Illiteracy and literacy training in Latin America and the Caribbean

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Latin America and the Caribbean Between inertia and a break

with the past

Rosa Maria Torres

Rosa Maria Torres (Ecuador). Educationist and linguist. Professional activity in Nicaragua fl980- 86) and Ecuador, particularly in the adult education sector. Has been engaged in educational research since 1980 and has acted as education adviser in a number of countries. Was Director of Education for the Monse~or LOonidas Proaeo National Literacy Campaign carried out in Ecuador in 1989. Is currently adviser to the National El Ecuador Estudia Programme. Author of many publications on adult education, including: Nicaragua, revoluci6n popular, educaci6n popular (Mexico City, 1985); Edu- caci6n popular: un encuentro con Paulo Freire (Quito, 1986); Alfabetizaci6n popular: difilogo entre 10 experiencias de Centro-am6rica y el Ca- ribe (Quito, 1987); Discurso y prfictica en educa- ci6n popular ('Quito, 1988; Ijut, 1988); Entre la ac- ci6n y la praxis: cr6nica de un proceso de formaci6n de educadores populares (Quito, 1989); E1 nombre de Ramona Cuji. Reportajes de la Cam- pafia Nacional de Alfabetizaci6n 'Monsefior L6o- nidas Proafio' (Quito, 1990).

Whenever reference is made to illiteracy, figures are inevitably quoted and when statistics are placed in the world context it can be said that the Latin American and Caribbean region is, comparatively speaking, the region with the lowest percentage of absolute illiteracy (15.2 per cent). But when considered from within the region itself, this figure has considerable implica- tions in terms of both what it reveals and what it conceals. Behind this aseptic percentage figure we find over 42 million individuals, huge dis- parities from one country to another and between sectors and groups in each country, as well as a general problem whose dimensions have not even been properly measured and which has not been taken fully into account, al- though it is certainly of great magnitude. Func- tional illiteracy - illiteracy that is not reflected in statistics - affects children, young people and adults alike, and has to do not simply with the inefficiency of our education system but with

Prospects, Vol. XX, No. 4, 1990

462 Rosa Maria Torres

the lack of coherence and continuity in adult literacy training action.

The possibility of achieving the target of a literate world by the year 2000 has melted away. Re- cent estimates in respect of Latin America and the Caribbean show that the region will probably reach the end of the century with an absolute illiteracy rate of 11 per cent which would still mean some 40 million persons aged 15 years and over (Schiefelbein et al., 1989). Other authors point out that if current trends are not reversed 'not only will progress be stopped in many countries, but also the number of illiterates will increase in an alarming manner' (Cfirceles, 1990).

We are familiar with the argument that UN- ESCO's forecasts were too optimistic, based as they were on the growing school enrolment trend of the 1970s. However, this explanation does not give us the whole story: clearly there has been failure in quantitative, and in qualita- tive terms as well, to provide what was needed to ensure the rate of progress expected. At all events, everything indicates that no attempt is now being made to force events (or statistics) in order to achieve an impossible target, much less to fix new targets in a void. It is now time to give serious attention to the task of planning a strategy based on an evaluation of what has been done so far, on a diagnosis underpinned by updated, reliable information and, of course, on a political will capable of ensuring the viability of this strategy. The purpose of underscoring these terms, so well worn in the usual jargon on the subject, is to highlight the fact that, far from being established procedures, these are crucial and complex issues on whose solution the possibility of headway in this area largely depends.

Indicators of inertia

In the context of a world in crisis - and on the assumption that this is the region which has been most affected by that crisis - UNESCO considers that there has been encouraging progress in education during the past decade, which coincides with the first ten years of the Major Project in the

Field of Education in the Latin American and Caribbean Region, with its three major objectives: universal primary schooling, universal literacy and improved quality in education. Achievements include, more especially, the expansion of pre-primary education, virtually universal access to basic education and progress in overcoming absolute illiteracy, largely as a result of the increase in rates of access to primary schooling (Schiefelbein et al., 1989).

