1.0 Introduction

We are at a new threshold. Couple of years from now, the world will enter the twenty first century and the third millennium. There will be several paradigm shifts and sweeping changes in education in the next century; changes will be far more mind boggling than those in the present century. Old and accepted definitions of literacy, education and functionality will become irrelevant and unusable. Adult literacy and education are no exceptions. Both the concept of literacy and the modes of translating the concept have to be redefined. In this paper, an effort has been made to redefine literacy in the changing context and examine alternative modes of delivery of adult literacy programs.

2.0 Nature of Literacy

There have been several important efforts in defining literacy and creating an acceptable operational definition of literacy. Taylor (198.9) made an extensive review of definitions. In the process, he (Taylor) identified various terms used in literacy literacy, functional literacy, and functional competency. Literacy is an evolving concept and hence difficult to arrive at a stable definition. Herman (1987) metaphorically described efforts in defining literacy as walking to the horizon that steadily recedes. MikuIecky (1987) defined literacy as a means of changing relationship rather than a measurable quantity and hence the possibility of arriving at an acceptable definition is unlikely. "It may be more useful to define functional literacy for individuals and specific communities at a particular time" (MikuIecky 1987). National Literacy Mission of India defined literacy as reading, writing and arithmetic coupled with awareness and functionality. Fingeret (1984) warned that efforts to establish national standard for literacy will undermine the development of "literacy programs that are appropriate to the varying needs of the adults in their social contexts". This warning is particularly valid for a multi-cultural society like India. Nesbitt(1987) emphasizes literacy from the individual and societal perspective focusing on selfactualization. Both from the angle of Maslow and Wyne Dyer's (1996) definitions, selfactualization is the final goal of human endeavour; it is hence the most exacting demand on adult literacy and education, Thomas (1989) identified a few general principles of literacy, namely, (i) grade level completion measures as inadequate for definitional purposes, (ii) literacy as a continuum ranging from the mechanism of learning how to decode and encode to the mature utilization of literacy skills and processes for informed action and aesthetic appreciation, (iii) literacy as the ability of the individual to function within a specific social, economic and cultural context, and (iv) literacy thresholds to be in continuous flux due to increasingly technological and changing nature of societies.

1 An invited presentation in the Regional Literacy Forum held jointly by International Literacy Institute, Pennsylvania and Ministry of Human resource Development, Government of India in New Delhi, 9-13 February, 1998.

2 Prof. Marmar Mukhopadhyay is Senior Fellow, National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi and Executive Member and Vice-President (Asia), International Council of Open and Distance Education, Oslo, Norway.

Careful scanning of definitions and goals of literacy indicate convergence on development of ability to function effectively in a given environment and society (Draper 1986). In other words, literacy is the process of empowering the individual adult to be able to exercise control over one's own life and environment. But the environment and the society in which an individual functions is not static. The society is continuously changing. It is, hence, necessary to capture the major trends of changes that are likely to affect the adult life in the foreseeable future and define literacy as an unfolding concept.

3.0 Imminent Changes

The changes in the society during the current century have been fast. as the century progressed, the pace of change accelerated, The developments during thetwentieth century have been galloping overshadowing the developments of almost entire history of human civilizations.

Take the case of India. Her problem of illiteracy is as old as her 5000 year old civilization. At the dawn of even this century,. she had hardly 5% of 230 million people literate, with only 0.6% literacy among women. During the first 50 years, literacy rose to about 19%. During the next less than 50 years, literacy rose to more than 55% despite population grew to more than 970 million. While India is predicted to have the largest number of world's illiterates by the turn of the century, India already has more than 500 million literates, world's second largest number of literate people -- more than the entire population of all European countries put together. This is despite her multilingual, multi-cultural, multi-religious composition in a weak economy. The achievements during the last 50 years far outweigh the achievements in the last 5000 years; the achievement in literacy during the current decade is far more than the achievements during the previous four decades put together.

The speed will be the watch word. The speed of change will further increase in the next century due to fast changes in science and technology and globalization. India will become a literate society in a decade, if not couple of years that has not been achieved in 5000 years. India is not an isolated case; this more or less is the. story of many countries in the world. Adult literacy is also not the only case in hand,, this is true for all other areas of human endeavour.

