Literacy training in Europe

Directorate-General For Translation European Commission

Description

A comparative analysis of the most effective and innovatory literacy schemes being implemented in Member States by the authorities or private agencies
Education policy

Sujets

• Comparative education
• Education policy
• Special education
• Literacy

Informations

• Publié par: EUROPEAN-COMMISSION
• Nombre de lectures: 18
• EAN13: 928255855
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

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DOCUMENT
LITERACY TRAINING IN EUROPE
A comparative analysis of the most
effective and innovatory literacy schemes
being implemented in Member States by
the authorities or private agencies
COMMISSION
OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES This document has been prepared for use within the Commission. It does not
necessarily represent the Commission's official position.
Cataloguing data can be found at the end of this publication
Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities,
1985
ISBN: 92-825-5855-X
Catalogue number: CB-43-85-832-EN-C
Articles and texts appearing in this document may be reproduced freely in
whole or in part providing their source is mentioned.
Printed in Belgium Commission of the European Communities
LITERACY TRAINING IN EUROPE
A comparative analysis
of the most effective and innovatory Literacy schemes
being implemented in Member States
by the authorities or private agencies
Report produced by the
International movement
Aide à toute détresse
fourth world
Document This document has been prepared for use within the Commission. It does not
necessarily represent the Commission's official position. COITEIT S
INTRODUCTION:
LITERACY TRAINING IN EUROPE
8 PART I: INDIVIDUAL PROJECTS
1. Great Britain 9
A. The "CAVE" scheme, London 13
B. The Rhondda Community Development
Association Project 26
2. The Netherlands 42
"Stedelijk Alfabetiseringsprojekt Breda" 47
55 3· Germany
58 The "Volkshochschule", Bremen
4. Belgium 67
A. The "Comité Lire et Ecrire" scheme, Brussels 72
B. "Alfabetiseringsprojekt Antwerpen V.Z.W." 80
5. France 89
A. The "Entr'Aide Ouvrière" scheme, Tours 91
Β. The "Atelier de promotion professionnelle en
menuiserie" scheme, Noisy-le-Grand 103
PART II: AN OVERVIEW 120
I. Thinking within the European Community 121
II. The schemes: a response to illiteracy or poverty? 123
III. Literacy as a means of liberation? 125
IV. Finding out more about the illiterate to recruit them,
or recruiting them to find out more about them? 127
V. Aspects of strategy 131
VI. Educational theory, practice and methods 137
VII. What has been achieved, and for whom? 142
PART III: MAIN RECOMMENDATIONS 146
PART IV: BIBLIOGRAPHY 149 In December 1982, the Commission of the European Communities
entered into a cooperation agreement with the International
Movement ATD Fourth World with a view to identifying significant
efforts to promote literacy among workers of Member State origin.
The Commission initiative followed closely on a UNESCO-commissioned
study on illiteracy in industrialized countries and its links with
poverty (1). More directly, it was a response to the Report on the
campaign against illiteracy by Mrs P.J. Viehoff, Dutch Member of
European Parliament (2), and Parliamentary Resolution of 13 May
1982 on the campaign against illiteracy (3). Parliament had
declared that it was "aware of the fact that illiteracy is
generally linked to poverty and of the shortcomings of the
educational system ...". It called on "the Governments of Member
States to supplement national literacy schemes by broader
programmes designed to abolish the adverse conditions which are
generally linked with illiteracy". Through its contract for this
study, then, the Commission was in a way confirming the growith in
a general awareness that not all European citizens were benefiting
from their educational system, however broadly democratic it had
become in their own country.
This new awareness, it must be admitted, was a little tardy.
There had in fact been an altogether remarkable expansion of
national education in the countries concerned and there seemed to
be no compelling reasons why either the general public, democratic
representative institutions or authorities should be particularly
concerned with setbacks, possibly amounting to actual illiteracy in
some cases.
( 1 ) Illiteracy and Poverty in Industrialized Countries, a report
by the International Movement ATD Fourth World, ED/83.WS/20,
UNESCO, Paris, February I983.
(2) Report on the campaign against illiteracy (rapporteur:
Viehoff), European Parliament, doc. 1.88/82, April I982.
(3) O.J. n» C149, 14.6.1982, p. 85. The victims themselves could hardly be expected to have the
