Describes a basic literacy project targeting deprived children in Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India. Considers such program features as the use of 35 slum and public utility centers as sites for teaching basic skills, nutrition, and hygiene; flexible schedules including morning classes for slum children and afternoon and evening classes for working…

Describes a three-day course offered by British consultants to train key education officers and teacher advisor-trainers in Botswana in observational and interaction skills as part of an effort to improve primary education in the country. Details the instructional content of each day of the course devoted to ice-breaker activities, math…

Women's schooling is associated with much of the world's improvement in child survival and maternal and child health since 1960. Evidence for these associations is widely interpreted as representing a causal influence of formal education on health. The relationships of variations in female school attendance at the levels of individuals,…

Planning adult literacy education in developing nations is largely viewed as a technical process reserved for government officials at the Ministry of Education. This empirical study argues that in Botswana, state sponsored adult literacy asserts its hegemony and stifles learner participation and district initiatives. The paper provides an overview…

This document presents the final report of the International Conference on Education, attended by 128 Member States of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, as well as representatives from 9 inter-governmental organizations (INGOs), 36 international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) and one foundation. A total…

This publication presents a series of papers on the role of the university world wide in advancing universal literacy. Chapter 1 looks across the Asian and Pacific Region and shows the large regional disparities which exist in addressing literacy issues at the university level. The second chapter describes the magnitude of illiteracy in the…

Development must offer people not only release from poverty but also social esteem and political freedom. While knowledge production has exploded, its distribution and use is still limited, especially in the Third World. Literacy is the most promising means of bringing information and technology to common people in developing nations. Each country…

Non-Formal Education (NFE) is traditionally defined as any organizational activity outside the established formal education system. In India two major types of NFE exist. The first type is literacy courses, available for students of any age; these are taught in the evenings. The second type is vocational training, which often takes place during…

Around the world, women suffer oppression to various degrees. In the United States, they have a difficult time rising in corporations or having their ideas taken seriously. In some other countries, they are abused and overworked. Some women in Norway are concerned that their country's entrance into the European Community will mean an end to the…

The gap in literacy rates between women and men continually broadens. In 1985, 63 percent of the world's approximately 1,000 million illiterate people were female, compared to 60 percent in 1970 and 58 percent in 1960. A process of social change, including community involvement and mobilization in favor of women's literacy, is needed to sustain…

This document presents proposals for goals and strategies for children and development in the 1990s that were approved by the UNICEF Executive Board in April, 1990. The paper proposes that developing human capabilities and meeting basic human needs should be the focus of the UNICEF contribution to the fourth United Nations developmental decade.…

The objectives of this seminar were to identify problems in evaluating literacy programs and to design a working strategy to confront them. Four presentations included national case studies from Brazil, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Central questions asked concerned who and what were evaluated and how were the results to be used. In Brazil,…

This newsletter begins with an interview with Dr. Nora Quebral, Chairman of the Department of Communication at the University of the Philippines at Los Banos, who discussed the past, present, and future of development communication with staff members John Middleton and Heddy Reid. In "The Future of Computers in Education in the Developing…

Paulo Freire is a Brazilian educator whose theories link educational processes with revolutionary political aims. This report describes attempts by predominantly Latino proponents of his theories to develop "liberating education" (educacion liberadora) in the United States and in Puerto Rico. Section 1 describes the national, political,…

Both Mexico and the United States make use of communications technologies for distance education. In the United States, distance learning programs are plentiful. Most focus on a postsecondary level of learning and are planned and carried out by the individual sponsoring institution. A variety of technologies are used, including educational…