Parents, educators, government ministers and policymakers in all contexts and countries around the world are concerned with learning and how to improve it. There are many reasons for this, but none is more important than the fact that learning is at the heart of success at the individual, community and global levels. Learning First is the title of…

In Africa, as in many countries of the South, democratization is sometimes perceived as a process modeled upon outside--and specifically Northern--experience. Formal civic education programs in those countries arguably reflect the same bias and have not always been notably successful. Yet there are rich patterns of civic involvement and democratic…

Experiences of developing nations are used to formulate three types of nonformal education: as complement, satisfying needs unfulfilled by the school system; as alternative, using traditional or indigenous learning; and as supplement to the formal system. Nonformal education is analyzed across nations as system, setting, or process. (SK)

The International Extension College (IEC), which exists to make knowledge available to the Third World about distance teaching and its relevance, is discussed. So far most of the work of the IEC has been in Africa. By setting up three colleges, and working with others it has begun to show how distance teaching with the use of print materials,…

Argues that the present crisis of basic education for young people in Africa reveals problems that are more fundamental than enrollments, inputs, and costs. Maintains that non-conventional approaches to learning, associated with non-formal and distance education, have important but distinct contributions to make to the reform of mainstream…

This document describes the development of theater in Africa, over the last 20 years, from a medium of entertainment for the colonial elite to an African theatre, after independence. It describes various approaches to the use of theater as a medium of education and development. Nine chapters in the book concern: (l) background to African drama;…

Although failures have been encountered in the West African cooperative movement, farm cooperatives are an indispensable tool for rural development. They can generate an investment budget at the village level and can provide a stimulating framework for education. The Senegalese farm cooperative movement has experienced a number of problems. Three…

Evidence from Africa points to links that can be established between formal and nonformal education to meet the needs of larger numbers of adults as well as children. (LBH)

From his analysis of the educative process in non-literate societies, taking examples and illustrations from inside and outside Africa, the author concludes the system is effective because there is no lag between what is being taught and the life the learner is living, it is highly individualized, and the teacher is involved and personally…

This collection of core bibliographies, which expands on an initial bibliography published in 1979 of the core resources housed in the Non-Formal Education Information Center at Michigan State University, comprises a basic stock of materials on nonformal education and women in development that have been contributed by development planners,…

Describes a workshop held in Zambia in August 1979, to disseminate among performing artists and rural development workers skills for using the performing arts to communicate information on problems related to agriculture, health, and community development. Over 70 participants from the U.S., Canada, Botswana, Lesotho, Tanzania, Kenya, and Zambia…

While the implementation of adult literacy promotion can best be handled at the national level, some important things can be done at the Southern African Development Co-ordination Conference (SADCC) level. A persuasive argument can be made on behalf of adult literacy in the SADCC development strategy. The people need to be educated in the…

Educational methods used by simpler societies of the world are discussed as appropriate for incorporating into modern, technologically-oriented institutions. It is suggested that traditional, free exploration by children can be merged into the school curriculum, allowing freedom and learning by experimentation with or without the teacher. (LBH)

This report describes the clearinghouse activities of the Non-Formal Education (NFE) Information Center through August 1980 and details efforts, during the projects' second and third biannual periods, to strengthen the capacity of select NFE resource centers in Africa, Aisa, and Latin America. The report first addresses the continued operation of…

Development of the nonformal education program in the country of Mali (Africa), which focuses on the promotion of literacy and functional literacy through the press and radio, is described. (TA)