By Lamin B. Darboe
Information Officer, MoBSE
The Minister of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE) has noted that Adult and Non-Formal Literacy both deserves unique and full attention, particularly during this Covid-19 pandemic crisis that affected the whole sector which education is not an exception.
Minister Claudiana A. Cole made this statement on Wednesday during Minister’s one-day virtual meeting at the Global Alliance for Literacy’s (GAL) Annual General Meeting (AGM).
The objectives of the AGM were to review the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on youth and adult literacy, review national education response plans and strategies in the context of the Covid-19 crisis and beyond, identify areas of support and specific initiatives to respond to new realities in light of the GAL strategic goals and to establish the composition of the new Steering Group and the co-chairs.
The Global Alliance for Literacy is engaging the multiplicity of stakeholders to advocate for the importance of youth and adult literacy and to catalyze in an effective and coordinated manner to improve it in the countries that need it most.
According to Minister Cole, GAL’s AGM deserves a critical review by various educational teams and organizations just like the formal education programs in participants various countries.
She commended Natcom-UNESCO and UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning for organizing this important meeting and also for technically supporting the recently implemented Family and Intergenerational Literacy and Learning project (FILL) in The Gambia.
This project, the Basic Education Minister said, was funded by the German Foreign Office. The FILL project has immensely contributed to boosting the Adult and Non-Formal Literacy subsector in the country.
“It has enabled adult participants to engage in shared learning with their school-going children as it enables them to support, coach and monitor the learning of their children while they were at home,” Madam Cole explained.
She said prior to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Gambia had 177 literacy centers in the country most of which are located in the rural Gambia, adding that the participants at the centers are mainly female which constitute 84% of the learners.
“It is important to note that their literacy activities were need based programming. Participants learn basic functional literacy, numeracy, civic education, and indigenous languages”.
Minister Cole informed her fellow Ministers that her Ministry started to engage partners to help build a more resilient system that will ensure a strengthened environment for literacy activities for the continuity of learning.
She reiterated her Ministry’s determination to work with partners in order to make sure that those who have left school are not left behind. But this bid will not be without regulating some of the perennial challenges that Adult and Non-Formal Education Unit continues to grapple with, such as low capacity and inadequacy of material resources.
She went on to highlighted on challenges face by non-formal education landscape. Among the challenges, she pointed out are inclusion of ICT in adult literacy programs, strengthening the capacity of non-formal education operatives and limited permanent structures and furniture for adult literacy centers.
Madam Cole implored the global community to strive for the successful achievement of universal literacy especially of disadvantaged and marginalized groups.