It is indeed an honour for me to have been invited to this Regional Literacy Forum on Adult Education organised by I.L.I., UNESCO and Directorate of Adult Education, New Delhi, India. It is also a great pleasure to see that many distinguished adult educators from the various countries as well as from donar agencies have been able to assemble here.

Is adult education a neglected part of EFA ? The International Consultative Forum on Education for All while monitoring the results of the global review of progress since Jomtien Conference noticed several shortfalls including a widespread lack of support to out-of-school literacy and education programmes for adolescents and Adults. In other words education is still passing through a crisis. Adult education is a part of that crisis. Therefore if noting is done to intensify adult education activities as soon as possible hundreds and millions of adults who are illiterate and tens and millions of children and adolescents who receive no proper non-formal education and who cannot attend school on account of their age will start the next century as illiterates.

Now I will confine myself only on my topic. There is diversity regarding the term, definition and meaning attached to adult education. Whatever the difference, the term adult education is used since forties. The various terms used in the developing countries reflect different political and economic systems. Where the economy is planned adult education is approached in a deliberate way and is linked with development plans.

Adult literacy activities take on different forms and their scale varies from one country to another. There are also differences between town and rural areas. This is chiefly due to the diversity of organisations, associations, agencies and departments dealing with different forms of adult education. The lack of co-ordination and information mechanism is another striking feature in this field of developing countries.

In most of the developing countries the existing literacy programmes for the adults is not enough to ensure that their contribution to reduce illiteracy for adults what it might be or should be. The inadequacy of adult literacy measures and lack of appropriate means for maintaining and developing knowledge are due to large extent to the shortage of resources in most of the countries and has given rise to critical situation in several of them. In some of the countries adult education programmes were imposed from above and focus on what the Government considered necessary. This results in a mismatch between the needs of the people and the actual programme. Adult education in Bangladesh takes many forms such as literacy training, skill training and specialised packages of knowledge 'in areas of health, nutrition, safe-water, child survival, agricultural production and environmental conservation. Efforts are being put both by Government and NGO's to develop more post-literacy support materials, train more teachers and improve on the supervisory and field support services. In Bangladesh, the private sector, the NGO.s, different Ministries have continued to work together for the growth of the programme.

The adult education programme is being carried out in some of the countries by and large on a voluntary basis by students, educated persons. Appealing to Youth, student and other organisation to mobilise their members to take an active part in furthering the national literacy objective can be a way supplementing the efforts and facilities available to society. In some countries, these sort of appeals have been made by Heads of State or Heads of the Government on the occasion of National or important days.

Another important feature in the developing countries is the breakdown of the traditional distinction between initial education and continuing education. Gone are the days when one could hope to amass an initial fund of knowledge and skills that would serve for the life time. The rapid changes now occurring in all the countries require knowledge and skills to be updated continuously. As a result the very concept of adult basic education is reconsidered as an important component of lifelong education in many countries.

Very often in practice adult education remained outside educational policy and budget and has not been given the necessary priority in this developing countries. So despite the growth of education since Jomtien Conference and the gradual decrease in the rate of illiteracy in the developing countries, the number of adult illiterate in absolute term has continued to increase. The growth in the number of illiterates and their proportion and the world population is due mainly to the rapid expansion of formal education and especially primary schooling in most of the developing countries, where the number of children attending primary school has grown faster than the population and in particular faster than the total school age population.

The dropout rate in adult education programmes is often as high as 50 percent of initial participants. A substantial proportion of illiterates who starts attending courses give up fairly quickly either because little time to study or through lack of motivation. Added is the fact that some of those attending literacy courses do not achieve satisfactory results.

Marginalization is also a growing concern in the developing countries. The marginalization of girls and women is a problem that exists in the some of the countries notably in the rural areas. The marginalized people do not need special forms of education, they need solid training and numeracy skills, basic scientific concepts and above all, they need the capacity to continue acquiring knowledge and skills.

There have been several examples of successful national mass literacy campaigns over the years. The principal organizers of many such campaigns in developing countries are non-governmental organizations, most of which operate on a small scale. But many countries do not take sufficient advantage and support of non-governmental organisations.

The role of non-governmental organisation cause a concern in some countries. All kinds of people are setting up voluntary organisations for all kinds of purpose. Some have used the forum to either attract resources or to provide a cover for their own activities. As a result the genuine voluntary organisations have been confused. The non-governmental organisations are now depending more on government funds for running their adult education programmes. As a result they acquired the character of an extension of the state in its own priorities and actions.

