In order for adult education to be successfully applied in other countries, it is important that an understanding of the people's traditional background and educational attitudes is acquired. A continuing educator must also be a continuing learner. In Africa, education is considered a continuing or recurrent process throughout life serving to…

The Bureau Regional pour L'Education en Afrique (BREDA) survey, published partly in French, assembled data on the activities of adult education institutions in Africa in order to identify and develop future regional documentation centers. This draft copy of the survey is the first step towards improving international collaboration among…

Describes a literacy program in Africa that trains new writers to produce a written literature for their new readers. (AEA)

Literacy in francophone Africa, where literacy is still a privilege, is reviewed in terms of the complex linguistic situation, effects of population change, concepts and definitions of literacy, promotion of literacy in adult nonformal settings (e.g., African language literacy materials, multilingual settings). (23 references) (LB)

Leaders and decision makers in Africa and nations of African diaspora must face a number of challenges in their attempts to further development through literacy: (1) reinvent a concept of African development that is a product of the native genius of Africa and that is rooted in the matrix of indigenous cultural values, realities, and…

Traditional literacy and functional literacy programs in Africa are discussed in their various aspects. Emphasis is given to the practical side of the problems, and some guidelines for action are suggested. The illiteracy rate in Africa is shown to be 50% to 80% of the population. The various methods that have been used to teach reading are…

This guide is designed for facilitators and planners of adult literacy programs in the various countries of Anglophone West Africa, where many individuals have learned literacy in their own community languages but have not developed the English literacy skills required to function effectively in public administration and employment facilities. The…

The main objective of this Handbook is to build the capacities of facilitators and other literacy and non-formal education personnel to promote learning and development at the community level. It aims at developing their skills and knowledge in literacy training, while sensitising them to issues that are at the very heart of adult literacy and…

Literacy trends among Black adults in the Republic of South Africa and in some Black states in southern Africa were determined from data obtained from population census reports from 1946 to 1970. Problems concerning the determination of literacy statistics included differing definitions of literacy and data that were subjective, difficult to…

This annotated bibliography, a project undertaken by graduate students enrolled in a comparative reading course at Northern Illinois University, supplements and updated E. Malmquist's annotated bibliography, "Handbook on Comparative Reading." The bibliography contains 188 annotations drawn from a range of articles, chapters, and texts…

From 1923-60, there was considerable transformation in the content, goal, and method of instruction of traditional adult education in Nigeria. The development of literacy programs, fundamental education, evening classes and continued education, and liberal education and university extension courses are traced. The influences of the British…

Many countries have recently launched massive programs to promote nation-wide adult literacy, but while these efforts have been commendable, it has been observed that neo-literates who acquire literacy through such programs have great difficulty in retaining it; hence an urgent need to develop suitable programs of post-literacy and continuing…

This report contains one man's impressions of the state of adult literacy education in several countries of Africa and in India. The first country reported on is Ethiopia, where signs of a capitalist society were evident in that officially Marxist country, where literacy education was still a priority in the midst of a waning famine. Ethiopia had…

Opening up new perspectives in the study of literacy, this book presents 25 essays that bring together current research findings from linguistics, psychology, sociology, and anthropology. Essays in the book discuss theoretical questions related to the definition and modeling of the construct of functional literacy; the notion of literacy…

In sub-Saharan Africa, aggregate data show that female literacy is associated with higher agricultural productivity and is more strongly correlated than GNP with mortality and immunization rates of young children. A case study of Gambia confirms these relationships, with high female illiteracy apparently impeding both human and economic…