, supplementary books with useful content should be printed and supplied to the neo-literates for enrichment of their level of education through self study. In this area, the radio and TV can play very effective roles, Regular programmes may be broadcast through radio and TV which would be very useful for raising consciousness and enrichment of the level of learning of the neo-literates. It is a pity that a costly medium like the TV is being used mainly for entertainment of a minority of urban people. It would be highly advisable to use the second channel of the TV entirely for the purpose of educating the rural people. For this TV sets should be distributed free of cost to every village and should be located at a suitable place for viewing by the people. Short of only face-to-face contact, the TV can be highly useful in literacy teaching, family planning and all types of rural development education.

Finally, the question of fund comes. There is no doubt that the proposed nation-wide programme on literacy will involve a huge amount of fund. Government may mobilise fund from all sources to finance the programme because the return form such investment will be manifold in the long-run. In this case the Chinese proverb, "If you lend me a fish you feed me for a day, but if you show me how to fish, you feed me forever" should be remembered. Finally, it must be realised that time is running out for us very fast. Unless things are done on a priority basis, problems will multiply and may surface in a colossal manner defying temporary solutions and lead to chaos and confusion of the most undesirable type.

Dr M Ashraf Ali is Retd. Professor, I.E.R., DU.