Some countries are replanning adult education. There have been good advances in primers, materials, infractructure and environment but the content of the primary adult education continues being to-day, basically, the same as given to children. For children literacy much has been done in recent year in some of the countries but these are hardly been incorporated into the field of adult education.

Many developing countries after the Jomtien Conference explored channels for extra resources for education and to set up permanent infrastructure.

There is one most striking aspects of adult education in the developing countries is its relative isolation from other domain within and beyond the broad field of education. There must be improved connections between those working in adult education and those in other sectors of formal and non-formal education. There is also an increasing sense that adult education programmes have been unnecessarily separated from other educational services for families. For this reason there is an increasing attempt to link adult programme with those of early childhood developments. This is happening in BRAC Programme of Bangladesh.

In some countries spectacular results achieved because of political will and commitment and real national priority. For example in India the whole nation is committed to the eradication of illiteracy. This involves Government political parties, NGOs and the media. With the decrease in the number of illiterates among the adult population which has started in some countries will have a positive effect on literacy scenario by 2000 years.

Many countries after the Jomtien Conference explored channels for extra-resources for education and set up permanent infrastructure. In Bangladesh Primary and Mass Education Division was created in 1993 primarily to promote primary and. mass education effectively throughout the country. The Integrated Non-formal Education Programme (INFEP) was implemented during 1991-97 aiming at developing an infrastructure in the Non-formal Education sub-sector. The INFEP has been upgraded to a Directorate of the Government.

The developing countries differ from each other with regard to co-ordination and implementation, policies and plans of adult education. In some countries adult education is recognised as integral part of the total education system. Adult education is not differentiated as a separate Component of the education sector in some of those countries.

In some of the countries the role of the adult education/non-formal education body assumes some major responsibility for offering adult education programmes. In India, Pakistan, Bangladesh. where massive education campaigns have been launched and the role of the Government agency is essentially that of coordinating the various activities.

The countries where central planning is strong and where national campaigns have been launched, tend to centralise administration, curriculum and materials development training and so forth. Decentralisation is seen most in those countries relying on voluntary adult education agencies.

In almost all developing countries the major thrust in towards the rural people and less to the urban poor. The acquisition of literacy skills appears as a major programme area for several countries. Each country has a different approach but common features are those development of literacy skills. functional literacy like agricultural techniques, health care etc. aimed at development, creation of civic awareness among the poor vocational oriented programmes are a significant components in Bangladesh, Nepal and in some of the countries.

The some countries are pursuing many different innovative approaches and strategies for the development of adult education and that there is growing willingness to experiment with new approaches in adult education which are not normally possible in formal school system. The case of BRAC and Grameen bank can be cited in this respect in Bangladesh.

In many countries mass approaches, emphasising mobilisation and participation are common key strategies although the particular approaches vary from country to country. Political commitment plays a key role in some countries. As for Bangladesh the present Hon'ble Prime Minister expressed strong commitment for eradication of illiteracy from Bangladesh.

The role of women as both learners and teachers, their effective access to adult education opportunities and balance between leisure and work oriented adult education were questions of concern to all countries.

Recommendation

Adult education is not a social service but an investment, and that investment in adult education yield a high rate of return. All International organisations should allocate higher level of resource to adult education.

The central body responsible for the co-ordination of the adult education should make all ministries and government departments aware of the fact that they may all to some extent be involved in adult education and support the co-ordinating body for adult education with financial resources.

Special attention to be paid to marginalised groups such as women, youth, the elderly, minorities, and the disadvantaged.

Adult education should play its role in the context of needs both of the individual and society. Adult education should be planned in the context of development planning by the state.

Adult education should be an important and equal part of the general education system.

The disadvantaged need literacy basic general knowledge and vocational skills to successful lives.

Another important theme was the need for counselling of adults so that they could follow courses and programmes that they would find most rewarding.

References:

1. International Conference on Adult Education Tokyo - 1972

2. International Conference on Adult Education Paris, 1985

3. International Year Book of Education vol ZL l1- 1990

4. Adult Education and Development No. 31, 1988, No. 32,1989.

5. Adult Education and Development (Institute for International Co-operation of the German Adult Education Association, 1984).

6. World Trends and Issues in Adult Education - H. S. Bhola, 1989.

7. Adult Education in a Polarizing World Education for All, Status & Trends, 1997.

8. India, Directorate of Adult Education Ministry of Education & Social Welfare, New Delhi, 1978.

9. Coomb, P.H. The World Crisis in Education.

10. Education for all Achieving the goal, working Document, UNESCO, 1997.

Contact Info:

Professor S.M. Saifuddin
Adviser
Surovi, National Non-Governmental Organisation
Dhaka, Bangladesh