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Reading between the lines: why literacy for women?

Can we be sure that literacy really promotes ‘development’? Is literacy a universal skill that can be delivered by all aid workers? What kinds of skills should literacy programmes for women emphasise? Why do women often drop out of literacy classes? Should local women be involved in designing courses?

A UNESCO study of female literacy initiatives in Nepal challenges assumptions about literacy, women and development. Instead of asking whether literacy promotes development, it asks what kind of literacy brings what kind of development to whom? Statistical measures of literacy ‘levels’ and correlation with indicators of health and empowerment are questioned. Showing the shortcomings of Northern one-size-fits-all literacy programmes, it argues for much greater involvement of local women in design and delivery.

The research looks at how women in different parts of Nepal acquire literacy and use it for their own purposes. Aid agencies and local women have very different reasons for participating in literacy programmes. While the former are interested in teaching women to read in order to pass on specific information about such subjects as deforestation and health, many women just want to feel educated and may see little wrong in the rote learning which their children experience in school. They sometimes feel awkward in the informal situations promoted by non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

The research warns that:

in societies where it is the norm for boys to go to school there is a danger that literacy programmes targeted at women will be regarded as second class education and second class employment for teachers
programmes which insist that women develop literacy in local languages may be neither what they want nor empowering: learning English can challenge gender balances of power in nations like Nepal where English-speaking institutions are male dominated
if NGO field staff running literacy classes are obliged to report to NGO managers in English language development rhetoric, they can miss opportunities to learn about local realities.

The book advocates improved communication between development workers and participants. The link between women's literacy, gender and development must no longer be seen as a passive equation that planners can somehow calculate, but a dynamic process in which local women begin to influence how that link is perceived by planners.

Those who design female adult education programmes are urged to:

clarify who the target group is and determine their differing individual needs according to age, occupation and ethnic background
assess any community before launching a literacy programme: fewer women would drop out if courses were more satisfying to their needs
undertake more sophisticated analysis of why women drop out, through looking at factors like what time of year classes are run, which age group drop our and how classes are regarded by participants
boost instructors’ credibility and status in the community by paying more attention to issues around certification and the career structure, remuneration and working conditions of class facilitators
ask more questions about the literacy class as an institution: is it reproducing or challenging social relations? What does going to a literacy class mean to women? Do men and educated children see the programme as a threat or valid alternative education?

Source(s):
‘Why eat green cucumbers at the time of dying? Women’s literacy and development in Nepal’ by A. Robinson-Pant, UNESCO Institute for Education, 2001 Full document.
‘Women and literacy: a Nepal perspective’, by A. Robinson-Pant, International Journal of Educational Development, 20 p.349-364, 2000

Funded by: Economic and Social Research Council

id21 Research Highlight: 12 November, 2002

Further Information:
Anna Robinson-Pant
Centre for Applied Research in Education
School of Education and Professional Development
University of East Anglia
Norwich NR4 7TJ
UK

Tel: +44 (0)1603 592857
Fax: +44 (0)1603 451412
Contact the contributor: a.robinson-pant@uea.ac.uk

University of East Anglia, UK

UNESCO Institute for Education
Feldbrunnenstrasse 58
20148 Hamburg
Germany

Tel: +49 40 44 80 41- 0
Fax: +49 40 410 77 23
Contact the contributor: uie@unesco.org

UNESCO Institute of Education

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