N Pandor: Project Literacy’s Celebrating Partnerships lunch

26 June 2006

PARTNERSHIPS AND THE CHALLENGE OF ILLITERACY IN SOUTH AFRICA

Mr Andrew Miller and Ms Ruda Landman,
Distinguished guests;

Good afternoon to you all.

Last week world leaders gathered in Johannesburg to discuss the challenges
of global leadership in an African context.

Jesse Jackson opened proceedings with the words; “South Africa has gone from
disgrace to dignity. Today South Africa is a metaphor of hope. Because you have
this massive transformation from ashes to beauty, South Africans are credible
as a people, you speak with moral authority around the world.”

A metaphor of hope to many in the world, yes, but there are many in South
Africa who have been unable to share in that hope for the future because they
are unable to read and write.

We continue to face the challenge of offering opportunities for literacy to
all who desire such opportunity. In my 2004 budget speech, I committed myself
to working with all Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) stakeholders and
to consolidating government interventions to tackle illiteracy.

A ministerial committee was created to assist the Department in determining
the most appropriate responses.

Last week the committee submitted their report to me, a report that
contained a plan to eradicate illiteracy and I quote, “to free the potential of
our people.”

I am still studying the report and will report on our response soon.

One conviction that is a constant is that our country must do all it can to
ensure effective, efficient, responsive, literacy programmes. Project literacy
and several organisations have been leaders in the field and I am sure we will
draw on these strengths as we map our strategy.

Studies on literacy show that the needs and interests of learners in this
sector are varied; thus we need to develop flexible programmes curricula and
learning tools. We need to have programmes for the urban dweller and others for
rural based students; programmes that are village based and others that are
city based.

Essentially what we need to do is ensure we do not need to set up a
ministerial task team again in 2009. The time has come to tackle illiteracy
head on and with committed speed. I have indicated my view that partnerships
are vital if we are to succeed. I hope the partners gathered here will be ready
to play a role once we have an agreed plan.

The ministerial committee’s report starkly sets out the challenges.
Currently there are in South Africa, according to the report, about 4,7 million
total illiterates (who have never been to school) and another 4,9 million
adults who are functionally illiterate (who dropped out of school before grade
seven).

The provinces most affected by illiteracy are KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape
and Limpopo. For example, KwaZulu-Natal has 1,1 million adults with no
schooling and another one million who are functionally illiterate. Some 19
municipalities have over 100 000 adults with no schooling. The most affected
language groups are isiZulu, isiXhosa and sePedi. The distribution of
illiterate adults who are disabled follows a similar pattern. Sex
differentiation is not as skewed although in 2001 women represented 60 percent
of the unschooled.

Project literacy and its partners know the scale of the problem. I look
forward to our work together in confronting it directly and in overcoming the
legacy of inadequate access to educational opportunity.

I have been particularly impressed by the Cuban education system. I paid
Cuba a visit last year and have first hand experience of their schools. Not
only did Cuba develop a successful plan for tackling illiteracy, but Cuba now
has an enviable record of learner achievement it outscores every Latin American
country in international assessments and according to UNESCO many European and
Asian ones as well. Illiteracy and schooling are obviously connected. If
parents are literate, then there is better support for schooling in the home.
Part of the explanation for South Africa’s limited learner attainment,
particularly in rural areas lies in our high levels of adult illiteracy.

A new book by Martin Carnoy, Cuba’s Academic Advantage (2006), goes some way
towards explaining why Cuba has been so successful. We need to learn from these
developing countries where pupils in rural areas learn more than pupils from
middle class urban families in other developing countries.

The committee studied Cuba and the export of its literacy programme to other
countries, notably Venezuela and New Zealand. The most important thing the
committee learned from the Cuban model was the importance of mobilising all
spheres and all sectors of government in order to succeed.

The committee was also required to consider the Brazilian national literacy
campaign that in the period 1997 to 2003 reached four million youth and adults
in Brazil, a plan that received a number of UNESCO and other international
awards for its work.

The Brazilian model is a partnership model. Partners fund learners
individually or in groups, municipalities provide implementation locations and
370 higher education institutions select and train educators. These higher
education institutions are free to choose whatever theories and literacy
methods they wish to use provided they remain within the philosophical
framework provided by the plan.

So partnerships at all levels of government and society are the way to
proceed.

That is what the ministerial committee has observed in those countries that
have waged successful literacy campaigns.

It is clear that the challenges in literacy and adult basic education and
training are not intractable. The challenges have been overcome in Brazil, in
Venezuela, in India and in Cuba. And they can be overcome here.

In closing, I would like to thank project literacy for its contribution to
the cause of adult literacy in its 32 years of existence.

I hope that you will continue to form the backbone of our literacy project
and that you will continue to sustain the partnerships that you have developed
over those years.

Thank you!

Issued by: Ministry of Education
26 June 2006