This region is widely known for its long and productive record of adult education, a field of action which has generated movements for the renewal of education with considerable reper- cussions, such as those that marked the 1960s and the early 1970s in regard to 'liberating education' and the initial approach of Paulo Freire. The current 'popular education' movement, reflecting a dialectical process of continuity and breakaway from such approaches, can be summed up today as a fresh search, urged on by a situation that clearly indicates the need to ad- vance beyond theory and practice which have begun to show signs of stagnation and inertia)

One crucial issue has been the absence of links - conceptual and operational - between the three major project objectives, fostered by the declaration itself of three separate objectives. The tendency has been, in fact, to tackle literacy training essentially as the literacy training of adults and to regard this as a closed universe, un- connected with basic schooling and the improvement of quality in education. All this has made it difficult to arrive at a comprehensive approach in which lack of access to schooling and poor school performance are regarded as fundamental dimensions of illiteracy. A further crucial factor - standing out in the world context as highly characteristic of this region - has been the lack of continuity of operations, closely relat- ed to successive changes of government.

Happily the triumphalist spirit and the facile schemes for the elimination of illiteracy have begun to give ground. It is, in fact, this Latin American record of literacy training and its results that show us that the problem has to be tackled with much greater earnestness, competence and discipline than in the past, by bringing

Illiteracy and literacy training in Latin America and the Caribbean:

between inertia and a break with the past 463

together words and deeds, theory and practice, quantity and quality, ideology and pedagogy, political will and technical know-how within a sys- temic, all-embracing strategic conception which will discard short-term solutions, isolated operations and stop-gap measures that have tended to predominate. All this has seriously impaired our understanding of the problem and of the ways and means of overcoming it and has, rather, helped to distort and oversimplify the phenom- enon of illiteracy and the literacy training process, as reflected in, among other things, the reduction of the problem to a question of numbers and indicators describing the effects of a phe- nomenon whose mechanisms continue to function, fundamentally, without any attempt to ex- amine them critically and minutely.

Breaking away from the past -

the cha l l enges

A MORE EFFECTIVE RE-APPRAISAL AND

CONCEPTUALIZATION OF THE PROBLEM AREA

The vagueness and ambiguity surrounding the very concepts of illiteracy and literacy training have given rise to a number of problems including the proliferation of terms (often superim- posed, or partially so) to describe the various levels or stages that intervene in the illiteracy to literacy process, such as 'absolute illiteracy', 'basic illiteracy', 'relapse into illiteracy', 'illiteracy through disuse', 'functional illiteracy' or 'illiterate', 'semi-illiterate', 'semi-literate' and 'newly literate'. There are also the difficulties in com- paring data at the international level, having regard to the wide range of criteria applied in defining 'illiterate' and 'literate' and the various categories covered in the definition (age bracket, inclusion or not of arithmetic, level of reading and writing skills, and even the number of years of schooling).

This lack of precision has lent force to current reductionist ideas concerning the notions of illiteracy and literacy which are closely associated with: The adult world (the illiterate is someone aged

15 years and over; reference is never made to the illiterate child).

The category of absolute or basic illiteracy (the illiterate is recognized as such on his or her own declaration and this is, in turn, associated with a total absence of schooling).

The educational milieu or, more precisely, that of instruction (illiteracy being associated with a lack of, or deficient instruction, bound up in turn with the question of schooling in the same way that literacy is automatically associated with school attendance.

The non-formal education domain (the term literacy training usually being confined to activities distinct from those of the formal education programme and are even organized outside the established school system).

All these reductionist ideas form part of general thinking concerning the problem and are shared and applied by planners and high-level management officials. They constitute an undercurrent, reflecting unsolved conceptual and operational problems and reproducing false conceptions. Re- ducing the issue to one that concerns adults only shows the very real difficulty in facing the fact that illiteracy is a problem rooted in the education of children and is linked with inadequate access to primary schooling and its poor quality. This, together with the reductionist theory concerning lack of schooling, helps us to understand reluc- tance to accept the idea that an individual who has attended school may not be able to read and write while another who has never been to school may possess 'knowledge' (particular, or general). The mystification of the formal educational apparatus in the sense of its being the only legitimate source of learning makes it difficult to understand the vast problem of illiteracy and, more especially, the question of functional illiteracy, the potential knowledge of the illiterate and the ignorance of the literate, the very real possibility of learning outside school and of not learning within it. Simi- larly, the reduction of the problem to shortcomings in instruction is consistent with the effective dismissal of aspects not connected with instruction in explaining illiteracy and dealing with literacy training, one and the other tending to become separated from their broader context.


