IN THIS ISSUE (No.10)

 

ARTICLE

 

ADULT LITERACY PROGRAMS IN BISLAMA
by Claire Ngwira

“Why are there so many dropouts from your literacy class?”
“We need glasses – none of us can see to read!”

Introduction
The central focus for my thesis research was implementation of adult literacy projects. Language policies and literacy models were described, discussed and compared with the actual management of two adult literacy projects in Vanuatu, which have been set up by the two non-governmental organisations, World Vision and Baha’i Faith. These two Melanesian literacy projects visited by the
author, unlike most previous donor aid in Vanuatu, were Melanesians training Melanesians in their own locality or village, using Bislama [the local dialect of Melanesian Pidgin] and the vernacular. Called grassroots literacy, such participatory projects may be assuming a paradigm for educational successes. The following review focuses on language policies and language models within a Melanesian context. The conclusion identifies two key factors for successful grassroots literacy provision.

Language Policies
In Melanesia, it is now national policy, either formally or de facto, for pidgins to be the unifying national languages rather than the languages of colonisation (Crowley, 1990:33). In Vanuatu, the official government language policies, drawn up on the eve of independence, made Bislama the new national language; the official languages Bislama, English and French and the principle languages of education English and French (Thomas, 1990:240,241). Papua New Guinea language policy states that each individual has the right to Tok Ples [the indigenous vernacular], a national lingua franca, e.g. Tok Pisin or Hiri Motu and/or English and the medium of education should be English. In the Solomon Islands, however, government policy states that English is to be the national language (Jourdan, 1990:167) following the recommendation made by 1972 British Solomon Islands Protectorate education Conference that English be the language of instruction in schools. Pijin is not mentioned, in spite of its wide use. In fact, vernacular and Pijin are so widely used it became obvious there would be difficulties in implementation. Thus, the following recommendation with regard to the teaching medium in schools is:
Where the teacher finds that children meet difficulties in understanding, he should use the vernacular. When pupils find it difficult to ask questions in English the vernacular can be used again. (BSIP, 1972, cited in Jourdan, 1990:169,170)


Language policies are made with perceived future gains in mind. These can be any combination of personal, social, cultural, religious, economic and political gains, which are variable, according to who the policy makers are and for whom they are making the policy. However, Luke, McHoul and Mey say “language planning can be compared to a linguistic analysis without a social context” (1990:38). To provide a real example of this, in Vanuatu a policy may have been created to have Bislama as the unifying language, but, if Anglophones and Francophones wish to continue their segregation, then no amount of official Bislama unification will prevent them manifesting their separation in spoken Bislama. They will liberally anglicise it or include French in it in some way (Crowley, 1990:20). A broader example is the fact that Melanesian vernaculars and pidgins survived throughout the one hundred and fifty years of English-only, German-only, French-only regulations. R.K. Johnson (1977:459) states: “Pidgin, the real success story amongst the languages of Papua New Guinea, was condemned outright by almost every language planner, who was consulted or who offered an opinion on the subject until very recently. It flourished in spite of them.”

Language of Education
In most schools in Melanesia, the language of education is a colonial language. This means that students are educated in a new language different from their home or community language. Gee (1992:40) explains that to acquire a new discourse involves:

risk in terms of gaining a new identity and possibly losing or undermining old ones; it also involves the vulnerability of “looking incompetent” while engaged in guided participation in the zone between what one can only do with others and what one can do alone...
If the real apprentices do not trust the teachers who will socialise them into the new Discourse, no real development can take place. (Delpit, 1986; 1988, Erikson 1987 cited in J. Gee, 1992:40)


It may be that a village school teacher is able to achieve educational outcomes more successfully using the vernacular or community lingua franca in the classroom rather than the language of the language policy, if it be a colonial language such as English or French. The degree of success for use of different mediums in education may be difficult to analyse, but a conclusion drawn by Gee is that entire education systems perpetuating failures should be examined more closely (1992:41). Humanistic attempts to understand and assist indigenous forms are often, in terms of power, structurally identical with previous attempts to control and eliminate them (Luke, McHoul and Mey, 1990:38). It appears crucial therefore to look carefully at paradigms used when making and implementing policy.

Literacy Models
Historically, literacy has been linked to state formation or nation building - a thread running between people for trade and cultural exchange, urbanisation and economic expansion (Lind & Johnson 1990:39). Those who remain illiterate are often rural groups from multilingual areas, or regionally, without the need to be part of a bigger state or nation (ibid.). This was clearly illustrated in the Melanesian literacy projects visited by the researcher.

Writing used to be for specialists only, with 90% of the world being excluded, but the 14th century invention of the printing press made it technically possible to spread control, or for revolution and freedom. Access to knowledge and proficiency in literacy to more people. From then on, the printed word was used for either power or for literacy has often been linked to particular types of education, for example, religious education or education for war, such as naval training. That models and strategies for literacy have been guided by what appeared to be priorities at the time suggests that aims and objectives of literacy programmes should be examined carefully in relation to the development of emerging new priorities.

The historical process of literacy provision has shown distinct areas of development, starting with Fundamental Education where basic reading and writing skills are taught in no particular context and literacy is seen as a separate entity from the participants’ lives. It employs a top-down approach. Functional Literacy, in an effort to include context, also unwittingly employs a top-down approach, thus, preventing much real growth. It shows evidence of limited success yet continues to be used and reassessed. The Conscientisation Model (Freire) attempts to alter all previously existing paradigms and initiate revolutions in literacy education. This continues to be developed with some success. In 1989, UNESCO issued a call for “Education for All” at the world conference in Jontein, Thailand, and campaigns to remedy the huge percentage of worldwide illiteracy are still in existence.

