Title: Approaches to Literacy in Ghana: The Challenges Faced. By Tijani Hamza (IBIS EFE Programme Director, Ghana)
1Approaches to Literacy in Ghana The Challenges
Faced.ByTijani Hamza(IBIS EFE Programme
Director, Ghana)
2PRESENTATION STRUCTURE
- What is Literacy?
- Why the Literacy Campaign?
- Literacy Profile of Ghana Implications.
- Initial Approaches to Literacy in Ghana.
- Current Approaches.
- General Challenges
31. DEFINITIONS
- a. Literacy, simply defined by UNESCO, is the
ability to read and write and understand a short
statement. - b. The acquisition of relevant skills without
consecutive formal learning.
42. WHY THE LITERACY CAMPAIGN?
- Because of its inherent benefits
- Literacy among agriculturalists, for example, may
contribute to an increase in agricultural
production (crucial in development). - Literate parents tend to have smaller families
(reducing high rate of population growth with
stress on development).
5 - Literates have more awareness of the need to
educate their children and to help to check
truancy and drop-out from school, thereby raising
the efficiency of the formal school system. - It creates awareness in people which enables them
to see the need for change and development. - It strengthens the response of people to economic
and other incentives.
63. LITERACY PROFILE OF GHANA ITS IMPLICATIONS
- According to the 2000 Ghana Population census,
nearly half (46) of the population of Ghana is
illiterate. - There are marked regional disparities the
proportion of the population that is illiterate
in Greater Accra is 21, whereas in Ashanti it is
40, in Brong-Ahafo it is 54, and in the three
northern regions it is 76 and over. - 64 of women in Ghana are illiterate, as compared
with 38 of men.
7 - It is also estimated that 27 of the total number
of school-aged children (believed to be about 4
million children) are not in school. - What is even worse is that 60 of children in
school are unable to read or write simple
sentences after six years of basic education.
8IMPLICATIONS
- Ghana cannot achieve EFA goal 4 Achieving a 50
per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy
by 2015 () - at individual levels, the ability of such
illiterates to carry out every day activities
such as read signposts, understand medicine
labels and machinery instructions, confirm
commercial transactions and avoid being cheated,
is greatly restricted. - Their effective participation in the national
development effort would be greatly constrained.
94. INITIAL APPROACHES (1717-1956)
- Non-Formal Adult literacy Approach by
missionaries. - A very narrow objective to enable their converts
to read and understand the Bible. - In 1940 the British government came out with a
short-lived policy on adult literacy to
accelerate socio-economic development in Ghana. - In 1951, Nkrumahs Mass Education Plan, to wipe
out illiteracy through a mass literacy drive in
six Ghanaian languages. to educate the people to
understand their civic rights and
responsibilities and also use their
potentialities and talents in achieving desirable
goals in the economic, social and cultural
spheres.
10Methodology
- Volunteer instructors (night school teachers) in
the rural areas taught the alphabet through sight
and sound (combination of words and pictures). - Based on the need to make it functional, there is
a practice where context reality offers support
to identify key words for discussion. - Child centered
- Gender sensitive methodology
11 - In 1987, the government of Ghana set out to
revive mass literacy programmes. The Non-Formal
Education Division (NFED) was set up within the
Education Ministry to rally public support,
coordinate and implement programmes to eliminate
illiteracy by the year 2000. The UK Department
for International Development (DFID) funded pilot
literacy projects in two regions, and these
proved successful. The Government of Ghana
subsequently expanded the projects nationally,
under the policy named the Functional Literacy
Skills Project (FLSP), which lasted between 1992
and 1997.
12 - The National Functional Literacy Programme (NFLP)
was launched in 2000, as the second phase of the
earlier FLSP. Its aim is to educate about one
million non-literate adults, especially the rural
poor and women, by 2004. In December 2004, the
period was extended to December 2006.
Participants in the NFLP obtain functional
literacy in a Ghanaian language, numeracy skills
and participation in development and income
generating activities, all at no fee.
13Methodology Content
- Instruction based on a modified form of the
Freirian Methodology, which involves discussion
of composite pictures describing an object or
situation, and use of syllabisation to form
meaningful words and sentences. - Topics public health, safe drinking water,
farming techniques, immunization and reproductive
health.