Because of speed, visibility into the future will be shorter and hence predictability will be more and more of shorter terms. Important educational implication of such fast changes in the society is the need of learning to learn that can equip an adult to continuously upgrade him/herself.

Twentieth century has been the century of discoveries, from nuclear science to cloning. But science and technology as double edged weapon, the discoveries of nuclear energy led to nuclear medicine, nuclear power for human development, but also to the inhuman human destruction in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This century coveted the human civilization with concurring of space, this also saw two massive world wars (now threatened with the third) that killed more humans than probably all killings in known human history, The ethnic wars, strife and tensions are all around that threatens the very essence and existence of human community. The developments in science and technology will be far sharper leading to further sophistication of both war heads and the human development devices. The only defence is the collective voice of people across the planet to 'live together'; there is no better mechanism for cultivating that voice but meaningful education for all.

End of cold war has given rise to unipolarity in global power structure. This is leading to a new economic order characterized by neo-colonialism, The bottom line will dictate and the world is likely to emerge not as bipolar leading to another era of cold war, but more likely to be multi-polar. It will demand a new set of skills to function in the new world order, particularly since the globalization will not allow life and living in isolation.

Developments in communication technologies have brought societies increasingly closer to one another. With progressive globalization, isolated existence of groups and communities within the age old cultural boundaries will become thing of the past. Societies, nationally and globally will be governed more and more by commoon set of norms of human rights, trade practices, standards and so on. The quality of life of the urban elite will be influenced by the rural impoverished; the quality of life in the exclusive mansions in the metropolis will be determined not only by the purchasing power of the rich but also by the slums that grow around. This is as much true for nations in the world. Zooming in on to the macro-frame, this is increasingly becoming the story of the world. The life of the developed nations will be influenced by the quality of life in the less developed countries. lomtien, Rio, Beijing Conferences are the illustrative examples of global realization of this new reality. It is education, and education for all for collective living alone that can guarantee quality of life.

We experienced phenomenal knowledge explosion during this century, The explosion will be much faster in the next century, This will not only expand the boundaries of knowledge but also render much of the existing knowledge obsolete and unusable. Future wars, as mentioned above, will be fought on economic front with knowledge as the major weapon. The world will be driven by knowledge that is potent to create the countervailing force against the brute force, it is this knowledge that can enhance quality of life and ensure human rights. It is this knowledge for aH that can move the human civilization further on its sojourn. but knowledge on a renewable basis for all.

Adults -- both literate and illiterate -- are the decision makers. it is they who determine the courses of development. As a case in hand is the Amendment of Indian Constitution assigning much larger responsibility to the local selfgovernment (Panchayati Raj Institution) and reserving about one-third of the seats for the women. The role of adults has changed substantially as more and more countries broke the shackles of autocratic rules and opted for the democratic forms of governance, Governance only from a moralistic platform can save human destruction and lead to self-actualization of the human race. Yet violation of human rights is a global problem -- weak nations violate individual rights stronger ones violate the collective human rights, Increased awareness and conscientization is the only means to ensure human rights. Education, hence, is not the only, but also the best defence.

From the global developments and developments within the nations, this is an extraordinary time. Old definitions and old ways need drastic reconsideration. So is the case with literacy and adult education. Literacy needs redefining.

4.0 Towards an Operational Definition

Literacy, as the process of empowering individuals to be able to function in one's environment, changes meaning with increasing technological and societal changes. Individual adults, now and in the future, will function not only in the narrow local contexts, but also in the national and global contexts, for they influence, and shall continue to do so. both national and global system as much as national and global events will affect their lives. What empowers an individual in a knowledge driven society is the major issue, and that should lay the foundation of literacy programs of the future. Empowering the adult will imply his/her command and grip over the knowledge systems. It will imply development of skills of:

