Human Development 9 8 HsXONAL B,& u- ury2 .i2 Findings reports on ongoing operational, economic, and sector work carried out by the World Bank and its member governments in the Africa Region. It is published periodically by the |WORLD BANK Knowledge and Leaming Center on behalf of the FRegion. The views expressed in Findings are those of the author/s and should not be attributed 1u the World Bank Group. Educating Adults in UJganda: Findings and Signals his article summarizes a 1999 * In comparison with non-literates, T evaluation of adult literacy (a) what knowledge of "functional" programs in Uganda. The topics do they exhibit; (b) what main program was the Government are their attitudes to the "func- U w of Uganda's "Functional Adult Lit- tional" topics; and (c) to what ex- F 4 ]eracy Program" (FAL), launched in tent do they put into practice 1992 and in 1999 active in 26 of what they have learned? 45 districts. In addition, a number * As several approaches to teach- of programs run by non-govern- ing literacy are current, which is .0 mental organizations (NGOS) were the most effective and what are the also evaluated. comparative costs? In particular, W The evaluation looked at the how does t:he REFLECT (Revised longer term outcomes of these pro- Freirean Literary Education and - w grams, not their processes or im- Communication Technique) ap- mediate results. It drew a nation- proach compare with the others? wide sample of 800 literacy gradu- U ates, along with smaller samples of non-literate people, pupils from What did the evaluation find? W Primary Grades 3 and 4, literacy instructors and local leaders and The following section simply reports officials. For adult education, this the main findings of the evaluation. was an exceptionally large and 1St Question: How well do adults, U - comprehensive effort. who successfully complete a lit- eracy course, remember how to -read, write and calculate? Note that What questions did the evaluators nearly three-quarters of the - address? sampled literacy graduates had m been to primary school. Indeed, The evaluation asked four main more than one-third had had be- questions: tween five and eight years of pri- * How well do adults, who success- nary schooling. Charts 1 to 3 lay fully complete a literacy course, out the percentages of correct re- * remember how to read, write and sponses fromi the total adult calculate? sample, three sub-groups of the * To what extent do they use their sample and the Primary Grade 4 skills? pupils (as expected, the Grade 4 pupils outperformed the Grade 3 pupils on all thie tests). Evidently, even the adults with graduates and non-literates tended Summary of signals no schooling did better than the to express modern attitudes than Grade 4 pupils in comprehension actually to adopt modern practices. In summary, the Uganda evalua- and calculation. However, in writ- That is, knowledge and attitudes tion has left some questions open, ing, the Grade 4 pupils on average did not automatically translate into but confirmed some signals from did better than the adult groups. practices. elsewhere in the world. The first 2nd Question: To what extent do 4th Question: As several ap- question left open is the treatment the graduates use their skills? proaches to teaching literacy are of the literacy instructors. The FAL Eighty percent of the sampled current, which is the most effec- instructors were all unpaid volun- graduates reported that they used tive and what are the comparative teers, whereas those of the NGOS re- and valued their new skills and costs? In particular, how does the ceived regular honoraria The FAL knowledge. Sixty percent reported REFLECT1 approach compare with the facilitators had had on average less involvement in income generating others? As it turned out, the evalu- schooling, less initial training, no activities connected with their ators were able to compare only a refresher training and little super- classes and skills, and claimed that few FAL and REFLECT groups, so that visory support. Yet their graduates their lives had improved as a re- the findings could be classed only did as well as those in the other sult. The 20 percent, who reported as tentative. programs on the tests of literacy little or no use of their skills, felt REFLECT seemed more effective skillsandinresponsestoquestions they had not attained a sufficient with participants with schooling, on information, attitudes and prac- level of skill. while FAL appeared more effective tices, The uncertainty that this As for their aspirations for future with non-literate adults. In knowl- engenders about what might be the learning, nearly half the graduates edge, attitudes and practices, there wisest policy for facilitators is re- wanted to learn English. Other de- appeared to be no difference be- flected in the conflicting experi- sires each accounted for only small tween FAL and REFLECT participants. ences elsewhere in the world. proportions of the respondents. Finally, what were the costs of the The second open question is the 3rd Question: In comparison with programs?Taking into account the balanatonal cught an a adults who are not literate, (a) what well-known difficulties and cau- general national curriculum and an knowledge of "functional" topics do tions in calculating the costs of array of curricula tailored to suit literacy graduates exhibit; (b) what adult education programs, the es- different interest groups FAL offers are their attitudes to the 'func- timates suggest that to produce one a general, national curriculum, tional" topics; and (c) to what ex- successful graduate: from immediately local situations. tent do they put into practice what FAL required US$4-$5 The evaluation found them appar- they have learned? The data REFLECT required US$12 -$15 ently equally effective. showed that on all three aspects, SOCADIDO required US$20; The third open question is rela- the literacy graduates did indeed Primary school 4 Tefficacy of the various instruc- do somewhat better than the non- required: US$60 per