Financing youth and adult literacy learning in Zambia: Determinant for the 7th National Development Plan target on youth and adult literacy
Keywords:
Adult literacy Education Financing IndustrialisationNational Development PlanYouth.
Abstract
Youth and adult literacy is a key determinant for the human development index on knowledge and education in Zambia. However, the widening literacy gaps remain a source of concern for the Zambian government and development agencies. This theoretical paper engages in a systematic analysis of the historical and current financing of youth and adult literacy learning in Zambia. The purpose is to conceptualise the funding practices and how they have affected literacy provision and determine Zambia’s chance of meeting its youth and adult literacy targets of the 7th National Development Plan. This was a desk review that included analysing education financing reports, curriculum policy documents and scholarly literature. The analysed documents included Zambia’s 6th National Development Plan, the 7th National Development Plans, Curriculum Review Framework for 2013, Ministry of Finance budget estimates on education and Ministry of Education reports of 2010 to 2020. The review established that the financing of youth and adult literacy learning in Zambia has been a historical challenge. Past efforts to improve funding have been met with a lack of commitment by stakeholders. The budgetary allocation to this sub-sector has been consistently the lowest in the Zambian education sector especially the period 2015 to 2020. The result has been challenges including the lack of trained facilitators, inadequate literacy learning facilities and teaching material. The literacy efforts have been characterised by failure to achieve their objectives. Youth and adult literacy continue to be a financially neglected sub-subsector of the education system in Zambia, despite its important place in the country’s human development index on knowledge. Thus, if Zambia continues on this funding trajectory, it risks missing the 7th National Development Plan targets of expanding youth and adult literacy, and skills for industrialisation. The paper recommends that the Zambian government consider a paradigm shift in financing strategies to include: a coordinated financing approach, the utilisation of an integrated literacy constituency development fund, creation of the youth and adult literacy fund incorporated with a literacy tax, and remodelling literacy programmes.References
References
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Carr-Hill Roy, Fiona Roberts, & Currie Elizabeth. (2010). Approaches to costing adult literacy programmes especially in Africa. International Journal of Educational Development, 30(4), 428-437. doi:doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2010.01.003
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Chileshe, C. A., Mkandawire, S. B. and Tambulukani, G. K. (2018). Primary Reading
Programme Versus Primary Literacy Programme: Exploring their Similarities and Differences. Journal of Lexicography and Terminology, 2 (2), 77-102.
Freire, P. (2014). Education and conscientizacao. Education for Adults, 1, 279-292.
Hanemann, U. (2015). Lifelong literacy: Some trends and issues in conceptualising and operationalising literacy from a lifelong learning perspective. International review of education, 61(3), 295-326. doi:10.1007/s11159-015-9490-0
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UNESCO. (2017). Literacy rates continue to rise from one generation to the next. Hamburg: UNESCO.
Unesco Institute for Statistics (2013). Adult and youth literacy: National, regional and global trends, 1985-2015 (Vol. 26). Montrea: UIS.
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Weninger, C. (2016). A contextual critique of critical literacy: Freirean ‘generative themes’ and their impact on pedagogic practice. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 1-14.
World Bank. (2001). Report of Distance Learning Seminar: Use of Outsourcing in the Implementation of Literacy and Non-formal Basic Education Programmes, May-July. World Bank paper.
World Bank. (2013). Zambia economic brief: Zambia's jobs challenge realities on the ground. In Communications Development Incorporated (Ed.), (Vol. 2, p. 58). Washington DC: World Bank.
Zambia National Education Coalition. (2012). An analysis of the performance of the Zambian education system. Lusaka: ZANEC.
Zukas, M., & Janice, M. (2000). Pedagogies for lifelong learning: Building bridges or building wallls? supporting lifelong learning working paper. Retrieved from http://www.open.ac.uk/lifelong-learning/papers.
Aitchinson, J., & Alidou, H. (2009). The state and development of adult learning and education in Sub-saharan Africa: Regional synthesis report. Hamburg: UNESCO.