The acquiring of literacy skills, reduced to the category of 'adult literacy training', has been virtually left to adult educators. At government level this has generally meant turning the problem and its solution over to departments of adult education and literacy work which traditionally occupy a marginal place in the organizational structure and functioning of ministries of education, lack material and economic resources and are staffed by bureaucrats showing little dedication. 2

TAKING QUALITY INTO ACCOUNT

The fact that illiteracy has been defined in relation to the length of schooling, without regard for the quality of the education, has meant that two aspects closely connected with the subject of quality have been excluded: poor school performance and functional illiteracy.

In the context of literacy training, the quantitative approach - a conspicuous feature of the education sector - has developed its own logic bringing a number of familiar evils in its wake: the use of statistics for political ends, lack of discipline in measuring and handling statistics, the scramble to record higher and higher numbers as conclusive evidence of results, the reduction of evaluation to the counting of heads, the ultimate conversion of complex, vigorous experiments into quantitative indicators. Illiterates become numbers to be added or subtracted, while drop-out is regarded simply as an obstacle to the achievement of targets rather than a social phe- nomenon that needs to be explained and tackled. The ability to read and write becomes a piece of statistical information of the 'yes' or 'no ' kind, instead of reflecting a long learning process that implies stages and different levels. It becomes more important to see by how much the illiteracy rate has decreased than to know if the 'added' or 'subtracted' individuals have learned any- thing, what they have learned, and for what purpose it will serve them.

However, we often find that difficulties read- ily ascribed to lack of resources (funding, person- nel, time, premises, vehicles, teachers, pupils,

educational materials, etc.) relate, in the final analysis to questions of quality: the competence of the human resources, the quality of teaching materials, teacher education, methods and content, evaluation systems, political will, technical capacity and advisory services, planning and evaluation, and so on.

The question of quality is a particularly crucial one as far as human resources are concerned and at the present time constitutes the main obstacle to any possibility of headway - from the highest levels right down to the base. The decline in the calibre of the teaching corps is a phe- nomenon that is affecting - in different ways but to an increasing extent - the region as a whole. Recent estimates put the average primary-school repetition rate at 20 per cent, while observing that in most countries this is an underestimate. Repetition is concentrated in the first grade (between 40 and 50 per cent) (Schiefelbein et al., 1989), thus confirming the crucial importance of the acquisition of reading and writing skills in relation to poor school performance. Teacher education, quite conclusively, has a priority role to play in remedying this situation. The training of primary teachers for the formal system is of key importance, moreover, for this is one of the priority sectors traditionally called upon to tackle the adult iiteracy training task. In the light of this task, furthermore, the whole of the unimagina- tive teacher training schemes currently in force must be thought out again and their scope broadened so that they may move towards a genuine training strategy that will be something more than isolated, stop-gap measures, purely technical or methodological aspects, or the un- productive repetition of theories and ideologies that have outlived their usefulness.

BRINGING THE TEACHING ASPECT AND ITS

SPECIFIC ROLE BACK INTO THE PICTURE

Because the question of illiteracy and literacy training has tended to acquire a fundamentally political and ideological dimension, the fact of its being a specific field for the application of

Illiteracy and literacy training in Latin America and the Caribbean: between inertia and a break with the past

465

teaching methods has been lost sight of. While the subject of the 'method' and discussion surrounding it have dominated the development of literacy work in the region, such discussion has simply reproduced a dialogue of the deaf, which, to a large extent, has distracted attention from the specifically teaching aspect. The teaching of reading and writing has remained firmly at- tached to old ideas, methods and techniques, all of which have helped to hamper an intelligent grasp of reading and writing skills, the basis of all genuine literacy. The considerable research carried out among children shows the need for an absolute revolution in methods of teaching reading and writing, in the context of a fresh understanding of what is signified by the process of acquiring the written language, its social and cultural uses, and its educational, psychological and linguistic bases.