pupil tive literates. However, on one-third of completing Pri- tional methods on offer. Examin- the questions, the graduates did mary 4 in four ing only the approaches of FAL and onlyalittlebetter,whichsuggested yearsREFLECT, the evaluation could not only a little better, which suggested years judge either program more or less that a portion of the curriculum judge ei the ogr. The or was imparting information that The relatively low FAL estimate effective than the other. The major was already generally known. resulted from not providing any difference between the two pro- The data on attitudes and prac- payment for the instructors. The grams ihat tE goE rnntiuse tices showed that larger propor- NGOS gave their instructors regular primers, while REFLECT in principle tions of the literacy graduates honoraria. Even so, they were still works with its participants to con- tended to express modern attitudes less costly than four years of pri- of their ow local circumstances, and adopt modern practices. How- mary schooling. living conditions and environment. ever, higher proportions of both Chart 1. Reading-complex comprehension: percentages of correct responses 60- 0 Total Adult Graduate Sample 50 - 40- | 13 Primary School Grade 4 Pupils 30-/ - 20 0 Adult graduates with no schooling 10 OGraduates who left on 0- _ _graduation Percentage of Correct Responses for Coin plex Coin prehension * Graduates from 2 years earlier Chart 2. Calculating: percentages of correct answers 70 0 Total Adult Graduate Sample 60 / 50 - 0 Primary School Grade 4 Pupils 40 - 30 _ Adult graduates with no schooling 0 _ a0 Graduates who left on 10 / , graduation 0 _ * Graduates from 2 years earlier Percentage of Correct Responses for Calculating Chart 3. Writing: average percentage scores obtained by those who actually attempted the writing test 54- 0 Total Adult Graduate Sample 52- - 50- 0 Primary School Grade 4 Pupils 48- _ 0 Adult graduates with no 46 - schooling 44 /a0 Graduates who left on 42 - graduation Percentage of Scores for Writing By those * Graduates from 2 years who attempted the test earlier The fourth and last open ques- * The self-targeting nature of adult guages enable people to deal with tion is the strength of demand for basic education as an instrument official signs, documents and pro- literacy education among the really to benefit poor people, especially cedures, as well as facilitate ac- illiterate adult population. Among women-most of the sampled cess to waged and salaried em- the sampled graduates, those with graduates were women and came ployment. The widespread desire some schooling outnumbered the from the poorer households of in Uganda for instruction in En- really illiterate by three to one. Did their communities. glish has its counterparts all over this mean that illiterate people * The desirability of accommodat- Africa and elsewhere. failed to enroll in the program? Or ing two streams of demand for that most illiterate enrollees failed adult basic education: from the either to complete the course or to wholly unschooled and from the learn enough to succeed at the partially schooled. Enrolling par- This article was written by John test? tially schooled people along with Oxenham. A 30-page summary of unschooled people could inhibit this evaluation is given in Adult The signals that the evidence from the latter and frustrate the aims Education and Development, Uganda tends to confirm are as fol- of a program. Vol.55, 2000, pp.229-259. A fuller lows: * The ability of adults of all ages to account is available in Adult Lit- * The central importance of care- learn the basic skills of reading, eracy Programs in Uganda, World ful preparation and sound imple- writing and calculating: the Bank Africa Region Human Devel- mentation. Reliable delivery and Ugandan evidence shows that opment Series, 2001 (117pages). A sound instruction seem more im- some 200-300 hours of instruc- comprehensive 300-page descrip- portant than methods and mate- tion by relatively untrained in- tion of the methodology andfindings rials. structors can enable even older, is available from the Ministry of * Programs run by governments non-literate adults to achieve and Gender, Labour and Social Develop- can be as effective as those of- retain literacy skills. ment, Government of Uganda. The fered by other agencies. This does * The need for a longer view of lit- evaluation team from Makerere not argue that governments eracy education as part of a pro- University's Institute of Adult and should be the only agencies to gressive and cumulative process Continuing Education included Prof undertake literacy programs. The to enable the "average" adult to Anthony Okech, Dr. Anne Ruhweza NGOs in Uganda clearly deliver attain adequate mastery of the Katahoire, Dr Teresa Kakooza and equally effective programs. For basic skills and to continue learn- Dr Alice Ndidde. Prof Roy Carr-Hill policy, the strong signal is that ing how to apply them produc- of London and York Universities was frameworks to encourage active, tively. The Ugandan evaluation also a member of the team. The Nor- complementary partnerships be- found many people continuing in wegian Government's Trust Fund tween governments and other literacy classes long after they with the World Bank financed the agencies would best serve the had graduated, simply because evaluation. people who could benefit from they wished to maintain and im- adult basic education. In addi- prove their skills. tion, the records of NGOs in tak- * The need to develop ways of com- 1 This educational strategy was devel- ing initiatives, exploring fresh bining basic education in a ver- oped by the international NGO, ActionAid, approaches and in sustaining nacular with an introduction to in 1993 and is now widely adopted/ public interest in adult basic edu- an official language. The findings adapted. cation signal that policy makers in Uganda corroborate those in should capitalise on and promote other multi-lingual countries, these synergies. where only one or two official lan-