Egypt has been awarded the UNESCO International Literacy Prize. Dena Rashed learns about the challenges that continue to face an ambitious literacy campaign Click to view caption It is midday at the headquarters of the Women and Society Association (WSA) and the air is filled with the young voices of more than 20 women who have travelled from governorates across the nation to discuss ways of combating illiteracy. The event was a workshop being held on the occasion of International Literacy Day on 8 September. Egypt's first law addressing illiteracy was passed in 1944, and yet government figures estimate that the illiteracy rate in Egypt today is approximately 34.2 per cent of the entire population, while for women the figure is 45.4 per cent. And according to the recently released Arab Human Development Report, the number of illiterate people in the Arab world has reached 65 million, two thirds of them women. Established in 1994, WSA is one of the associations committed to fighting illiteracy in Egypt. It is based in Ard Al-Lewaa in Boulaq Al-Dakrour, a low-income district in Giza governorate, where it is estimated that illiteracy rates since 1994 have decreased from 34.9 per cent to 28.64 per cent. At last week's workshop, groups of four to six people discussed ways to strengthen their fight against illiteracy. One basic problem participants tackled is the fact that many students withdraw from courses. Classes typically include young girls who have dropped out from school, and so the age bracket ranges from 14 up to 65 years. "To convince people of the importance of staying with classes is one of the toughest obstacles we face," Intisar Khalil told Al- Ahram Weekly. Khalil has for seven years directed the literacy programmes at the Bashayer Helwan Centre (BHC), a national association. She believes that fighting illiteracy is not just about teaching people how to read and write, "but is rather a long process that involves not just convincing the illiterate women to continue studying in the programme, but also convincing some husbands about the necessity of letting their wives continue their education". "Although women in Egypt have attained many of their rights, our society is still dominated by patriarchal values," Khalil added. "That is why we focus our efforts on building personal relationships with the women in the programme and their families, too." As a social counsellor, Khalil has dealt with many cases where she and her colleagues helped convince men to allow their wives to attend classes either through direct involvement or by bringing in a close relative of the wife to talk to the husband. For many illiterate women who have a family and children, the feasibility of returning to school diminishes with time. Hence associations such as BHC, provide nursery facilities for the their students' children because many of the mothers attending cannot afford to pay for similar services while they attend classes. "We try our best to solve every problem that could stand between a student and attending her classes," Khalil said. And while women are a focus of the literacy campaign, and hence the obstacles they face, men also have their fair share of problems. Moustafa Kamel, the supervisor of men's literacy class at BHC believes that many men also drop out of literacy classes because of the demands of their jobs. "Most men attending the classes are workers who finish their jobs at late hours, and thus demand late classes, which is very difficult to provide," Kamel explained to the Weekly, adding that these men "either quit the programme or wind up missing many classes". Masculine pride, too, may also be an impediment to learning it seems. According to Kamel: "Men are not as social as women, so in many cases you would find that while they want to join the programme, they are too shy to ask for help and actively search out centres or associations in their districts that are able to provide them with this service." So every possible means of advertising for literacy programmes is employed: mobile microphones on the streets, announcements made after the prayers at mosques and churches and at work. Also BHC tries to provide incentives to students such as free books. Every year, national associations set a target for the number of people to be given classes. According to Seham Negm, the director of the WSA, and the secretary-general of the Arab Network for Eradicating Illiteracy, WSA decided that for 2002 they would graduate 100 women. "So far we have a 90 per cent success rate in meeting our targets," Negm told the Weekly. And while the programme has clearly achieved a measure of success, Negm believes that the drop out rate is still a major problem. "We try our best to retain students by following up with each one on a monthly basis. We monitor their attendance and pursue direct contacts with each of them, and if they have legitimate reasons for not attending, we try to provide them with an alternative programme that is more suitable to the constraints they face." And while drop outs are identified as the most pressing challenge, there are no exact figures of how many people enroll but fail to complete the classes because associations have not been keeping such records. But completion of a course is only part of the battle. "You can teach people how to read and write in a nine-month programme, but according to a recently conducted field study by WSA, if people stop their education at that point, there is a big chance they will forget what they have been taught in a period ranging from six to 12 months," Negm said. WSA is one of the associations that has managed to provide continuing education programmes (CEP) that allow students graduating from the literacy courses to pursue programmes of study that range from the elementary through secondary levels. And those who complete secondary education are eligible to apply for university. The state's General Association for Eradicating Illiteracy provides organisations working to improve literacy with curricula in addition to furnishing those with limited resources with books, blackboards and other requirements. Associations try to be flexible to meet the needs of their students. "Some students have difficulty understanding the curricula. Some of them stop as soon as they have obtained primary education. So we have taken the initiative of introducing an additional school year for those students who wish to continue their education," Negm said. The additional "bridge" year -- which is to be introduced as of this coming school year -- provides students with a selection of subjects from the primary level curriculum in order to make sure that the students are ready for preparatory education. Negm explained that 20 to 30 per cent of students in the primary classes will continue through to preparatory education and the additional year is an attempt to "make sure they continue". And yet Negm argues that there should be even more flexibility when it comes to choosing curricula. "In some areas the curriculum does not match the specific needs of a given group of students. For example the Bedouin -- do they need the same curricula that people in the city or rural areas study?" asked Negm. Farida El-Naqash, a leading figure in the Tagammu Party, a leftist opposition party, believes that education is about people's freedom -- not about teaching people -- young or old -- to memorise what is in the books. "I believe in Paolo Freire's ideas [the Brazilian educator who struggled for a concept of education that was for the liberation of the poor]. I also resist teaching the instrumental and the decontextualisation of the skills of reading and writing. Education must be part of participation in the political process of liberation," El-Naqash told the Weekly. "The national associations are doing a great job in fighting illiteracy, but at the same time their efforts are insufficient to surmount the existing challenges. The problem is far more complex than the common understanding. Illiteracy is about poverty, and also a result of a crumbling educational system," she added. Negm shares El-Naqash's viewpoint adding "there has to be a deeper understanding of illiteracy and certainly a strong political commitment and support for the programmes that target people's education." This year local efforts were recognised internationally. Since 1966 UNESCO has celebrated International Literacy Day by giving a national programme an award of excellence. Last week Egypt received a prize for a literacy programme developed in the Sars Al-Laban Centre for Adult Education in the governorate of Menoufiya. During 1999-2001, the centre provided courses to 4,000 people, the majority of them women. Literacy is a life choice. According to Khalil, "If you give people a serious opportunity, they would never hesitate to learn." It is a life choice made by Sahar Yehia, a middle-aged woman and mother of three who has successfully reached the third preparatory year with the WSA. "Unfortunately, I quit school when I was young. I got married at a very early age. I had no problem with that until one day I was helping one of my children with his homework and I experienced difficulty," she recounted. She decided it was time to continue from where she left school and enrolled in preparatory school at the WSA. "It was quite funny. My son and I were taking the same things: he was doing them at school, and I was studying them at the association," she told the Weekly. Yehia cites her husband's motivation as crucial, noting that other family members and friends were not only unsupportive, but made fun of her saying she was too old to return to school. "The WSA is two blocks away from my home, and all my neighbours knew that I was going back to school. But later on, when they saw that I was doing a great job, helping my kids studying, some were motivated to join the programme," she said. She thinks she just might go all the way and enter the Faculty of Arts. "And why not -- I know now that anything is possible."