THE NEED FOR DIAGNOSIS, PLANNING AND

EVALUATION

Evaluation, along with research and specializa- tion, is a rare procedure and even runs counter to normal practice in this area. Officialdom and politicians want statistics, not explanations. Evaluation is usually a matter of the conviction and struggle of technical specialists who are often faced by the fact that there is no assessment of results, awareness of the social needs they imply or assumption of responsibility concerning them. As regards the acquisition of reading and writing skills, both at school and in programmes for adults, governmental and non-governmental reports alike ascribe difficulties to fi- nancial constraints and external factors or even to the potential beneficiaries of the courses themselves, on whom the blame is laid for exclu- sion or failure.

Evaluation of the results of the learning process is conspicuous by its absence. The information presented at the close of adult literacy campaigns and programmes usually consists of the initial statistics (enrolment figures), thus avoiding the issue of drop-out (generally between 30

and 50 per cent) and counting as 'literate' simply anyone who has completed the reader or taken part in the programme. The same could be said of the school, the main source of the functional illiterates who, statistically, are non-existent.

The poor reliability of information on illiteracy - looming ever larger as a world problem - ranges in this region from inadequate measure- ment techniques and procedures to the lack of accuracy, and even distortion for political ends, in compiling statistics. All this takes place within a context marked by a lack of objective evaluation of the literacy training activities undertaken and of the 'success story' that usually ac- companies them.

The building up of relevant, reliable information is, then, a condition at the very outset, for it governs efficient planning. This does not simply apply to the statistical side and traditional indicators, but to many other aspects where, in- deed, a start needs to be made in conducting specific studies on language and ethnic questions and issues of a cultural, economic, social, organizational and political nature, which intersect with certain regions, sectors and groups, and must be approached from such fundamental standpoints as motivations and expectations linked with literacy training, all of which tend to be overlooked when diagnosis and planning procedures are undertaken. Such procedures are often based on aggregate figures, suppositions and intuition rather than objective facts.

The rigorous, critical assessment of what has been done so far forms part of an essential requirement and is a joint task. It means that specific procedures and mechanisms must begin to be set up for the purpose of assessing processes, results and impact, an appraisal that will comply with the ultimate function and objective of every evaluation exercise the assumption of responsibility vis-a-vis results, implying not merely their wide dissemination but their use as feedback for future activities.


Towards a systematic conception and an integral strategy

The poor conceptualization typical of this domain and its theoretical and practical delimita- tion, coupled with its traditional lines of empha- sis and bias, have made it difficult to achieve unity of understanding and action, and have fostered arbitrary divisions where links should ex- ist, and false options where there is no room for choice.

Firm political resolve can achieve little in the absence of a qualified, dedicated team of individuals capable of turning such political will to account and of guiding it. A well-thought-out and soundly constructed education strategy counts for little if there is no efficient organizational and administrative apparatus to support it; neither can it serve any purpose without an effective, coherent communication policy which should be linked to a dynamic, creative and mobilizing strategy instead of seeking a basis in the arid, rig- id aspects of the educational content and methods being proposed. However well designed teaching materials may be, they cannot remedy the shortcomings of poor teacher education. Ma- jor and minor disasters everywhere, at the lowest and the highest levels, usually stem from the weaknesses inherent in superficial, incomplete and unreliable information and unsystematic, or even non-existent, planning.

What kind of pyrrhic victories are those that can be counted among literacy training programmes and campaigns which end without ensuring any continuation beyond elementary levels of instruction which could be achieved through ad hoc operations? Separating literacy training from post-literacy work and basic education is as absurd and harmful as separating the question of adult illiteracy from child illiteracy and from the school system, or the universal provision of education from the question of quality.