1. identifying sources of relevant knowledge

2. accessing knowledge

3. processing and evaluating (quality and relevance) knowledge

4. applying knowledge

5. discriminating (moralistic) both knowledge and their applications

In UNESCO's paradigm, this is the first pillar -- learning to know (Delors and

Others, 1996). There are three other pillars:

* learning to do (occupational learning)

* learning to be (moralistic learning)

* learning to live together (societal learning)

Should literacy be defined as the ability of the individual to function within a specific social, economic and cultural context, an adult should also be able to upgrade the occupational practice on a continuing basis. As indicated earlier, in order to blunt the dreaded edge of science and technology, adult education will need to include components that enable individuals to live together through tolerance and appreciation of divergence and diversity. Thus, one set of his/her equipment will comprise informational, occupational, moralistic and societal learning. Ability to read may come handy, but neither necessary nor adequate. Sourcing of alternative modes of delivery will be necessary.

Print is no more the only medium, nor even the most effective one. Audio-visual media that charge simultaneously two most active sense organs -- eyes and ears -are far more effective. Radio and Television news are steadily replacing traditional newspapers; interactive communication media is creating virtual classrooms replacing the conventional classrooms, The information shops ('MAHITI Kendra" proposed in the ninth plan), information education through nficro-satellites are steadily replacing reading as a requisite skill for accessing information. From monopolistic position, print form has taken its rightful place as one of the sources of information. Take the case of success in immunization in India. The immunization has been possible across literate-illiterate board due to non-print mass communication.

The set of learning, mentioned above, provides individuals to be ready to function, but not really function. The next set of instruments is effective participation, communication and influencing. Basic numeracy is a natural skill of the adults; what he/she misses is the ability to document. Similarly, basic writing skill is meant much more for documentation than expression. These are not enough, since many of these requirements can be met with alternative modes of documentation, audio for example. Oral articulation is a powerful tool for influencing people and for critical decision making. Speaking as much as in written expression is a new requirement for a literate to be able to function effectively in a group, community and the world at large.

Because of the fast changes in technology and its increasing impact on daily life, the new paradigm of literacy will demand technocracy or technological literacy -ability to handle equipments, not only on occupational areas, but also to enrich the life in general. The Ministries/Departments of Human Resource Development, Science and Technology, Electronics and Agriculture of Government of India have sponsored major schemes and projects on technology development for the women and weaker sections of the society with a view to alleviate the conditions of their lives. The technology development does not guarantee their utilization. It is the skill and confidence that ensures the utilization and achievement of goals of technology development (Mukhopadhyay, 1998).

Thus the literacy, in order to be able to function effectively in one's given environment and society will imply

1 . Learning to Learn,

2. Sourcing, evaluating, processing and using information,

3 Functional Numeracy,

4. Technological Literacy,

5 . Oral and written articulation,

6. Participative and Collective Decision Making, and

7. Mapping Local Issues on national and global contexts.

Given the changed scenario, the literacy programs have to be redesigned. Essentially, hence, the existing method of delivery of literacy is also to be reconsidered.

5.0 Alternative Mode of Delivery: Distance Education

There have been several innovations on the delivery of adult literacy programs. The project and campaign based are the two major approaches used in many countries including India. The Campaign mode replaced the project based approach and achieved significant results in its earlier phase in India. Campaign is in the form of a movement; major difficulty in the movement form is the sustainability for long.

Research indicates that project based approach made fewer but permanent literates whereas Campaign mode was able to make larger number of people; fragility leading to relapsing into illiteracy much faster is the main problem(Murthy 1994), Murthy also found that project mode had stronger monitoring mechanism compared to the effective environment building in Campaign approach. The strengths of the two approaches have not been coupled together.

The delivery of literacy in both these forms used face to face mode with marginal application of educational technology particularly in designing the primers (Parhar 1998). Given the paradigm shift in the concept of literacy, there is a need to examine the potentiality of alternative delivery channels, distance education in particular, as a complimentary mode for enriching literacy education.

As mentioned earlier, reading is not necessarily the only skill for accessing information and empowerment. There are other more powerful channels that can be used either as stand alone or in combination with reading to equip the adults to be able to function more effectively. Distance education combines many alternative modes of delivery and hence is potent to make delivery of adult literacy more effective.

