Numerous projects and programmes for adult literacy have been undertaken in developing countries in the past years, so it comes as no surprise that the fundamental problems and the global statistics on literacy have not changed even slightly in a country like South Africa. The present study examines the elearning readiness of adult facilitators…

Background: Political and economic upheavals in the current millennium globally have displaced millions of people, making cross-border and forced migration a reality. Many refugees are forced out of their countries and flee to other countries to find new languages with which they are not familiar. South Africa as a signatory to the 1954 UN…

In combating pandemics, more can be gained by changing citizens' behaviours than by relying solely on the medical route. In the current COVID-19 pandemic, the struggle to contain the outbreak and push back new infection figures will ultimately be won by training citizens how to avoid creating secondary transmission chains. The COVID-19 pandemic…

Education is a major tool for development and equalizer. This somewhat accounts for the quest for education, at various levels, including adults who were unable to attain an education degree earlier in life. Thus, Adult Education and Training (AET) programmes are established in different community centres to promote adult literacy in different…

In this article we offer a discussion around our academic-practitioner involvements with one another and with a targeted community, in relation to a particular project. In the title of the article, we have hyphenated the term "academic-practitioner" to render fuzzy the distinction between "academic" roles (associated with…

This article is based on our two narratives through which we explore how Freirean thought had an impact on our respective praxis as academic activists in apartheid South Africa. We reflect specifically on the influence the work of Freire had on informing and advancing our respective struggles against apartheid education. This article therefore…

In this article we explicate our way of assessing the South African Kha Ri Gude Mass Literacy Campaign, and in particular its impact in the Eastern Cape. We provide an account primarily of focus group sessions conducted in 2013 and again in 2014 with volunteer educators and past learners in the campaign. We concentrate on the way in which…

In this article, we locate the "Kha Ri Gude" South African Mass Literacy Campaign within the context of the problem of illiteracy and exclusion in South Africa, while concentrating on various post-apartheid initiatives designed to give visually challenged adults the opportunity to become literate. We shall provide a detailed account of…

The UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) has published a second edition of "Harnessing the Potential of ICTs: Literacy and Numeracy Programmes Using Radio, TV, Mobile Phones, Tablets and Computers." This compilation of case studies from all world regions presents promising literacy and numeracy programmes that use information and…

The UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) has just published its fifth policy brief, entitled "Making Large-Scale Literacy Campaigns and Programmes Work." The brief provides policymakers with a set of recommendations based on an analysis of adult literacy campaigns and programmes that took place around the world between 2000 and…

This compilation includes programmes which promote language and culture as resources and see them as an added value rather than a challenge for literacy teaching and learning. It also includes programmes designed to support migrants and refugees by equipping them for integration into mainstream society while strengthening their literacy skills in…

After many previous failed attempts to reach illiterate adults, the award-winning South African "Kha Ri Gude" mass literacy campaign, launched in 2008, undertook to ensure that learners seized the opportunity to learn--for many adults, this was a "last chance". Written from an insider perspective by the campaign's founding…

This article describes experiences of an adult educator (Kofi Quan-Baffour) at the University of South Africa, 1995 to 2009, teaching tutorial classes to train teachers who, in turn, would offer adult literacy classes/sessions (in relation to adult basic education and training [ABET] policies initiated post-1994). The article aims to make a…

Adult literacy is a crucial element of community and economic development in South Africa and many developing countries striving to meet Millennium Development Goals. However, few governments invest the recommended 6% of education budgets on programmes for adults. Without resources, volunteer educators and international supporters rely on their…

The paper analyses the status and characteristics of adult literacy campaigns and programmes since 2000. Global trends are analysed in terms of the ten key aspects of the suggested framework for successful literacy campaigns and programmes. Four case studies on major literacy campaigns in Brazil, India, South Africa and Indonesia are used to…