For some time now the question of priorities has been receiving attention. The very context of economic crisis has reaffirmed the old theory that priority should be assigned to the education

of children which, in turn, has weakened the thrust and legitimacy of adult literacy training. There is, of course, no intention of abandoning adult literacy training but, rather, of giving it a new look and a new dimension, assigning it a re- medial role and a complementary function in relation to primary schooling, while avoiding the illusions of the past when adult literacy programmes and campaigns were regarded as the key to the eradication of illiteracy. At the same time, the importance of the state school as the principal literacy training institution and the growing internal differentiation in the education system that has been accentuating differences of quality between state and private education (Te- desco, 1990), clearly indicate that priority should be assigned to the former. Furthermore, the concentration of adult illiteracy in certain countries (Brazil accounts for close on 50 per cent; the Do- minican Republic, E1 Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Haiti have higher rates than the regional average), in particular geographic zones (rural and marginal urban areas), social sectors (rural and indigenous groups, women) and age- brackets (over 40 years) demonstrates objectively the need to focus efforts and give priority to target populations.

Due partly to lack of understanding - or even refutation - of the functional illiteracy problem, a gradualist approach has become established, the proposal being that absolute illiteracy should be tackled first of all and functional illiteracy left until a later date. Everything points to the need to revise this approach, which in fact reflects the idea of 'quantity before quality'. In most countries in the region absolute illiteracy has dropped to tolerable proportions while estimates show that functional illiteracy has increased considerably, as a result not only of outdated teaching methods and the decline of teaching competence, but also 6f the powerful impact and perva- sive influence of the mass media, above all tele- vision.

A careful choice of priorities means a greater demand for reliable information. More than one adult literacy programme has proposed assigning priority to rural zones when there is an unsuspect- ed concentration of illiteracy in urban areas; oth-

Illiteracy and literacy training in Latin America and the Caribbean: between inertia and a break with the past

467

ers have drawn up a bilingual programme for indigenous populations which have preferred programmes in the official language, or have given priority status to certain age-groups which, in the final analysis, have not been those most in- terested in the training proposed, or, again, have prepared specific courses for women in places where there is a high female literacy rate, thus seriously hampering the effective involvement of women in training schemes, and so on.

Special attention to the question of the indigenous population is a fundamental requirement, having regard to the fact that a large number of countries in the region have a variety of ethnic groups, languages and cultures within their fron- tiers, particularly Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru. This situation demands not only political will but sounder, more coherent scientific and technical knowledge concerning the problem. The relevance of ethnic, cultural and language considerations, furthermore, is not confined to the indigenous context. Ideological and cultural barriers which hamper education work, and literacy training more especially - rac- ism and machismo in particular - are entrenched in a profound ignorance of basic cultural and linguistic questions, which should, in fact, be in- cluded in every teacher education syllabus and widely discussed in the whole social context.

Rank-ordering does not, in fact, mean opting for dispersed, local activities. One of the comparative advantages of the mass literacy campaign method - one which foreshadows to a large extent the potential success and impact of such campaigns - is precisely the possibiity of situat- ing the theme and the activities involved in the framework of a national movement, which will continue beyond the limits of the campaign and the actors directly participating in it. The changes required to make a strategy for overcoming illiteracy work imply profound educational and social transformations which can only come about if there is awareness, information and discussion. This means that not only are internal changes in the educational process called for but that there must be changes in attitudes, values and practices if proposals for the renewal of education are to be accepted and win support.

Just as women's liberation cannot be regarded as something relating exclusively to women, or the intercultural question as affecting only the indigenous population, so illiteracy and literacy training do not concern illiterates alone. The aim of socially productive literacy training is not achieved simply by intervening in classroom teaching procedures or handing out vast quanti- ties of reading materials to newly literate adults, but by the collective reappraisal of the learning and study process and by the rediscovery of the social function of reading and writing in the context of society as a whole and the entire education system.

The 'fronts' which have to be tackled are many and varied. There are at the same time many objective and subjective limitations, both human and material, in this operation. In the face of the magnitude of the problem there are two basic positions: there are those who think that we have to await the revolution in order to ensure the universal provision of education and achieve a profound change in the alignment, content and methods of education; there are also those who, invoking a convenient kind of prag- matism, consider that ambitious targets should be avoided, feet should be kept firmly on the ground, progress should be made by stages and that we should take our time. Both positions, at all events, reflect the same 'do-nothing' policy.