Aitchison, J. (2005). Linking Literacy to Development in South Africa: Key Lessons from Projects Funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund 1998-2004: University of KwaZulu-Natal, Centre for Adult Education.
Archer, D. (2008). Financing adult literacy. Adult Education and Development report(71).
Archer, D. (2014). International Advocacy on Literacy and Development Challenges and Opportunities. Paper presented at the British Association for Literacy in Development Britain.
Benavot, A. (2008). Building a case for literacy. DVV international, 71, 1-8.
Benavot, A. (2015). Literacy in the 21st century: Towards a dynamic nexus of social relations. International review of education, 61(3), 273-294. doi:10.1007/s11159-015-9463-3
Black, S., & Yasukawa, K. (2014). The literacy myth continues: adapting Graff’s thesis to contemporary policy discourses on adult ‘foundation skills’ in Australia. Critical Studies in Education, 55(2), 213-228. doi:10.1080/17508487.2014.904809
Blake, B. E., & Blake, R. W. (2002). Literacy and learning: A reference handbook: ABC-CLIO.
Blunch, N.-H. (2017). Adult literacy programs in developing countries. IZA World of Labor.
Carr-Hill Roy, Fiona Roberts, & Currie Elizabeth. (2010). Approaches to costing adult literacy programmes especially in Africa. International Journal of Educational Development, 30(4), 428-437. doi:doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2010.01.003
Central Statistical Office. (2015). Living conditions and monitoring survery. Lusaka: CSO.
Central Statistical Office, & Ministry of Labour and Social Security. (2019). Labour Force Survey Report: 2019 First Quarter. Lusaka: Zamstats.
Chileshe, C. A., Mkandawire, S. B. and Tambulukani, G. K. (2018). Primary Reading
Programme Versus Primary Literacy Programme: Exploring their Similarities and Differences. Journal of Lexicography and Terminology, 2 (2), 77-102.
Freire, P. (2014). Education and conscientizacao. Education for Adults, 1, 279-292.
Hanemann, U. (2015). Lifelong literacy: Some trends and issues in conceptualising and operationalising literacy from a lifelong learning perspective. International review of education, 61(3), 295-326. doi:10.1007/s11159-015-9490-0
Kasonde, A., & Changala, M. (2019). Functional literacy-related challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in Lusaka district. Journal of Adult Education, 1(2), 39-52.
Knowles, M. S. (1973). The adult learner: A neglected species. Houston Texas: Gulf Publishing Company.
Masaiti, G. (Ed.) (2018). Education in Zambia at fifty years of independence and beyond: History, Current Status and Contemporary Issues. Lusaka: UNZA, Press.
Ministry of Education. (2015). Education sector national implementation framework III: 2011-2015. Lusaka: Ministry of Education.
Ministry of Community Development Mother and Child Health. (2014). Adult literacy functional syllabus. Lusaka: Government Printers.
Ministry of Education. (2008). The development and state of the art of adult learning and education(ALE) : National Report of Zambia. Lusaka: Ministry of Education.
Ministry of Education. (2010). Education Sectore. National implemetation framework III 2011-2015. Education for All: Accelerating poverty reduction through rural investment, human capital and infrastructure development. Lusaka: Ministry of Education.
Ministry of Education. (2015). Education for All 2015 National Review: Zambia. Lusaka: MESVTEE.
Ministry of Education Science Vocational Training and Early Education. (2012). The Zambia education curriculum framework 2012. Lusaka: Curriculum development centre.
Ministry of Finance and National Planning. (2011). Sixth Development Plan 2011-2015 "sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction". Lusaka: Ministry of Finance and National Planning.
Ministry of Finance and National Planning. (2019). Estimates of revenue and expenditure : output based budget. Lusaka: Ministry of Finanace and National Planning.
Ministry of National Development and Planning. (2017). 7th National development plan 2017-2021: Accelerating development efforts towards vision 2030 without leaving anyone behind. Lusaka: Ministry of National Development and Planning.
Ministry of Youth and Sport. (2015). National-Youth-Policy. Lusaka: Ministry of Youth ans Sport.