Frank Laubach was a Christian missionary, focusing on the teaching of literacy. In his classic book "Thirty Years with the Silent Billion", Laubach describes his literacy model in the form of letters home and a fully-detailed personal journal of his thirty years travelling the world, teaching literacy to the “silent billion”. It exists as a most remarkable story of the early mass literacy programmes on a worldwide scale. He constantly reinforced the need to use informal and idiomatic language of high interest and intelligibility in order to retain motivation, stressing how it was crucial that the literacy process be drawn from the learners’ prior knowledge, and, most importantly, be drawn only from their culture. This is illustrated perfectly in the opening paragraphs of the first-ever-printed page of Maranaw, the language of the Moros in the Philippines:
This is the beginning of a story in the Moro language, to be distributed around the four sides of Lake Lanao. All Moros feel delighted because this paper is being started. The leading datos (chiefs) will furnish stories for the newspaper, telling of the famous ancestors of early days, and the events in Mecca and other important places. Our paper will also be helpful for business. It will tell the price of rice, corn, beans, various kinds of cloth and thread, of silk and woven hemp, of lumber, brass, silver and gold articles and betel nuts. (Laubach, 1960:29)


Laubach worked tirelessly to reverse the more commonly accepted practice of imposing the colonial teacher’s knowledge, culture and power on the students, which would have merely been a continuation of the oppressive and tyrannical rule Moros had first from the Spanish and then the Americans (Laubach, 1960:25).

Two Key Factors for Literacy Provision
Current advice on the setting-up of grassroots literacy projects at international/national/local levels includes two key factors, which were strongly evident in the two grassroots projects observed by the researcher in Vanuatu. One is the need to consider the character of the participants, in order to establish ways for them to assume development of their own programmes suitable for their own needs. The other is recognition of the importance of a literacy worker, preferably from within the culture of the participants, to be the intermediary between the literacy provider and the village literacy class.

The intermediary, called “area supervisor” in both the World Vision and Baha’i projects, negotiated with village chiefs when presenting the grassroots approach and its possible advantages. Each village literacy programme gathered momentum largely through the stamina, commitment and dedication of individual area supervisors. They took the process slowly, spending time with the people, learning to fit in with the local customs, and, assisted by the chief, were able to identify potential local teachers who were trained to teach literacy programmes suitable for their particular village. Literacy project management in Port Vila constantly emphasised that “quick-fixes” be avoided – that human resources within the village be sought, rather than buildings and teachers from outside.

Evidence of a gap between the theoretical grassroots model intended for the participants and the actual implementation of the projects was observed in the Vanuatu literacy projects. The grassroots model appeared to be acting within a transition period for ni-Vanuatu – between literacy and illiteracy, and, between the ways of colonial rule and the ways of independence. Ni-Vanuatu had been subject to the European model of formal education, and thus, the methods and approaches used in classes at times reflected practices that might be associated with colonial education. This is not to say that such practices are ineffective or inappropriate. Indeed it is possible that they take on a new significance under changed ownership.

A transition period requires flexibility in the development of the grassroots process, and it is possibly too soon to evaluate the effectiveness of the approaches adopted in such projects until the transition phase is over. For each age, models are developed to cope with the changing perceptions of effective learning. It is always hoped and often believed that the current model is the “right one”. There is a need, however, for literacy models to be constantly reassessed, inasmuch as priority aims identified for literacy models constantly evolve.

The two grassroots adult literacy programmes observed in Melanesia showed distinct elements of success, appearing not to marginalise the participants, rather centralise them and their cultural milieu in a way that growth and direction was derived from the village level rather than from the financial provider or initiator of the programmes. This grassroots model appears to be an emerging and successful model for Vanuatu.

References
BSIP. 1972. British Solomon Islands Protectorate education conference recommendations.

Delpit, L.D. 1986. Skills and other dilemmas of a progressive educator. Harvard Education Review 56(4), 379-385.
Freire, P. & Macedo, D. 1987. Literacy: Reading the Word and the World. Bergin and Garvey Publishers, Inc.
Gee, J. 1992. Socio-cultural approaches to literacy (literacies). Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 12, 31-48.
Johnson, R.K. 1977. Administration and language policy in Papua New Guinea. In S.A. Wurm (Ed.), New Guinea Area Languages and Language Study. Language, Culture, Society, and the Modern World, Fascicle 1.3 (pp.429-459). Canberra: Australian National University (Pacific Linguistic Series C-40).
Jourdan, C. (1990). Solomons Pijin: An unrecognised national language. In R. Baldouf Jr. & A. Luke (Eds.), Language Planning and Education in Australasia and the South Pacific (pp.166-181). Clevedon, Avon: Multilingual Matters.
Laubach, F. 1960. Thirty Years with the Silent Billion. Westwood, NJ: Fleming H. Revell Company.
Lind, A. & Johnson, A. 1990. Adult literacy in the Third World: A review of Objectives and Strategies. Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA), ERIC Microfiche: ED 339819
Luke, A.; McHoul, A.W. & Mey, J.L. 1990. On the limits of language planning: Class, state and power. In R. Baldouf Jr. & A. Luke (Eds.), Language Planning and Education in Australasia and the South Pacific (pp.25-44). Clevedon, Avon: Multilingual Matters.
Thomas, A. 1990. Language Planning in Vanuatu. In R. Baldouf Jr. & A. Luke (Eds.), Language Planning and Education in Australasia and the South Pacific (pp.234-257). Clevedon, Avon: Multilingual Matters.

Claire Ngwira
31 Kelvin Rd
N.E. Valley
Dunedin, NEW ZEALAND
cngwira@olc.ac.nz

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