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Momodou
Denmark
11863 Posts |
 Posted - 24 Aug 2011 : 15:44:53
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Adult Literacy for Women Making Headway in Sukuta
By Janneh S. Darbo
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
 Like many Gambian women of her time, Binta Jammeh, a middle age woman in Sukuta village in the Kombo North district of West Coast Region dropped out of school when she reached primary five at Sukuta Primary.
At this level, young Binta Jammeh, most probably at the age of 13, did not have a basic knowledge in English or Arithmetic.
“I find it difficult to read my children’s reports and books to know their performance in school,” Mrs Jammeh, now a married woman told The Daily News.
The world has 776 million illiterate adults and 7 million children out of school and The Gambia is among countries in Africa with a high percentage of illiterates.
With a high level of illiteracy, the country’s Education Policy 2004-2015 aims, among others, to reduce the rate by 50 percent by 2015 in consonance with the Dakar Framework for Action, which promotes the creation of a medium term plan - 2008-2011 - pursues three objectives: to reduce national illiteracy rate from 57 percent to 50 percent; national female illiteracy rate from 69.4 percent to 57 percent and reduce national male illiteracy from 44.9 percent to 42 percent.
In pursuit, a comprehensive non-formal education programme has been drawn up to provide functional literacy for illiterate adults, as well as out of school youth, especially women of 15 and above.
In Sukuta village, a community based organisation (CBO) called ‘Future of Sukuta’ is taking the lead. On Saturday August 20, the CBO commenced a two-month adult literacy programme for over 50 women under its project “NYO-KUNINDI KAFO,” which loosely translates as ‘enlightening each other association’.
It is this programme that is offering Mrs Jammeh and other village women, who were deprived of formal education, an opportunity to learn and they don’t feel too big or old for it.
“I welcomed it with open arms,” as she put it.
“After having successfully completed a series of life skills programmes with the women, we realised that they can neither read nor write in English,” Mr Lamin Daffeh told The Daily News. This had motivated us to organise adult literacy class for the women to be able to do little paper transactions on their own.”
During the two months period, the women will learn about phonetics and simple arithmetics – in oral and written.
But literacy, as educationists say, is not just about reading and writing; it is as well about securing access to political, economic and cultural opportunities.
This is something Mr Daffeh’s ‘Nyo-kunindi kafo’ is not losing sight of. Since inception in 2001, he said, his organisation has trained many women on productive skills, including tie and dye, soap making and other small skills business ventures.
Under the Nyo-kunindi kafo’ project, many women in Sukuta have been sensitised on women’s rights and deadly diseases including, STDs, malaria, TB as well as on other personal and national development issues.
Future of Sukuta’s main partner is Sukuta Valsorening based in Swedish, Europe, which is providing funds for the community based organisation to help in enhancing the lives of the women in Sukuta.
Source: Dailynews
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