| 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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