It is a positive development when objectives and targets are ambitious, provided that they are tackled responsibly. A realistic, down-to-earth approach is often no more than a smokescreen for facile solutions, vicious circles and inertia. It is imperative that objectives and targets be more ambitious and involve a greater degree of responsibility than in the past, for there is no time to be lost. The expansion of school enrolment is now tending to be reversed (Cfirceles, 1990). The decline in the quality of education in the region is obvious and is increasing; it is very graphically expressed in repetition and under-achievement rates to the extent that it can be maintained that 'Latin America is today the region with the highest repetition rates' (Tedesco, 1990, p. 6). If drastic measures are not taken to change this trend, the year 2000 will find us with not only


higher absolute and functional literacy rates, but with very much more alarming education indicators than those today and with a considerably greater scientific, technological and cultural gap separating us from the developed world.

The recently launched 'Education for All' world strategy has established a new frame of reference in which to situate the literacy training struggle. It has a dynamic, catalytic function in so far as it gives a fresh status and impetus to education, arousing awareness and mustering resources, reshaping plans, linking quality and quantity, access and effective learning and mak- ing the latter the linchpin and principal criterion of the educational process. This new context, in which the priority status of basic education finds a central place, is helping to restore its real dimension to literacy training, defining it not as a target in itself, but as something that it really is: an essential component of all basic education, just one of the specific dimensions of the educational process which has been arbitrarily divided into literacy training plus all the rest.

Building up a new political will

If illiteracy is the manifestation of an unjust society and an 61itist, inefficient education system, then the struggle to achieve literacy implies a commitment to profound social and educational change with far-reaching consequences. To speak of 'political will' means, then, the resolve to ensure change so as to bring about a sub- stantial improvement in education and a sub- stantial improvement in the living conditions of the people.

In a region characterized by a history of dis- continuity concerning education projects and activities, which are affected by instability, short- term solutions and vote-catching ploys so typical of the political scene in Latin America, 'political will' means the capacity to promote and achieve a concerted national approach in regard to the education objective, surmounting the problem of successive changes of government, party and ideological differences, and looking towards a

common aim in terms of region, nation and people. This 'political will', which has to be built up, involves not simply leaders or professional polkic- ians but society itself, its organizations and in- stitutions, without whose full support and active participation change cannot be contemplated.

To undertake the structural reform of education that Latin American countries need, to train human resources at every level, to build up expe- rience and knowledge, to ensure the general in- troduction and consolidation or processes that are something more than isolated experiments or pi- lot projects, to improve planning, management and evaluation procedures in significant terms - all these measures require a new kind of interrela- tionship between the political and the technical sectors, effective machinery for co-ordination between the state and civil society, and political commitment that will transcend electoral calcula- tion or advantages in the short term. �9

Notes 1. A more detailed analysis of this subject has been developed

by the author in previous studies. See, more especially: Edu- caci6n popular: un encuentro con Paulo Freire (1986), Dis- curso y prfictica en educaci6n popular (1988) and Alfabetiza- ci6n de adultos en America Latina: problemas y tareas (1990).

2. Because of this, it frequently happens that organizations that are independent of ministries of education or ad hoc bodies are set up in order to carry out adult literacy training programmes and campaigns, the aim being to ensure operational effectiveness and rapid action.

References CARCELES, G. 1990. World Literacy Prospects at the Turn of

the Century: Is the Objective of Literacy for All by the Year 2000 Statistically Plausible? Comparative Education Review, VoL 34, No. 1, February.

SCItIEFELBEIN, E.; TEDESCO, J. C.; RUIZ DE LIRA, R.; PERUZZI, S. I989. Primary Schooling and Illiteracy in Latin America and the Caribbean: 1980-1987. Bulletin of the Major Project in Latin America and the Caribbean (Santiago, UNESCO- OREALC), No. 20, December.

TEDESCO, J. C. 1990. Estrategias de desarroUo y educaci6n: el de- safio de la gesti6n pf~blica. Santiago, UNESCO/OREALC, September. (Mimeo.)

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Illiteracy and literacy training in Latin America and the Caribbean