145. CURRENT APPROACHES
- A. GOVERNMENTAL
- The Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education
(FCUBE) policy was introduced in 1996 to improve
access to basic education for all. This might
prove successful in diminishing the flow of young
illiterates. However, it appears unlikely that
formal basic education will succeed in
eradicating illiteracy in the immediate future,
given current quality indicators though enrolment
rates are improved.
15 - B. NON-GOVERMENTAL
- From the late 90s, a number of non-governmental
organisations stepped in to help wipe out
illiteracy, targeting mainly the out-of-school
children in hard-to-reach parts of the country.
16Organisation Period Approach
Action Aid 1996 Shepherd School Programme Provides basic education to children from isolated and marginalised communities, to equip them with basic literacy and numeracy skills and to provide a connection to the formal school system.
17 School For Life (SFL) 1996 Complementary Education Offers a 9-month mother-tongue literacy, numeracy and creative skills programme for 8 to 14 year-old boys and girls in selected deprived communities.
18 EQUALL (Education Quality for All) 2004-2009 Complementary Education/Reading Improvement in Primary Education (RIPE) Mother-tongue literacy, numeracy and creative skills to 8 to 14 year-old boys and girls in selected deprived communities.
19Olinga Foundation for Human Development 2001 Enlightening the Heart Offers literacy in mother tongue to remote and hard-to-reach school populations, targeting ages 9 to 15 years.
20 IBIS (EfE) 2006 Complementary Education Programme (CEP) Offers a 9-month CEP in mother-tongue literacy, numeracy and creative skills to 8 to 14 year-old boys and girls in selected deprived communities.
21 Ghana Institute of Linguistics, Literacy and Bible Translation (GILLBT) 1962 Offers a community-based literacy programme. It aims to combat poverty and exclusion from social, economic and political processes brought about by lack of education, economic opportunities and by lack of awareness of citizens rights. Apart from basic literacy, the programme provides its beneficiaries with local knowledge on sustainable development, gender promotion, income-generating activities, as well as HIV/AIDS and other health related issues. Also prints the primers in mother-tongue for other interested NGOs.
226. GENERAL CHALLENGES
- Absence of a coherent, long-term national
literacy policy encompassing attention to
governance, programme design and delivery, human
and financial resources, and the promotion of an
environment in which individuals are encouraged
to become literate and to sustain their skills. - Total lack of partnership with the government by
NGOs or synergy among themselves in addressing
the illiteracy problem.
23 - The curriculum for adult learners is not informed
by an understanding of how the adult literates
use their knowledge (helping children with
homework, administering medical prescriptions
properly, communicating with government offices,
writing letters, reading religious texts, opening
savings accounts). Themes are arbitrarily
chosen. No wonder there was a very low adult
survival rate in the classes that they found
irrelevant and boring.
24 - The facilitators in the night classes were not
trained teachers and lacked the skills in
teaching adults The norm was still a formal,
basic skills approach with emphasis on mastering
reading, writing and numeracy within a specified
time. Husbands and wives were put together in the
same classes) - The time-table did not respect the seasonal
calendar of the farmers, hence the high rate of
absenteeism during the farming season.
25 - Supervision of the adult classes was ineffective.
- The Non-Formal Education Department was suspected
of being an appendage of the then National
Democratic Congress so were the facilitators. - The physically handicapped (especially the
visually impaired) are excluded from these
campaigns for lack of the appropriate tools (e.g.
Braille).
267. Conclusion
- Ghana is far from achieving Education For All by
the year 2015 (Goal 4). - A lot of progress is, however, likely to be made
towards reaching that goal if, among other
things, the government ceases to view education
in the formal and non-formal dichotomy. The
first challenge identified above (on planning,
resources and the creation of enabling literate
environments) should be tackled. - It is heart-warming that the recent complementary
approaches being adopted by NGOs (e.g. School for
Life and IBIS) are addressing some of the
above-mentioned challenges flexible timetable,
effective supervision, relevant content,
learner-centred methodologies
27Thank You