Mulenga, D. (2000). The Development and Provision of Adult Education and Literacy in Zambia. The State of Adult and Continuing Education in Africa, 173-182.
Mutava, D. M. (1988). Forty years of struggle against illiteracy: The Zambian case. Prospects, 18(3), 335-349.
Mwanawasa, L. (2006). Republic of Zambia. Vision 2030 : A propserous Middle -income nation by 2030. Lusaka: Government Printers.
Mwansa, D., & Mulenga, D. (1985). The impact of population growth on adult literacy programme in Zambia. Unpublished.
Nkhata, B., Mkandawire, S. B., Sichula, K. N., Nachiyunde, K., Phiri-Nalube, P., Kaani, B., Mulenga, I. M., . . . Sikayomya, P. (2019). Exploring selected theories applicable to educational disciplines and social sciences research. International Journal of Humanities Social Sciences and Education, 2(12), 97-116.
Robinson-Pant, A. (2016). Promoting, health and literacy for women's empowerment. Hamburg: UNESCO Institute for lifelong learning.
Rogers, A. (1999). Improving the quality of adult literacy programmes in developing countries: the real literacies' approach. International Journal of Educational Development, 19(3), 219-234.
Rogers, A., & Street, B. (2012). Adult literacy and development: Stories from the field. . England and Wales: National Institute of Adult Continuing Education.
Sichula, N. K. (2018). Functional Adult Literacy Learning Practices and the Attainment of Sustainable Rural Community Development. Multidisciplinary Journal of Language and Social Sciences Education, 1(1), 29-63.
Street, V. B. (2006). Autonomous and ideological models of literacy: Approaches from New Literacy Studies. Media Anthropology Network, 17.
Street, V. B. (2014). Social literacies: Critical approaches to literacy in development, ethnography and education. New York: Routledge.
UNESCO. (1976). The experimental world literacy programme: a critical assessment. Paris: UNDP.
UNESCO. (2003a). Literacy, a UNESCO perspective. Paris: UNESCO.
UNESCO. (2003b). Recommitting to adult education and learning: synthesis report of the CONFINTEA V Midterm Review Meeting Sept 6-11, 2003., Bangkok,Thailand.
UNESCO. (2006). Education For All monitoring report: Literacy for life. Paris: UNESCO.
UNESCO. (2013a). Education Sector Technical Notes: Literacy and Non-Formal Education. Retreived from http://www.unesdoc.unesco.org.
UNESCO. (2013b). Global report on adult learning and education: Rethinking literacy. Hamburg: Institute for Lifelong Learning.
UNESCO. (2015). Transforming our World-Literacy for sustainable development. Hamburg: UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning.
UNESCO. (2017). Literacy rates continue to rise from one generation to the next. Hamburg: UNESCO.
Unesco Institute for Statistics (2013). Adult and youth literacy: National, regional and global trends, 1985-2015 (Vol. 26). Montrea: UIS.
United Nations General Assembly. (2015). Sustainable Development goals (SDGs). Improving human and plateray wellbeing. Transforming our world: the 2030 vision. Issue 82.
Weninger, C. (2016). A contextual critique of critical literacy: Freirean ‘generative themes’ and their impact on pedagogic practice. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 1-14.
World Bank. (2001). Report of Distance Learning Seminar: Use of Outsourcing in the Implementation of Literacy and Non-formal Basic Education Programmes, May-July. World Bank paper.
World Bank. (2013). Zambia economic brief: Zambia's jobs challenge realities on the ground. In Communications Development Incorporated (Ed.), (Vol. 2, p. 58). Washington DC: World Bank.
Zambia National Education Coalition. (2012). An analysis of the performance of the Zambian education system. Lusaka: ZANEC.
Zukas, M., & Janice, M. (2000). Pedagogies for lifelong learning: Building bridges or building wallls? supporting lifelong learning working paper. Retrieved from http://www.open.ac.uk/lifelong-learning/papers.
Published
2020-08-26
Section
Articles