Continuing Education will offer a talk on “Adult Literacy in Egypt” on July 25 at 3:00 pm. For details see the UWC news closer to that date.
To sign up please email u.w.c.cont.ed@gmail.com
Continuing Education Meeting Notes
UWC-member Mona Makramalla talked to a dozen members about the experiences of adult literacy teachers in rural Egypt, focusing on a chapter in her forthcoming dissertation for McGill University in Montreal.
Mona made room for many questions from the audience, which al- lowed her to contextualize facts such as the 28.9% adult illiteracy in current Egypt.
Even though illiteracy is more prevalent among women -roughly 35 % of them cannot read and write as against 23 % of the adult male population- it is almost easier to address, because women tend to be sedentary and remain in their rural villages. Men, on the other hand, need to migrate internally - either seasonally or to cities permanently - in search of work and are therefore more difficult to reach with adult education programs.
Mona illustrated how bureaucracy can dwarf organizational efforts when rules which are quite sensible from the standpoint of efficiency and the thrifty use of resources, interfere with the reality of everyday lives. Since girls are still more prone to grow up without formal schooling, they used to be allowed to participate in female adult literacy programs in their villages, in the safety of private homes, making it more palatable to conservative families than going to public schools. The girls were then given the diploma of completion - when they successfully graduated from the program - and with that in hand were able to register in middle school and then high-school, private conditions permitting. However, in order to en- courage parents to send their little girls to school, their attendance in adult literacy groups is no longer “allowed” and while they can audit them, the girls are not able to obtain their graduation certificate until the age of 16, by which time they tend to be married and bogged down with domestic duties.
These details came out of Mona’s collection of life histories from adult literacy teachers who, when asked about their most pressing problems, offered up these complex social realities. Another difficulty the teachers faced was women not obtaining permission from their husbands and mothers-in-law to at- tend adult literacy sessions. Teachers then take it upon themselves to knock on doors in their free time, to convince male and elder female relatives of the use and propriety of their educational offer. The fact that teachers often hail from the same village or a nearby town helps validate that claim, and in the end allows a woman to learn how to read and write. In all, we came away knowing a lot more about how adult literacy can and cannot work, as well as many instructive details about life in modest rural communities in Upper Egypt.
Barbara Grunenfelder-Elliker