The Teheran Conference Report of 1965 stated that no literacy campaign should be started unless and until there has been provision for adequate, appropriate and accessible materials for follow-up practices by neo-literates. The Expert Team on Evaluation of Experimental Literacy Project said, "For literacy to be effective and lasting, it must be sustained by an infrastructure that not only provides literates with abundant reading matter but also maintains their taste for reading and broadens their horizon" (UNESCO/tJNI:)P. 1976).

In other words, follow-through for post-literacy does not mean merely to reinforce literacy techniques by providing reading materials but to create an environment that encourages individuals to act effectively as literates in daily life and to react critically to their understanding of reality. The Persipolis (1976) Declaration pointed the way, stating that literacy is a fundamental human right that contributes to human liberation and full development.

In April 1977, UNESCO Experts on Post Literacy stated: By post-literacy we understand all measures taken to enable the neo-literate to put into practice the skills acquired and to increase the knowledge obtained during the previous stage. Thus he will be able to go beyond what he has learned and to use his new knowledge; and above all, by learning how to learn and how to make decisions, take an active part in the continuing process of development and mastery of his environment.

Keeping in view the above Expert's opinion of UNESCO and Study Reports,, we may say that the prerequisites for efficient literacy/post literacy activities are:

(1) Determined commitment on the part of Government;

(2) Integration of literacy planning into the general activities devoted to educational planning, and to social, economic and cultural development; and

(3) Creation of structures that favour the development of post-literacy activities.

Therefore, at present concerted efforts need to be intensified, right from national to local level, dealing with literacy more realistically and steadily than in the 1970s and '80s. Because, literacy is a multiple task with broad objectives in social, economic and cultural development. Equally, post-literacy is -a major task, calling for a national programme, commitment, effective participation, coordination and decentralisation, mobilisation of' human and financial resources and animation of hope and social justice among the poor and the marginal.

A good post-literacy environment rosters specific ways for neo-literates to participate in decisions that affect their lives; includes accessible, adequate, relevant reading materials, library services and mass media; encourages new literates to develop their own print and non print materials; priorities through visual communication such as Television, Film, Peoples-Theatre, Drama, Festivals, Dance, Arts and Crafts continued practice of literacy skills; plans to reach beyond the economically favoured groups to include women, tribal people, people in remote areas, the poor etc., and provides continuing adult education programmes for the neo-literates.

Print, non-print, popular and traditional media are powerful tools for literacy work, but, like other tools, they have been misused and even abused throughout history by the people who operate them. Media personnel often regard them as ends rather than means; educators see them as means but do not finds out how or why they work; and both educators and media personnel lose sight of the audience's needs and wants. Information technologists, media producers, literacy workers, educators, policy makers and the audience all have roles to play in media use-whether traditional or modern. The first step is to define the roles so that, for example., policy makers understand communication and make full use of communicators and educators.

Many research studies hive concluded that educators and media specialists should work together to identify, test, and evaluate the roles of a particular medium. In 1976 a seminar on education and the media called for :

An active partnership of adult education with TV, Radio and publication, with social welfare agencies, health services, voluntary agencies and traditional formal education (European Bureau of Adult Education 1977).

Despite the recommendations, however, the partnership has seldom been realised in practice. Although the media have been widely used to promote literacy campaign, the reports or evaluations of their use have rarely indicated what media have been used, whether they have been applied to certain processes of learning or how they have been integrated with direct teaching, independent learning or group interaction. Although countless literacy documents have recommended a partnership between media personnel and literacy administrators and teachers, they have never spelled out how to accomplish this partnership in practical, field-tested situations.

Accordingly to the report of the Experimental World Literacy Programme, the countries involved made 'fairly moderate' use of non print media to teach (UNESCO/UNDP 1976), but the EWLP and other programmes have not detailed how and why a particular medium was used. An assessment made twenty-five years ago by Dr. J. R. Kidd is still valid : there have been few systematic studies on the use of the media to project literacy or post-literacy learning; little attempt has been made to determine the content and instructional methods that lend themselves to a particular medium or to investigate teacher training in the use of the media for particular situation.

No one yet has answered the question: What channels of communication can be combined to produce the lowest cost to reach per learner, the best learning impact, flexibility, speed of distribution, simplicity of production and use? The lack of' valid research means that policy makers deciding media use are swayed by the most persuasive salesperson. "Policy makers must have confidence that most suitable and economic choice has been made between one or several audio-visual and print media, as well as other communication forms. They must be convinced that vested interests do not underlie advocacy of a particular medium" (Cassirer, 1977).

The fact is that many multi-media systems make better sense in the laboratory than they do in actual learning situation. According to Brian Groombridge, theorists have paid great attention to such subtleties as what part of the teaching load should be carried by what medium-this part by correspondence, this by radio, this by T.V., this by film, by theatre and so on. This analytical thoughtfulness about the teaching load was not always matched by equal interest in the learning load. The learner would be confronted by a system so exquisitely integrated that he either had to take all of it or none. As a result, he frequently does not take (European Bureau of Adult Education 1977).

Quite simply, the audience---the learner-should be the focus. The media are a waste of time if they are not based on learners' characteristics, needs and wants. Also they are ineffective if they have not been integrated with, reinforced and completed by, other kinds of interpersonal communications and dialogue. An investigative report, 'The New Media, concluded : .... the import of our evidence is that the success of a media based system depends at least as much on the learning activities organised at the receiving end as on the content that goes into the transmitting end The media help, but the face-to-face practice is the key to what happens it is clear that systems built around media are not always as successful as they could be. How the system is designed, how it is used and under what conditions, determines the degree of success (Schramm, Coombs, Kahnat, and Lyle 1967).

A major challenge to those concerned with educational media has been to devise ways to involve the audience actively and to obtain feedback (Cassires 1977). The challenge has been particularly onerous for those who organise correspondence course, distance learning, radio, TV etc. because these media do not cater to the learners' need for human contact and reinforcement. The most necessary "media" to be coordinated into a literacy strategy, it appears are human beings, a resource that is not exactly in short supply. An example may be cited here.

During the present literacy campaign in West Bengal, an evaluative study was conducted by the State Resource centre for Adult Education, West Bengal on "the Role and Effectiveness of different Communication Media used for the campaigns". The study revealed that oral communication through meetings, discussions and also combined with visual forms, like folk media, peoples' theatre etc. had the maximum impact on the learners. This processes had even a significant influence on the people irrespective of their caste, religion or profession/ occupation (Kundu 1996).

A growing feeling is that literacy learning not only is, but should be, a people-intensive operation. However, no literacy studies have been found that compare the costs of a mass television system with those of t mass programme for recruitment and training of literacy workers and teachers. Although it has been shown that a country like us must invest in print materials with or without radio, television, it may be that a literacy programme based primarily on people provides more direct and long range benefits through traditional media than one based on a high investment technology like radio-television.

Contact Info:

Mihir Gliosh Dastidar
Director
State Resource Centre for Adult Education
West Bengal