Distance education owes its origin in correspondence education. Garrison (1989) traces the history of correspondence education to 1878 and more precisely to 1892 when "Harper incorporated many of his ideas of distance education" into the extension division of University of Chicago. There are, however, controversies regarding the definition and description of distance education. Several scholars have tried to describe distance education (Garrison and Shale 1987, Holmberg 1986, Keegan 1986, Moore 1973). The emphasis has, primarily, been on the mode of delivery of education.

The shift is from print and mail based delivery in correspondence education to a multi-channel mode of delivery. The induction of two way interactive communication media ha..; created virtual classrooms rendering the physical distance between the teacher and students ineffective in terms of communication. This, in reality has changed distance education into education at a distance.

Distance education has increasingly incorporated a variety of communication techniques within it that can be used as stand alone devises as well as those can be used in combination within an integrated framework. This has led to the concept and practice of multi-channel learning in distance education (Anzalone, 1995 and Mukhopadhyay, 1995). The progressive induction and integration of delivery modes into a systemic framework have led to the classification of distance education into several 'generations' (Mukhopadhyay, 1996 -- table 1).

Table 1. Generations of Distance Education

Generations: Descriptions

First: classical correspondence print material supported by assignments, response sheets, etc.

Second: classical correspondence print material supported by assignments, response sheets, etc. supplemented by Personal Contact Program

Third: self-instructural print material3 supported by assignments, response sheets, etc. supplemented by Personal Contact Program and electronic media - audio, video, radio and television programs

Fourth: self-instructional print material, interactive CD-ROM supported by assignments, response sheets, etc. supplemented by Personal Contact Program, electronic media - audio, video, radio and television programs, interactive television and computer communication,

Fifth: self-instructional print material, interactive CD-ROM supported by assignments, response sheets, etc. supplemented by Personal Contact Program supplemented by electronic media - audio, video, radio and television programs supplemented by interactive television, computer communication, Virtual classrooms and Virtual Universities in cyberspace

Sixth: Courses offered on Internet -- instructional material in words (skillettes), audio/video and moving images, variety of interactive sessions ( chat sessions, Newsgroups), assignments, consulting mechanisms (e-mail) like tutorials, assignments and tests.

3 Self-instructional Material of later generation distance education are different from the conventional textbook mode lessons used in correspondence education.

It would be evident from the table, that every new generation of distance education added a new more powerful delivery tool. The Internet based delivery mode incorporates all media in one and hence is the most comprehensive.

Given the emphasis on functionality in terms of knowledge management, a serious issue would be the relevance and relative weightage on reading. The use of printed self-instructional material that is yet the backbone of distance education requires minimum basic reading skill. Television, as a distance education mechanism, has been successfully used in adult education in Africa (Kabwasa and Kaunda, 1973). Though not adequately documented, India used radio and television extensively for motivation building among adults in the Total Literacy Campaign. Most significant use of mass media for adult education in India has been done by the Department of Health for immunization, diarrhea control, family planning. Allama lqbal University of Pakistan, a specialist institution in open and distance education offers adult literacy education program through distance education. YC Maharashtra Open University of India offered tailor made programs for the illiterate and semi literate grape growers and other categories of farmers. National Open School of India designed an innovative basic education program for the neo-literates for delivering through distance education (Mukhopadhyay, 1997). The issue of use of distance education in the revised context and definition of adult literacy and education needs fresh look.

Distance education offers several alternative delivery modes and adult literacy needs to incorporate, besides the classical three R's, occupational learning, speaking and articulation, moralistic and societal learning, It will be necessary to juxtapose the literacy program needs against the potentiality of distance education delivery channels. The new possibility of designing adult literacy and education program using distance education is given in the table 2.

It will be evident from the above table that there are several alternatives available for developing the various literacy skills. One-way mass media and two way interactive media have very important roles to play. Computer mediated learning with the new developments in multi-media can substantially enrich learning of literacy skills. The education in occupational skills, mapping local issues on national and global contexts and participative and collective decision making(learning to live together), components of moralistic learning (learning to be) can be delivered through all the channels independently and in certain combinations.

