Tackling illiteracy in rural areas

Poverty and illiteracy are major problems for people living in rural areas. The slow pace of progress towards universal basic education is often overlooked and is largely due to persistently low enrolment and completion rates in rural areas. Rural poverty is strongly linked to illiteracy, malnutrition, infant mortality and poor access to water.

A report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome and UNESCO Institute of Education Planning describes a major international study on education and rural development. The authors warn that rural poverty and illiteracy are major structural development challenges. To achieve the Millennium Development Goals (particularly the first two on halving hunger and poverty and ensuring universal primary education by 2015) international aid agencies need to change the way in which they operate.

The report notes that:

• Decreasing interest in agricultural education and research is the result of a false belief that the green revolution would offer limitless science-based solutions to producing staple grains.
• ‘Rural’ is no longer synonymous with agriculture: rural labour markets increasingly require rural workers to find non-farm employment.
• Without basic literacy and numeracy, individuals are unlikely to be hired for anything more than basic wage labour.
• Rural people without an education are poorly equipped to make informed decisions for themselves or their communities or to actively get involved in promoting economic, social and cultural development.
• Businesses are unlikely to choose to invest in rural areas if skilled or trained people are unavailable.
• Education improvements in rural areas with limited job opportunities, if considered in isolation from other investments may simply encourage migration towards cities.

Migration to cities will increase if improvements to education are not accompanied by other economic and social opportunities. Rural poverty and under-development are increasingly recognised yet support for agriculture and rural development is declining.

The authors call on policy-makers to:

• use public investment to enable rural areas to attract and keep learners, with a particular focus on basic education
• involve community members in developing relevant approaches to skills training
• shift the focus on crop and animal production at agriculture universities towards a broader curriculum that would offer non-agricultural vocational skills, new information about technology and markets and that would establish alliances with local business and promote entrepreneurship
• increase donor support to rural development: this could readily be funded by even a modest reduction in the current $1bn a day paid as subsidies to farmers in industrialised states
• tailor programmes to meet the particular needs of minority, nomadic and displaced populations
• use education and training as ways of reinforcing the ability of rural poor people to access and analyse information, to voice their opinions in public debates and to establish strategic alliances.

Source(s):
‘Education for rural development: towards new policy responses’, Food and Agriculture Organization and UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning, by David Atchoarena and Lavinia Gasperini 2003 (now available also in Spanish and French) Full document.
Further publication from the Education for Rural People programme, FAO Full document.

Funded by: Food and Agriculture Organization, Spanish and French Translations funded by the Republic of San Marino

id21 Research Highlight: 25 August 2005

Further Information:
David Atchoarena
UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning
7-9, ue Eugène Delacroix
75116 Paris
France

Tel: + 33 1 4503 7749
Fax: + 33 1 4072 8366
Contact the contributor: d.atchoarena@iiep.unesco.org

UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning

Lavinia Gasperini
Sustainable Development Department
Food and Agriculture Organization
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome
Italy

Tel: + 39 06 57056244
Fax: + 39 06 5705 3801
Contact the contributor: Lavinia.Gasperini@fao.org

Food and Agriculture Organization, Sustainable Development Department

Other related links:
'Reflecting on REFLECT: destigmatising literacy ‘drop-outs’'

'Universal literacy: essential for development?'

'Literacy skills – proven pathway out of poverty'

'Women’s literacy programmes improve social and economic development in Nepal'

'Are literacy classes working for women in Mali?'

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