For the first time since 1994 the government has rolled out a comprehensive literacy plan and campaign, which will enable millions of people to write their names, tell the time and understand the instructions on medicine bottles.
This follows Cabinet’s approval of a R6,1-billion literacy campaign, which is poised to make far-reaching inroads into South Africa’s skills deficit.
This is the second attempt by the education ministry to try to stamp out illiteracy: in 1999, after taking office, former education minister Kader Asmal announced his intention to eradicate illiteracy by 2005. But this failed to materialise.
The new literacy campaign, Kha ri gude — Masifunde (Let us learn), which will be spread over five years, aims to halve South Africa’s number of illiterate adults by 2015. It is based on the most extensive plan in South Africa’s history to tackle illiteracy, a serious impediment to skills development and economic growth affecting the lives of 9,7-million people of the country’s 47-million.
It puts the country in a realistic position to achieve the education for all goal of reducing illiteracy by half in 2015.
Duncan Hindle, director general of education, said halving illiteracy was the immediate target, but the department could go further, getting closer to the eradication of illiteracy if the plan got off the ground. The project will be taken into communities where illiterate people live, allowing easy access.
Hindle said there ‘always†had been the political will to tackle illiteracy, but there was no plan. ‘Now we have a credible plan, which turned the political will into commitment and funding.â€
The credibility of the plan, he said, emanated from the fact that it was well researched and was based on best practices internationally. It was not about ‘just another directorate†in the department.
Education Minister Naledi Pandor appointed a ministerial committee on literacy (MCL) last year, which did the research and participated in a study tour that involved visits to New Zealand, Venezuela and Cuba.
These countries have had effective adult literacy education programmes. They eradicated adult illiteracy, despite their poor infrastructure and economic resources. Both New Zealand and Venezuela are believed to have modelled their own literacy initiatives on Cuba’s successful recipe, where the literacy campaigns started immediately after the revolution in 1959. In South Africa it has taken 13 years for a plan to be formulated.
Hindle said the economic benefits to individuals and the country would provide momentum to South Africa’s literacy campaign.
In addition, Pandor pulled in some of the veteran literacy experts, who served on the committee, to work with the department in the execution of the plan.
Veronica McKay, director of Unisa’s Adult Basic Education and Training (Abet) Institute, has been seconded to the department to help develop teaching and learning materials and to train teachers.
McKay has experience in ‘scaleâ€, reaching up to 300 000 illiterate adults and doing this at a cost of as little as R300 per learner.
Similarly, John Aitchison, head of the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Adult Education, has been seconded to deal with systems, including setting up necessary computer systems to track learners, buildings and human resources matters.
Obert Maguvhe, of the South African National Council of the Blind, is set to join the team to drive the development of literacy material, such as Braille, for disabled people.
Hindle said the department was aware of the danger of bureaucratic blockages that could slow down implementation. The department was exploring the use of implementation agents.
The department is expected to pull in NGOs that work in the field of adult literacy, such as Project Literacy, the Molteno Project and the Adult Learning Network.
At its core the plan seeks to revamp and revise the content of the Abet curriculum and deal with major shortcomings in the delivery of education to adults.
The department has been accused by Abet practitioners of reluctance to address problems and challenges faced by the sector.
Chief among these are appalling working conditions, including poor facilities and resources allocated to the sector, and the low and persisent late payment of teachers.
The campaign will address these concerns as it unfolds in three phases.
The first phase, which started this year, focuses on ‘organisational setup, materials development and campaign announcementsâ€.
A team of top African language linguists has been developing the learning materials. The plan provides for mother-tongue, first- language education and thereafter to enable students to acquire use of the economic language in the areas in which they live.
One of the team members described the process as similar to ‘translating the Bible†into each of the 11 official languages.
The materials used in adult literacy draw on life-orientation themes, such as health, hygiene and HIV/Aids. As part of the development of students’ vocabulary, audio-visual material on these themes will be developed and screened.
The plan envisages the employment of at least 80 000 adult educators. The core will be qualified unemployed Abet educators, who will be employed by the department, but the plan is to use unemployed youth too. The department hopes everyone who can serve will serve, be they retired magistrates or teachers.
