Literacy on the home front.

Xu Weizhi is a fruit farmer at his home in China's Sichuan Province. In 1982, he was also one of China's almost 238 million illiterate people over the age of 12. Like Weizhi, 91 per cent of his country's illiterates live in rural communities; the other 9 per cent live in cities.

In China's anti-illiteracy drives and rural education programmes, more than 17 technical schools have been established to teach farmers to read and write, as well as strategic agricultural skills.

Weizhi attended one such school and applied the cultivation techniques he had learned for growing fruit. The new techniques not only improved Weizhi's peach harvest but also significantly increased his income.

Xu Weizhi's story is not an isolated one. Since the People's Republic of China was established in 1949, more than 153 million people have become literate. Massive anti-illiteracy efforts, combined with developments in education, reduced the illiteracy rate from 80 per cent in the 1950s to 34.5 per cent today.

Carrying its success into the 1990s, China will launch a new literacy campaign during International Literacy Year. It will be designed to reach 80 million illiterates and reduce the rate of illiteracy to about 10 per cent. Previous anti-illiteracy programmes have won UNESCO awards for outstanding achievement in eliminating illiteracy.

As in China, the driving force behind many government literacy efforts is prompted by revolution. Political objectives of a new government often focus on mobilizing the masses for nation-building and development, the need for a national language to facilitate communications, and abolishing class feelings between rural and urban people.

Political change: A driving force

Mass literacy campaigns are one way to achieve such goals.

When the Government of Somalia took power in 1969, literacy became its number one objective.

In order to create a dialogue between the new Government and the people, first an official language had to be adopted. Traditionally, Arabic had been used in a religious and cultural context; state business was conducted in English and Italian. Somali was the language of daily conversation.

The Government decided that the unwritten Somali language should become the official tongue, choosing Latin script for the written version. Immediate action was taken to teach reading and writing in Somali to Somali citizens.

Overcoming language differences

The United Republic of Tanzania is another example of a developing country trying to overcome the obstacle of the absence of a widely used single language. With 126 tribal dialects, Tanzania chose to use Swahili as the national language.

On the other hand, Ethiopia selected no less than 15 of its most used spoken languages for its literacy campaign. The Ethiopian effort was launched as a five-phase operation in 1979. Its initial goal: to reach 1.3 million people in urban and suburban areas.

The programme proved so popular that more than 10 million people were enrolled by the fourth phase. Four million succeeded in becoming literate, cutting Ethiopia's illiteracy rate from 93 per cent in 1974 to 44.8 per cent in 1983.

Economic problems: No longer an excuse

The double lesson from the Tanzanian campaign is that even the poorest of countries must eradicate illiteracy in order to achieve development and that they are capable of doing so. Illiteracy was lowered in Tanzania from 67 per cent in 1969 to 21 per cent by 1981.

Despite the paucity of resources, minimum infrastructure and a large nomadic population, Somalia's literacy campaign reached over 1 million (400,000 urban dwellers and 795,000 from the country) in just two years.

The qualitative results of the campaign are even more impressive. Taboos about food were removed, roads were built, new markets created. Health services for people and animals were improved.

Women take centre stage

Somalia has launched a new literacy project for International Literacy Year. Its goal is to reach between five- and six-thousand women in 83 villages. According to UNESCO statistics, the illiteracy rate among Somali women, at 94 per cent, is one of the highest in the world.

Courses in basic literacy, health, sanitation, nutrition and hygiene skills will be taught by 83 instructors. Classes will also focus on civic education, including advancing the status of women, their rights under the law and defence of such rights.

Women have also been the main target of a UNESCO project, coordinated with Thai education authorities, in Bangkok slum areas. A major problem of literacy programmes is convincing people of the importance of reading and writing, especially poor people mainly concerned with survival.

Classes focused on four areas: primary health, nutrition and housekeeping skills; development of suitable employment skills; training of women as teacher aides for preschool children, and teaching of the arts to community children.

A slum "bank" was established for heavily indebted people paying high interest rates. The bank's credit now pays off these debts, while the banking experience helps reinforce literacy skills.

Literacy in Jamaica: Portrait of progress

Illiteracy in Jamaica has dropped from 50 per cent to 18 per cent over the last 15 years, due largely to the efforts of JAMAL-the Jamaican Movement for the Advancement of Literacy.

jamaica, like most developing countries in the 1980s, was caught between a bloated debt burden and the need for development. In 1983, austerity measures resulted in a 50 per cent cut in the literacy programme's budget; staff was slashed from 730 to its current level of 117. Despite limited resources, JAMAL has succeeded in teaching 248,000 people to read and write. Established by the Government, the Movement provides training in literacy and basic job skills for non-literates. It ensures regular attendance in primary schools and provides follow-up material to prevent relapse into illiteracy.

The task was enormous. A 1970 evaluation, carried out in cooperation with UNESCO, showed that more than 40 per cent of the adult population was functionally illiterate. A 1978 survey revealed that more than half of all primary school graduates were illiterate.

JAMAL attacked the problem on every front, holding classes in private homes, churches, community halls and schools. It also established 16 adult education centres where part-time teachers helped learners in the 15-25 age group.

Government efforts were solidly backed by support from the private sector and the media. Companies provide funding, as well as facilities for literacy classes in the work place. The media rallied the cause with radio programmes, newspaper articles and a nationally televised quiz show which has served as a model for their literacy efforts.

There is still a long way to go to eradicate illiteracy in Jamaica, but, according to JAMAL President Lascelles Lewis, the turning point may have been reached.

"We believe that each one of the quarter million persons who has come into the light of literacy through the efforts of JAMAL represents one more solution to the global challenge", he concluded.