1

Mr. Vincent A. DavidDirectorAdult Basic Education Society (ABES)PAKISTAN

Every new day brings lot of new ideas and improvementin all sectors. But the process in the field of educationwas slow in the past. But it is very encouraging that theneed is felt and we are moving on the right path.

Method of teaching plays a vital role in the learning pro-cess, either in the formal schools or in the literacycentres. It is the main philosophy behind the success ofABES, and we are confident that if such an approach isapplied by other agencies in their programmes, thesewould definitely be benefited.

Teaching system presently in practice these days in theschools and the literacy programmes are mainlyCHALK and TALK. The teacher never involve in thestudents during the teaching process. He mainly stay ata distance from his students. Normally exercises the ac-tual skills, which is mainly required for a learningprocess. The teaching system is basically of routememorisation. I would like to share here with you on“The Relative Effectiveness of the Primary Senses” asshown in Annex 1. Which clearly indicates that “Welearn only 11% through HEARING and we generally

2. Innovative Ways to Teach & Learn in the Literacy Classes for Girlsand Women in the Context of the Resource Centre

Resource Papers

of interest for the learners. The intelligent teachers al-ways use such activities which motivates the students.This approach not only reduce the drop-out rate but agood percentage of successful students has beenachieved. In such cases the students always show inter-est for further education with the same teacher. Itclearly indicates that the students remain more intactwith a further ensured programme activities. All theseaspects clearly indicates that present approach of teach-ing does not produce satisfactory results.

-------------------------------------------------------------*Presented by Mr. E. C. Carlson on Behalf of ABEC atLRC Training Workshop (Lahore, Pakistan, 29 Sept. - 8Oct. 1994)

remember 10% of what we READ. The main emphasisduring teaching is on HEARING and READING. Itmeans that we are only aiming at 11% of learning.Simultaneously the passing marks are only 33%. If wealso see that BY DOING A THING A PERSON GEN-ERALLY REMEMBERS 90%. We have never triedfor an achievement of 90%. Since the teacher considerthat by adopting the new techniques, the work-loadwould be two-folded.

Since Literacy Programmes in Pakistan are of a shorterduration, therefore, such an approach is needed, that aninterest is developed for the learner. It is difficult thatthe adult learners gather at one place for education pur-poses. It remained always a problem that the class sizeis retained to its normal size. Normally the drop-outrate is very high if the teacher is not teaching properly, in another words if the teacher is not putting in some-thing extraordinary effort. The supported activitiesother than reading and writing has always been a source

Student Centered Activity Based Approach

It is now inevitable that new innovative approaches areintroduced for a result oriented literacy programmes. Itdoes not mean that previous literacy programmes hasnever fetched any results or these did not benefit thelearners. But during the process and the studies pointedout various reasons for a less successful projects. Tra-ditional Teaching Techniques are always been one ofthereasons for a less successful literacy programme.More emphasis has been given on materials develop-ment, monitoring and supervision, communityinvolvement, motivational drives etc. Another ideacame in for making the curriculum functional. It is veryimportant that the reading materials must be functional.Present contents are functional. It relates to their dailylife for health, social problems, income, daily life forhealth, social problems, income generating skills, envi-ronment and many more. In many cases the literacyskills of the neo-literates are never up to the mark.

As discussed earlier, a modern effective teaching tech-nique is essential if we focus on the 90% of learning.The approach must be based on the students. Theirmental and physical abilities, level of understanding,age factor, environments etc. Since the main focus is onwomen and girls, an activity based teaching techniquewould be more effective. It has been experienced inseveral literacy projects and even in the Islamabad Lit-eracy Project, that the female drop-out was very lesscompared to the male literacy centre drop-outs. Thedrop-out among male literacy centre was 54% as of fe-male only 8% (therefore during the 2nd phrase onlyfemale centres were opened). Active participation ofwomen ensure greater success of an activity basedteaching approach. It only needs proper designing inrelation to area, social set-up of target group and agegrouping. The teacher has to eliminate the distancesfrom his students. Following are some of the points thatmay be helpful to the teacher while teaching a literacyclass:

C. ON TEACHING/LEARNING OF FEMALE

2

Resource Papers

THEACHING METHODOLOGY: Teaching mustbe well trained in teaching methodology for basic lit-eracy skills. An example of Naya Din teachingMethodology fits very nicely here. This system isbased on certain principles. It is also supported by ateaching kit which contains a mobile blackboard, aflash card and a flip chart, which is actually an enlargedform of the Naya Din primer. This method has beenused by thousands of teachers and hundreds oforganisations. After some improvements according tothe needs, it is still being used with a success. The rea-sons for its success is that the teachers training iscomprised of two main components, firstly, the basictheory and secondly practising the teaching style. Itmay be called as a complete package.

TEACHING KIT: Teacher must have a complete andproper teaching kit. In an activity based programme, themajor part of the teaching kit is developed by the stu-dents. But to get these students involved in an activitybased programme basic items like, pair of scissors, cardpaper charts, 3 colours, flannel cloth etc. Several activi-ties could be carried out in the centres and most of theLOW or NO COST materials are available in every en-vironment.