Unisa’s Abet Institute has trained about 80 000 adult literacy educators already.
Adult educators will be paid about R1 000 a month for teaching a class of 15 people. There will be two student enrolments a year.
Actual implementation of the plan is expected to take off by the middle of next year with about 350 000 students.
About R850-million has been allocated to the first phase.
The second phase, to start next year until 2010, will deal with ‘intensive implementation of a literacy campaign envisaged to reach 3,22-millionâ€.
The third phase will commence in 2011 until 2012 and will ‘mop up [adding another 1,48-million and include a] Unesco reviewâ€.
The review is an essential element of the plan, given the high drop-out rate — up to 50% — of adults in literacy programmes.
Despite the challenges, Gugu Ndebele, deputy director general in the department of education responsible for social and school enrichment, is confident the campaign will ‘break the back of adult illiteracyâ€. She said this is because the new plan addresses a wide range of issues related to Abet.
She said these included the relevance of Abet, its responsiveness to the country’s needs, qualifications, curriculum, salary and conditions of service.
The ministerial report indicates that South Africa has 9,6-million people who are functionally illiterate. Of these 4,7-million are totally unschooled, while 4,9-million are those who dropped out of school before grade seven.
Provinces that have high numbers of illiterates are Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape and some parts of Gauteng, Mpumalanga and the North West. IsiZulu, Sepedi and isiXhosa are the most-affected home languages.
It is hoped that by 2012 4,7-million of the functionally illiterates will have been reached. Unesco has declared that a country with less than 4% of its adult population illiterate will be considered ‘illiteracy freeâ€.
Project Literacy gave the plan a thumbs-up. Chief executive Andrew Miller said this is ‘the best news to dateâ€, especially as Cabinet had approved such a huge amount of money to support the campaign.
‘For the first time since the advent of democracy, this is real money set aside for a real change that can really impact on the lives of the poor and marginalised,†Miller said.
But Archie Mokonane, chairperson of Adult Literacy Network, tempered his optimism with caution. He said some of the plan’s salient features suggest it will succeed. These include the appointment of coordinators and monitors at provincial, local and site levels.
He said the major undoing of the past initiatives was that things were driven nationally with no structures or individuals involved at local levels.
Mokonane said addressing the concerns of Abet practitioners would be critical to getting their buy-in. More importantly, Mokonane said, the sector should have its own pool of teachers trained specifically for the sector.
‘At the moment we rely on temporary qualified classroom teachers and when they get full-time jobs we are left in the lurch,†he said.
He called for the establishment of more dedicated public adult learning centres throughout the country instead of using school premises.
Core elements of the plan
- To train adults who will fit into the state’s key economic growth programmes, such as expanded public works, the accelerated and shared growth initiative for South Africa (Asgisa) and the National Skills Development Plan.
- To include the disabled sector of the community — particularly the visually impaired — by making Braille-printed materials and equipment accessible.
- To develop appropriate and quality materials.
- To base it on the Cuban model by involving other government departments, such as defence, science and technology, labour, safety and security, trade and industry, arts and culture, correctional services and the presidency.
- To ensure that MECs of education in all the nine provinces chair literacy committees and establish provincial, district and local literacy coordination units.
- To establish financial control at national, provincial and local levels to ensure that staff are paid on time.
- To ensure the delivery is face-to-face instruction based on the use of methodically prepared workbooks and other print material. CDs, DVDs, radio and television broadcasts will be used to support and train teachers.
- To outsource to a professional logistical firm with a proven record to pack and deliver educational materials, especially to the rural areas.
- To train staff to monitor and check the effectiveness of the educational and operational systems on the ground.
- To evaluate the campaign for accountability.
Fast facts
- Number of functionally illiterate South Africans: 9,6-million
- Provinces with highest numbers of illiterates: Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape
- Number of adults targeted by the campaign: 3,22-million
- Number of months to acquire basic literacy: six months
- Number of adult literacy educators needed: 80 000
- Age groups targeted: 15 to 20 and 35 to 54 years
This article will appear in the September edition of the teacher, the Mail & Guardian’s publication for educators and the education sector