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This article makes a detailed discussion of two different approaches to adult education and literacy: the Standard strategy, a 10-year literacy campaign (launched in 1994) aimed to enable adults to learn how to read and write Arabic and to use written arithmetic; and the Capacity Enhancement for Lifelong Literacy (CELL) strategy which aimed to: (a) teach reading, writing and written arithmetic at least as efficiently and effectively as the Standard programme; (b) promote community, social and economic development and to reduce poverty, especially for women and especially in very poor and disadvantaged rural communities; and (c) to prepare the General Authority for Literacy and Adult Education (GALAE) officers to mainstream the new pattern of operations across the country. Both strategies were sponsored by the GALAE of the Egyptian Government. The article discusses the progress of these programs and presents some findings on their outcomes and effectiveness. Show less

The Institute for International Cooperation of the German Adult Education Association (IIZ/DVV) was invited by the World Bank to undertake a study on two strategies to promote literacy and training for livelihood skills: (1) incorporating training for livelihood skills into literacy instruction; and (2) incorporating literacy instruction into training for livelihood skills. The study used available documentary accounts to compare and assess the effectiveness of these two education and training strategies for poor adults in four African countries: Uganda; Kenya; Senegal; and Guinea. The aim was to assess whether this type of incorporation could increase the effectiveness of programs by improving students' loyalty and achievements, and by encouraging the use of skills acquired to raise the productivity of their livelihood skills and to improve their standard of living. Findings show that: programs that start from livelihood skills appear to have a greater chance of success; organisations that were more concerned with livelihoods and other aspects of development appear to design and deliver more effective combinations of livelihood and literacy programs; and chances of success are greater in programs that work with established groups sharing a common goal than those working with individuals.

This article contains the following sections from the main report which came out of this study: Executive summary; Prologue; Objectives of the study; Synthesis of findings from the two strategies; Conclusions and recommendations. The complete report is indexed at TD/IRD 88.288. Show less

In mid-1999, the Ugandan government commissioned an evaluation of the national Functional Adult Literacy (FAL) program. The country-wide evaluation, undertaken by the Department of Adult Education and Communication Studies of the Makerere University, involved a sample of almost 800 adults, mostly women, who had successfully completed the FAL course. In this paper, the author attempts to deduce some lessons for adult educators from this evaluation of adult basic education. The paper reports the main findings of the evaluation and makes some important observations for adult educators in relation to the adult learning process. The evaluation reveals that adults have the ability to learn new skills well into middle age, that the quality of the program implementation at the local level affects the outcomes for the learners, and that government programs can be as effective and maybe less expensive than those run by other agencies. The author then examines the demand for school education and literacy in societies where schooling is not universal and where large numbers of people manage without schooling or literacy. He considers the effectiveness of adults' efforts to educate themselves as well as simultaneously to master the skills of reading, writing and simple arithmetic, and the uses that adults make of this new learning. The discussion then focuses on learning content and examines how important 'functional' knowledge is compared to basic skills of literacy to the learners themselves, and the importance of instructional methods for effective learning. The concluding section of the paper considers the implications of the Ugandan experience for the recruitment, training, technical support and recognition of those involved in teaching or facilitating adult basic education classes. Show less