PLANNING: It is very important to make long & shortterm plans. A short term plan should be daily, week andmonthly. And long term plan may be annual and fiveyear plan. But it has to drawn very carefully with an in-built monitoring and evaluation. There are severaldetails which could not be discussed here in this shortsession. However an effective and activity based planensure the success of the programme.

ESTABLISHING ROUTINES: A very effective wayto improve classroom management and to reduce theneed for teacher direction is to establish routines.

A routine is a procedure of activity that happens regu-larly in the classroom.

SHARING RESPONSIBILITIES: A good teachermust be well organized and prepared. With studentsworking on different activities at different levels, moreorganization is needed. This will need a tremendoustraining, and a great work-load on the teacher. Sharingcertain responsibilities for organisation and teachingwill help reduce the work-load of the teacher.

Sharing responsibilities in a class reduces the amount ofthe work the teacher has to do. Students also developmore of a sense of belonging in the class, if they are di-rectly involved in its organisation. They become moreindependent as they do not rely on the teacher for every-thing and become more self disciplined when workingby themselves.

GROUPING: Classroom management can be mademore effectively by grouping the students. Students canwork individually, in pairs, in small groups, or has awhole class depending on the subject being taught. Theteacher can also work with one group of students whileother students work independently.

Students learn from each other within a group situation.They also learn from their teacher. The students learn toco-operate, share responsibilities and be more consider-ate to each other. These are many social skills whichteachers often neglect to teach their students in the classwhen they concentrate on teaching subject contentsonly.

THEACHING METHODOLOGY: Teaching mustbe well trained in teaching methodology for basic lit-eracy skills. An example of Naya Din teachingMethodology fits very nicely here. This system isbased on certain principles. It is also supported by ateaching kit which contains a mobile blackboard, aflash card and a flip chart, which is actually an enlargedform of the Naya Din primer. This method has beenused by thousands of teachers and hundreds oforganisations. After some improvements according tothe needs, it is still being used with a success. The rea-sons for its success is that the teachers training iscomprised of two main components, firstly, the basictheory and secondly practising the teaching style. Itmay be called as a complete package.

TEACHING KIT: Teacher must have a complete andproper teaching kit. In an activity based programme, themajor part of the teaching kit is developed by the stu-dents. But to get these students involved in an activitybased programme basic items like, pair of scissors, cardpaper charts, 3 colours, flannel cloth etc. Several activi-ties could be carried out in the centres and most of theLOW or NO COST materials are available in every en-vironment.

Many teachers do not understand grouping or how touse grouping effectively in the classroom. Often, stu-dents are normally arranged in groups in the classroombut these groups are usually fixed and remain un-changed for the whole year. The students remain inthese groups while working in all subject areas. Manyteachers think that the assignments given to the studentsare done in groups. But in most cases, the students dothe same activity individually at the same level. It isoften assumed by the teacher, erroneously , that all thestudents in the same grade have same ability levels.

Thus it is very important that teachers should be able toidentify the different ability levels and form differentability groups among her/his students and understandhow they can be used in the classroom.

3

Resource Papers

These are some of the factors that ensures a very suc-cessful and effective literacy class in relation to learningprogress.

An access to a Resource Centre or to the Literacy Cen-tres is very important. Since it provides lot of facilitiesto the teachers and the students. Therefore, the learningprocess becomes interesting for the students and it isalso a good source of motivation for the community.

Following are some of the points which needs a seriousconsideration, if the authorities are concerned about theprogress:

* The state, aid agencies and NGOs need to allocatemore resources for literacy and functional literacyprogrammes. Currently these are excluded fromplans and projects or given very low priority.

* The major weakness in planning and implementingeffective literacy programmes, is the lack of quali-fied human resources. Staff development in thisarea requires urgent attention. Strategies will in-clude:

a) Strengthening the Non-formal education Divi-sion of the Ministry of Education which isresponsible for the organisation of literacyprogrammes for out-of-school children and adulteducation programme.

b) Long term and short term training of functionalliteracy and literacy facilitators and adult educa-tion of programmes.

c) Training in monitoring, review and evaluation ofprogrammes.

d) Strengthening the capacity of developmentagencies and NGO personnel to organiseprogrammes.

The developing of creative and appropriate audio-vi-sual instructional, manuals and guidelines forinstructors and facilitators, emerging from a participa-tory dialogue with personnel involved in conductingprogrammes and within illiterates, themselves, needspriorities. All too often, school text books or conve-niently utilised for functional literacy programmes.

The non-formal literacy centre for out-of-school chil-dren under 15 years of age, which are presentlyorganized by the non-formal education division need tobe expanded and improved. At present the needs ofaround 5% of the out-of-school population is this agegroup. They have not yet reach some of the most educa-tionally and economically disadvantaged communities.It is possible to utilise not merely schools, but also com-munity and religious centres for these afternoon classes.

Functional literacy and literacy programmes should bean integral component of (a) Non-formal vocationaltraining programmes for school drop-outs and the non-schooled, and (b) Anti-poverty programmesimplemented for disadvantaged segments of society.

In order to prevent collapsing in illiteracy after shortterm programmes, materials need to be developed forneo-literates, that reflect their needs and interest and ex-pand their knowledge base. Such materials should bemade available through village and other community li-braries and reading rooms, community centres, schoolsand religious centres and through multi-media.