Vital learning in life’s later years
Iness Kayuni endured years of ridicule for being unable to read and write. The 40- year-old woman from Mchinji recalls that she dropped out of school young because of her parents’ poverty. Kayuni is a beneficiary of the Integrated Adult Education initiative which DVV International is implementing in Malawi with funding from the German Federal Ministry of…
By Imam Wali:
Iness Kayuni endured years of ridicule for being unable to read and write.
The 40-year-old woman from Mchinji recalls that she dropped out of school young because of her parents’ poverty.
But two years ago, she had had enough of the scorn and decided to enrol in an adult literacy education (ALE) class at Mtisinile Centre in Traditional Authority Mkanda in the western border district.
“Before enrolling at the centre, I used to make losses in my business because I lacked skills in determining prices for my farm produce,” Kayuni says.
At the centre, she met other 25 adult learners in search of literacy and numeracy skills they had missed in earlier years of their lives.
So, the shame that used to overcome her is now stuck in the past.
“So, I have learnt a lot of things such as in agriculture and health. I can now read and determine whether farm inputs I am buying are counterfeit or genuine,” Kayuni says.
She has also become a go-to person among those who cannot read in her area but need to understand information printed on various leaflets.
Kayuni is a beneficiary of the Integrated Adult Education (IAE) initiative which DVV International is implementing in Malawi with funding from the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development.
DVV International Communications Officer Dyson Mthawanji waxes lyrical about IAE, which he says is promoting adult education as it is attractive to adult learners.
“IAE aims to tackle the fundamental task of bringing literacy and numeracy to those who need it. By integrating it with important skills and information such as agriculture, health and entrepreneurship, the initiative becomes more relevant in everyday life,” Mthawanji says.
Like many other adults her age, Kayuni’s need to acquire literacy and numeracy skills was not inspired by the prospects of getting employed.
Her focus was on knowing more about daily aspects of life.
Chief Community and Development Officer in the Ministry of Gender, Samuel Ziba, admits that there are several challenges facing ALE in Malawi.
“We don’t have adequate teaching and learning materials, for instance. We need about 300,000 learner Chichewa books but we only have 60,000. For English, we need 131,000 books but we only have 13,000,” Ziba says.
He also sites shortages in chalkboards and mobility challenges for instructors as other elements throwing spanners in ALE progress.
“On top of that, instructors are currently getting an honorarium of K15,000, which is not enough to meet their economic needs. Most of them then abandon the work in search of better opportunities,” Ziba says.
Wrong perceptions of ALE being seen as dealing with old people is also said to be frustrating the campaign to have more people enrol in the programmes.
Ziba says the reality is that learners in ALE classes include those aged as young as 15 years old.
“Mindset change and reduction of intergenerational poverty and illiteracy will be attainable as literate parents will be instrumental in reducing illiteracy among their children and relations.
“A healthy and independent population would be achieved as most of healthy, agricultural, nutritional interventions would be adopted at an increased rate,” he says.
Education stakeholders have since urged government to increase the allocation to adult literacy programmes so that more people enrol and become literate.
It is said that few donors are also willing to invest in ALE.
Data from the Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare shows that enrolment in adult literacy classes from 2015 to 2020 “significantly dropped”.
Educationist Limbani Nsapato states that being party to various international conventions including those that promote education, Malawi has to do all it can to meet the standards set out in those instruments.
“We have the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1960 Convention against Discrimination in Education, among others, which urge government to provide education to all its citizens, including adults, without discrimination,” Nsapato says.
He adds that illiteracy levels of those aged 15 years and above, which is the focus of adult literacy interventions, is 14.2 percent, translating to two million people.
Nsapato also calls for an increase in funding to adult literacy programmes to wholesomely tackle the problem of illiteracy.
Education is in the main regarded as a vital tool for development and “every human being has the right to access basic education regardless of race, religion or economic status”.
Education for young people and adults who never attended school or dropped out before they acquired numeracy and literacy is further said to be a “modern thing” that governments must promote.
Sustainable Development Goal 4, which is the education goal, aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”
Target 4.6 of the goal invites United Nations member States such as Malawi to ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy by 2030.
“…Action for this target aims at ensuring that by 2030, all young people and adults across the world should have achieved relevant and recognised proficiency levels in functional literacy and numeracy skills that are equivalent to levels achieved at successful completion of basic education,” the target reads.
Kayuni says she is happy that she has finally acquired the skills that she missed years back when her stay in school was cut short.
Her only worry is that many more women like her—and men as well— remain without those skills and sometimes fail to progress in ventures such as businesses because of that lack of knowledge.
