Nijera Shikhi and Adult Literacy

This report examines the outcome of Nijera Shikhi's (a people's literacy movement in Bangladesh) activities in adult literacy. It is based on the continuation of research conducted by the author on the impact of Nijera Shikhi in 1997.

Introduction

In the summer of 1997 research was conducted into the efficiency and effectiveness of adult literacy work in Bangladesh. This largely focussed on the work of Nijera Shiki, a People's Movement, which aimed to eradicate illiteracy from Bangladesh. Nijera Shikhi claimed to be both highly efficient in terms of the percentage of learners starting the course who acquired and retained functional literacy, and highly effective in terms of enabling people to bring about beneficial changes in their lives as they developed their literacy skills. In addition to this Nijera Shikhi, at just $2 per learner, claimed to be very low cost. In order to examine these claims a simple test was developed for functional 1 literacy with a component each for ‘writing', ‘reading and understanding', and ‘numeracy'. In total 62 learners were tested at least a year after the completion of their courses. Furthermore, a sub-sample of these learners were interviewed to ascertain the changes which they felt had occurred in their lives as a consequence of becoming literate. On the whole, this research verified the claims of Nijera Shikhi. It wasestimated that around 73% of those who had started the course had retained functional literacy at least a year after completing the course. In addition, substantial changes were occurring in people's lives, which they believed, were a consequence of becoming literate. These included estimated increases in income of around 84% for a sub-sampleof 10 male learners, and 200% for a sub-sample of 17 female learners, as they gained in self-confidence and became more entrepreneurial. Furthermore, they reported improvements in agricultural, health, nutrition and hygiene practices. Three factors were identified as being largely responsible for this.

1. The way Nijera Shikhi harnessed “social energy” in its operations as a People's Movement.
2. Its learning methods of aided self education, and
3. The way in which the post-literacy part of the course enabled people to retain their literacy skills.

Details of this research can be found in Cawthera 1999 and are briefly summarised in section 2 of this report. At the start of 1998, between the first study and this follow up in 2000, Nijera Shikhi received a large grant to enable it to scale up its operations. At the same time John Hastings, its inspirational founder, unfortunately died. This led to an expansion in the follow up research, which was undertaken in November 2000 and had two main focuses.

1. The follow up: to ascertain the proportion of people who had become literate through Nijera Shikhi and had retained their literacy skills five years after the completion of their course and to record the lasting impact, which they perceived becoming literate had on their lives.
2. The expansion: to examine how efficient and effective Nijera Shikhi continued to be as it changed to operate more as an NGO giving a small “honorarium” to its helpers and organisers compared to its efficiency and effectiveness as a People's Movement where helpers' and organisers' main motivation was one of altruism.

The following overall conclusions are drawn:

• Literacy can have a sustained impact on livelihood - the acquisition of literacy in adulthood from carefully designed programmes can have a lasting benefit on the lives of poor people who are also illiterate.
• Numeracy is just as important as literacy - once they have completed their course most learners use their numeracy skills a lot more than their literacy skills. This should be factored into the design of literacy courses.
• Effective post-literacy activities are extremely important - they play an important part in helping neo-literates to retain literacy and to bring about changes in their lives. It may be that these are also best engaged in as a group activity, which gives people a chance to discuss new ideas.
• A People's Movement is a better modality than an NGO - where it can be initiated and sustained a People's Movement modality is likely to be more efficient, effective, and cost efficient.

Click here for the report in PDF format.

Click here for the previous report in PD format: Let's teach ourselves: the operation and effectiveness of a People's literacy movement.