NN40, May 2008
Education for Sustainable Development? Or The Sustainability of Education Investment? A Special Issue
Creation of Literacy Skills for Sustainable DevelopmentResults from a Study in India
By Mohd. Muzammil, University of Lucknow, India
Email: mmuzammil@rediffmail.comKeywords
Literacy Skills, Sustainable Development, India
Summary
This article reports on the results from a study in rural areas of District Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh, India where literacy skills are being linked with achieving sustainable development.
The most challenging task of making adult and continuing literacy programmes successful is the retention of interest and use of the literary skills created in the neo-literates (in the form of reading, writing, and numerical abilities) and motivation to spread their abilities and skills that have been created by literacy campaigns of various types (UNESCO, 1996). The basic question relates to why we are making people literate. If we can link it to their life requirements, it will motivate the people to join the campaign to take benefit from it and it will make the task easier. It will also make the literacy programme worthwhile and useful and the money spent on it will act as investment in human resource development.
An overview of the learning programmes reveals that unless they are related to the life of the people, their success is often elusive (Robinson-Pant 2003). For example, since the Indian masses are often religious and they habitually take up reading of the holy books in itself as the worship of God, merely convincing them that literacy programme will enable them read the holy books (like Ramayana or Quran or Guru Granth Sahib) will make the task easier as they will easily be convinced that the literacy will be immediately useful in their daily life. It will be a big motivation and the force of religious passion will be behind the programme and their regular reading of the religious scriptures will dispel the fear of their relapsing into illiteracy.
It may look good to begin with. But this is not enough. Apart from cognitive skills (reading ability for instance), other dimensions of learning need to be given more attention such as learning to apply knowledge (OECD, 2000) and skills in the pursuit of livelihood so that it can help in daily life of the people, learning to cooperate with other groups of the society and learning to develop oneself as ?autonomous? person (Rychen and Salganik, 2001).
There is another side of looking at the problem. On account of a number of reasons including the impact of mass media, the aspirations of the people have been rising at a fast rate and hence only those programmes which are perceived to help the people towards fulfilment of their socio-economic aspirations can be self sustaining. In the absence of visible progress made by the neo literates towards literacy, there is little motivation let alone enthusiasm for efforts towards literacy. The apparent attitude of literate persons to shun manual work (and hence reject many avenues of employment) is also not conducive to the creation of motivating and encouraging environment for literacy. In the absence of a follow up programme a neo literate may relapse into illiteracy or at best suffer a partial loss of skills, associated with literacy i.e. reading, writing comprehension, numerical skills etc.
For the development of the individual it is necessary to have follow-up programme for neo literates which will provide them with knowledge and skills and corresponding level of literacy to enable the individual to meet their aspirations. In a country like India, the national interest demands an effective follow up programme for neo literates, to let them realize their full potential for all-round development. The design, delivery system, monitoring mechanism, built-in self renewal and associated infrastructure may hence be formulated after extensive discussion based on ground realities. The implementation must be made efficient and the self renewal should continuously be put in the active mode.
The dissatisfaction with various types of literacy programmes as being theoretical and irrelevant to peoples? economic development is much too evident. The need is widely felt in developing societies to make literacy and learning courses more relevant and practically useful to the individual recipient and the community. The most challenging task of making literacy programmes successful is the retention of interest and use of the literary skills for vocational improvement and social progress.
The question is again why are we making people literate and how can it help in their social and economic development? The literacy agenda should focus not only on cognitive skills but also on other dimensions of learning. Knowing the proper application of knowledge in varied situations of life is the ultimate goal. The scope of human needs and options is very wide, from earning a livelihood to environmental concerns like natural resource preservation and sustainable development. Aspirations increase as development advances.
This paper addresses these issues and offers suggestions conducive to local situations. It reports results from a study in rural areas of District Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh, India where the creation of literacy skills is being linked with achieving sustainable development. The rural areas under study are mostly inhabited by socially secluded and less aware people for whom full formal education has been a distant dream. But local need-based specific skill creation programme is producing wonderful results. One of the important forest based products in the area is the long grass ?moonjh? which is used for fine rope making by the local people. The literacy and skill creation programmes have enabled the local people to better use the material and check the wasteful cutting of the grass. Thus the green cover has been preserved and soil erosion has also been checked.
The programme of neo literates has been linked to (i) high level of functional literacy, (ii) advancement in vocations which are or may be taken up by neo literates, and (iii) newer avenues of income generation. Advancement in vocation has been the real test of the professional success of education. Creation of literacy has enabled the people to use printed (knowledge) material and skills to advance in their professions. People have been able to integrate the previous manual skills and their capacities with newly acquired skills. In the terai region, which is mostly covered by long grass and forest, an experiment has been made wherein small booklets/pamphlets were printed for neo learners. These were read by neo-literates to a group. The reaction of the group led to further improvement in the booklets and this formed the basis for further improvement to the local needs of development of the people.
In order to make education helpful in sustaining individual?s life and making literacy skills sustainable and lasting, one does not require merely literary skills but also life skills. Environment and sustainable development are the issues that people should be aware of. A conscious effort is required to inform local people through the neo-literates, of the issues in resource conservation, environment protection and sustainable development along with their interrelationships and trade offs. The issues are really complex and the solutions are not easy but a beginning can be made by explaining these locally with a view to create awareness and making the community better informed. This study reports some results that may be considered for replication elsewhere.
If the programme is to be developed on a larger scale, the following problems will need to be addressed: (a) the visualization and production of learning material, (b) the identification and creation of useful skills as a site-specific process, (c) the formulation of a local need-based course structure. In the identification of learning material, and giving useful instruction, the primary and middle school teachers may be found to be most suitable trainers. Incentives may have to be devised for better results. The message will go out that the literacy skills not only help in sustaining life in the present but also ensuring sustainable development so that human prosperity is ensured in future as well.
Thus, the scope of formulation and spread of literacy skills goes much beyond the conventional literary confines of cognitive skills to wider domains of vocational knowledge and sustainable development. The real onus will come not only on the visualization of appropriate teaching and learning material, but their production on commercial lines, ensuring a fitting delivery mechanism and effectiveness, and, finally, finding out adequate financial resources to back up the programme on a permanent basis on a larger scale.
References
OECD (2000) Literacy in the Information Age, Ottawa, OECD Canada
Robinson-Pant, A. (2003) Overview of Learning Programmes for Literacy and More
General Life, Paris, EFA Global Reporting 2003/4, UNESCO
Rychen, D. S; Salganik, L.H. (ed.) (2001) Defining and Selecting Key Competences,
Goettingen, Hofgreve and Huber Publishers
UNESCO (1996) Learning: The Treasure Within, Report to UNESCO by the International Commission on Education for the 21st Century, Paris, UNESCO,
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