Table 2. Components of Literacy and Distance Education delivery Channels Matrix

	Print	Mass Media	Interactive Television (ITV)	Face to Face Interaction	Computer Mediated Learning
Reading	*				*
Learning to Learn	*	*	*	*	*
Functional Numeracy	*	*	*	*	*
Technological Literacy	*	*	*	*	*
Sourcing, evaluating, processing and using information	*	*	*	*	*
Listening		*	*	*	*
Viewing		*	*	*	*
Oral articulation			*	*
Occupational Skills	*	*	*	*	*
Mapping Local Issues on national and global contexts	*	*	*	*	*
Participative Collective Decision Making			*	*

Note: Shades indicate the potentiality of use of various alternative modes of delivery either as stand alone mechanism or in combination with one another.

The choice of the channels of distance education will be guided by the considerations of cost, quality and access to technology. There are innumerable studies that indicate that distance education is not only cheaper but also far more cost effective than the conventional face to face mode. Face to face mode of delivery requires large number of tutors resulting in wide variation this in quality of knowledge, communication and even attitude towards the adult learns. The printed self-instructional material, mass media, ITV and computer mediated learning require very few expert courseware authors and trainers and hence it is possible to ensure quality of instructional delivery among the adults. The interactive communication media has also ushered in speed of communication; otherwise " the great weakness of distance education has in most cases been slowness of the communication process caused by correspondence method dominating this kind of education" (Holmberg 1986).

' The Department of Electronics, Government of India has recently designed an electronic device that can be hooked upto a television; with the manipulation of few keys, the alphabets will form the screen. It is also capable of delivering the first primer.

Finally, the issue is of access to technology. Most of the two way communication technologies depend either on satellite based or terrestrial communication. Many of the developing countries have either mastered this technology or have access to it. The communication modality is used for entertainment and defence. The issue is ushering in the fruits of technology to education and other service sectors.

India has been using interactive television -- one way video and two-way audio -for education and training of primary teachers, farmers, women, executives, communication professionals, etc. for several years. India has also experimented with two way video conferencing for education in tribal areas. India has now planned to set up a national HRD network connecting all the state, district and block headquarters through a ITV network in phased manner pressing the state of the art technology in education and human development (NAP 1997). The Indira Gandhi National Open University and University Grants Commission is setting up another network of reception centers for higher education (OPENET). The computer facilities have also spread far and wide with provision of computers in degree colleges, senior secondary schools, primary and secondary teacher training institutions, and the rural NG0s. This provides an opportunity to use computer mediated learning, more importantly, the spread of computer facilities offers a new opportunity for monitoring literacy management through a live and locally usable MIS.

Thus in countries like India, major components of two-way interactive communication media are either already in place or are fast getting into place. The literacy managers need to look into the enormous potentiality of this new mode for supplementing adult literacy and education programs.

5.0 Conclusion

One of the major weaknesses of adult literacy programs in most of the countries is the lack of professionalization. Because of the massive number of instructors required for literacy development in millions, countries have opted for voluntarism that suffers from social contradiction. Tutors for all other categories of learners are paid for, adult education instructors are the only exception. Besides, voluntary service is given by those who can actually ill afford to be volunteers. There is no other incentive associated with the voluntary instruction of the adult illiterates. This conveys the lack of importance and urgency about the issue; as learners, adults are a neglected species(Knowles, 1988). Illiterate adults are left to be liberated at the hands of young enthusiasts who are untrained and ill equipped to deal with adult learners without any training or understanding of pedagogy leave alone andragogy. The adult learners are treated as primary school children.

For real success, adult education needs to be professionalized -- both in delivery of education and monitoring the progress in literacy. Training of adult education instructors and supervisors can go a long way in professionalizing adult education. Distance education can be effectively used for training of adult education instructors and supervisors. The same ITV network coupled with print material, audio and video programs, face to face interactive sessions can be used for education of the adults as well as for the adult education instructors. In fact, training and development of adult education functionaries can be the beginning point in application of distance education in professionalizing adult literacy and education.

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