resources to make their voice heard in democracies where
participation was now so widely based on mastery of the written
word.
What we are now witnessing - the resolve of Europeans to fill
the breeches opening in the social edifice - is in itself a common
reaction. We shall see how the authorities, Non-Governmental
Organizations (NGOs) and ordinary citizens acting individually
accept responsibility once they perceive this failure to respect
Human Rights - illiteracy - in their local or national community.
Is it not the best proof that social justice, fraternity and
liberty are living values - in other words the values by which
Europeans live and act - that such ventures should have sprung up
in the field (or at grass roots, to use the popular jargon)? This
is one of the conclusions derived from the investigation on which
we report in the pages that follow. On discovering illiteracy among
their fellow citizens, Europeans have unhesitatingly assumed
responsibility within their own neighbourhood for the souls within
their care, and it has been through the efforts of individual
Europeans that a general awareness has been aroused.
Another point has been noticed: for Europeans tackling the
problems of their community at grass roots level, Europe exists.
They are Europe, they are building Europe in an entirely practical
way. Feeling the need to compare their experiences and discoveries
and with a concern to learn from others, they have acted without
waiting for official coordinating agencies to be set up at EEC
level. Experience, knowledge and methodology have already been
pooled by the pioneers of literacy; there is already an interchange
between Great Britain and the Netherlands for example, between
Flanders and West Germany,between Tours, Paris, Brussels and West
Berlin. This was not laid down in the Treaty pf Rome; those who
hold the strings of the public purse would hever have looked kindly
on the idea of embarking on further expenditure in a Community
where economy is the order of the day. On occasions, however, the
realities of Europe are more impelling than any economic
constraints. European integration has been moving ahead even faster
than envisaged in the Treaties - a justification for the European
ideal and a pointer to its future progress. In the case with which we are concerned, Europe is being built
around the most impoverished - another irrefutable conclusion to be
drawn from the investigations we describe. Here again the people of
Europe seem to have been the pacemakers, rather than official
Europe. The "European programme of action for education" drawn up
by the Council in 1975 (1) proposed certain measures to promote
equal opportunities but did not even mention the extremes of
inequality imposed on the illiterate. Yet it is the issue of y of opportunity within the Community that certain
Europeans have taken on themselves to confront. Their priorities
are the people most afflicted, those who suffer not just from
inequality but from every form of inequality. In a way it is
something unique in the history of Europe. The Community is
undoubtedly concerned for the underprivileged, but not to the
extent of giving them precedence.
Can we maintain, however, that the illiterate suffer from
every form of inequality? We can - and from now on we must - say
this is so. In the light of 25 years' research into poverty in
Western Europe, it is clear that the lack of even a rudimentary
education and, in some cases, the ability to read and write is part
of a vicious circle of poverty which has unfortunately survived
through the economic progress of post-war Europe. Greater general
prosperity has not wiped out what is called persistent poverty. It
has indeed persisted, in that it has been handed down from one
generation to the next in a vicious circle of unemployment, lack of
resources and education, homelessness, poor health and many other
deprivations, all interdependent and all mutually reinforcing.
Admittedly there are people who are not disadvantaged in this
way but nonetheless fail to learn to read and write because of ill
health, mental handicap or one of life's misfortunes which may
befall anyone, whatever his or her socio-economic status. Research
has shown, however, that they are a small minority and that the
consequences are often mitigated in their case. It is quite the
opposite for people at the bottom end of the social scale: nothing
mitigates their illiteracy. They have no access to any form of
compensation, and the repercussions on every other sphere of their
lives are all the more devastating.
( 1 ) Resolution of the Council and Ministers of Education in
Council, 9 February 1976, OJ 38, 19 February 1976,