An Overview of Literacy in Sub-Sahara Africa-Images in the Making

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2594871
AutoresH S Bhola (autor de correspondencia)
Año1990
Volumen33
Número3
Páginas5
Fecha de publicación1990-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAfrican Studies Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0002-0206 • E-ISSN: 1555-2462
EditorialJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/524183
OpenAlexW2163522998
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias citadas9

The choice of a policy perspective in writing this paper is justifiable for at least two reasons: discussion will be oriented toward policy decisions; and analysis could draw from a whole array of policy sciences. Literacy today has indeed come center stage. It has come to be accepted as a fundamental human right, as liberator of the mind from the bondage of dependence, as the portal to most knowledge, and thus as a tool for both the modernization and the democratization of societies. Of course, not everyone accepts all this. While few are against literacy any more, not everyone is fully and totally committed. The centrality of the role of literacy in development is not always understood and literacy sometimes waits while more urgent needs are fulfilled first! It is not realized that there are no first's and second's in social change, that literacy and development have a mutually beneficial relationship, and that without literacy, development indeed limps on one leg (Bhola, 1984, 1990). Happily, literacy policy influentials have been able to make important gains and to set important goals. The United Nations General Assembly Resolution no. 42/104 of 1987, by declaring 1990 the International Literacy Year (ILY), put a seal of approval on the ideological and theoretical justifications for the role of literacy in development. UNESCO has been named the lead agency to mobilize the world community for universal literacy by the year 2000 (UNESCO, 1987). At the World Conference on Education for All (WCEFA), jointly sponsored by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the World Bank, in Jomtien, Thailand, 5-9 March 1990, the nations of the world adopted the following planning targets for the year 2000

Geography · Literacy · Pedagogy · Sociology · African Education and Politics · Education Systems and Policy · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare