Eradicating Illiteracy through Mother-Tongue Education
by Catherine Macnab (CMacnab@codecan.org)
Program Manager, CODE, Ottawa
"If you can read and write, you can learn to do, and be, anything”. That’s the idea behind
CODE. We work with local organizations in developing countries to empower people to learn. CODE programs support libraries and teacher training as well as national and local book publishing in about 20 languages in Africa and the Caribbean.
We support a literacy program in northern Mozambique where illiteracy rates are among the highest in Africa. While the program is not formally working in the Dialogue Education™ framework, I’m quite certain the philosophy fits. Clearly the program works because of how it taps the affective domain. I can’t imagine what would be more alienating for an adult learner than having to first learn a new language before learning to read and write.
Below is a case study of a literacy teacher I met in September along with a couple photos of adult literacy classes in the program.
At age 20, Nelia defies convention in her northern Mozambique village.
As she strides confidently in front of her class of adult learners (all men, mostly her seniors), she commands their respect as the village literacy teacher.
Nelia was selected by the Village Council and Chief to be hired and trained by Associação Progresso, a non-profit organization, to be the teacher. With her Grade 8 education and solid reputation in the village, she was an obvious choice to take on the role of teaching adults to read and write in Yao, their mother tongue.
Mozambique has a high illiteracy rate inherited from colonial times. At the time of independence in 1975, the country faced an average illiteracy rate of 93%. Since 1999, there have been strong efforts by government and civil society to increase access to education. Nonetheless, the scenario will not change radically in the short term because the breadth of these interventions is not proportional to the size of the problem… and while over 90% of Mozambicans speak one of 16 Bantu mother tongue languages, most education is provided in Portuguese. This is in part because written Bantu languages are not standardized.
As a result, although impressive advances have been made, the illiteracy rate continues to be among the highest in Africa. In Nelia’s province of Niassa, the average illiteracy rate is 62% (79% among women). In Mozambique, as elsewhere, a mother’s level of schooling directly influences the education, health and well-being of her children. For example, children of literate parents are less likely to drop-out of school.
In the late 90’s, with the support of CODE, a Canadian non-profit organization, Associação Progresso began producing learning materials in local languages because they recognized the insurmountable barriers faced by children and adults learning to read and write in a foreign language. Mozambican learners mostly come from oral traditions without printed word.
Instead of ‘ordinary’ challenges of overcoming illiteracy or of learning a second language, learners are simultaneously faced with both sets of challenges. They don’t see their cultural identity or daily realities reflected in the learning experience. This not only reduces the perceived usefulness of the learning, it undermines the confidence, self-esteem and sense of entitlement that learners expect to develop. Often second language teaching is incomprehensible and leaves learners voiceless, leading to frustration and drop-out. Education becomes something for educated people, not something for ordinary people.
Mother-tongue education is changing that. Learners can first capture and express their own identities and realities, and learn new ideas through reading and writing in their own language. Then they can learn Portuguese if they want or need to.
Nelia learned in Portuguese, and as a natural learner and with a father that could read, she was able to stay in school until she got pregnant at age 14. This is not uncommon for girls in Mozambique; it usually ends their school days. Nelia briefly returned to school when her first baby died, but she and her husband soon had a second child that took her out of school. She and her family never expected that she would return to school five years later… as a literacy teacher.
Nelia’s students are farmers who want to learn to read and write their own language – so they can write letters to friends and families, so they can find paid employment that will reduce their reliance on subsistence farming and so they can learn new techniques to be better farmers.
Nelia is grateful for the opportunity presented to her. She is receiving a salary (a rarity for young women in rural villages), and it has renewed her love of learning and her dream for a better life. Nelia plans to return to school to get full training as a teacher so she can help raise the standard of education and quality of life for her people. Her own daughter will be part of the first generation of children in Mozambique to grow up reading and writing in their own language, just like mommy.
Progresso’s work is supported by the
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
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