Illiteracy Belongs to Museums

Daily Champion (Lagos)
OPINION
6 June 2007
Posted to the web 6 June 2007

By Sal Zaidi
Abuja

Illiteracy is the inability of an individual to read and write. Reading and writing are the basic skills of an individual to understand its environment. It is imperative for an individual to read and write. Illiterate person misses out a lot in its life and makes it difficult for literates to communicate with him or her at the same level. It is like being blind, dumb and deaf at the same time. An illiterate can look at the printed matter. An illiterate cannot decipher the letters and their conjugation. An illiterate does not know the importance of the message that printed matter is broadcasting. It is a diabolical situation that certain human beings utilize substantial resources to care for a wounded stray serpent than they allocate to eradicate 'Illitracy'. It is a shameful shackle around the neck of us all. It is about time we break it and free ourselves from this horrible enslavement. We should not look towards governments, non-governments, philanthropist or signs from Heaven. We, individually and collectively can meet this challenge and eradicate it.

Let us look at the problem of illiteracy: who cannot read and write become dependent on those who can. Such dependency can be detrimental to such individuals and to the society.

Socialism did manage to eradicate illiteracy among its followers. In fact, literacy rate is receding among societies who have shunned socialistic regime. Capitalism only pays lip service to eradicate illiteracy among its people. Neither it did in the past nor it does undertake efforts to eradicate illiteracy. It seems to be in its interest to keep the masses illiterate and thus uneducated. When a person is able to read and write he or she is at liberty to exercise his or her options about most situations. Visual and aural information is temporary and not as accessible as printed matter. One can buy a newspaper or visit a library for pittance whereas one needs large sums of money to have access to visual and aural media. Moreover, it is only passive access. Response or contribution to such a media is virtually impossible for a poor and illiterate person.

Let us look at the base of literary. There are two types of methods to make people learn how to read and write: Alphabetical and pictorial. Pictorial or hieroglyphics is older than alphabetical representation of sound. Most pictorial languages are dead albeit Chinese and its derivatives. Virtually all Indo-European languages are alphabetical. Alphabet is the accoutrement of alpha and beta: first and second letters of a series of letters representing sounds. According to latest research, Phoenicians formalized sounds into letters, some nine thousand years ago. Conjugation and syntax formulation came much later.

It is not the aim of this piece to discuss merits or demerits of one system or the other. The main aim of this article is to draw attention and show that we can wipe out illiteracy from our planet like the proverbial Small Pox albeit with meagre resources. Such an effort needs no help from the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) or other philanthropic organizations. They are high profile entities squandering the resources of their donors with ritzy-glitzy performance that only benefits their own ilk. I have no faith in such organizations. It is my personal view. Neither have I to justify nor defend it. Present illiteracy does. There are more sick, illiterate and hungry people on this planet than before.

The idea is very simple and practical. It is based on Hungarian-Jewish Physicist Leo Szilard. In the scientific community, it is known as the 'Chain Reaction'. In the late thirties of the last century Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner successfully split the indivisible atom: Uranium into two separate atoms. Szilard, while in London working on a scientific paper, conceptualized the most important aspect of this split that became the basis of huge energy extraction from an atom and also became the basis of the atomic bombs. In its simplistic format, one neutron, possessing neither negative nor positive electrical charge penetrates through 92 orbiting electrons of a Uranium atom, strikes its nucleus, shatters it, releasing energy and neutrons. These neutrons individually penetrate and shatter the nucleus of other atoms, releasing energy, and other neutrons. The process continues ad infinitum or until all the material has been exhausted.

What has 'Chain Reaction' to do with eradication of illiteracy?

'Chain reaction' will eradicate illiteracy among illiterate adults. It is much easier to teach illiterate adults how to read and write than illiterate children. Why? Adults have already stored thoughts, vocabulary and concepts. They can express their ideas verbally. The only missing link is its written format: letters and their conjugation. An adult knows what does it mean: Water, Food, Fight, Fear and so on. An illiterate adult does not recognize when it is presented in written format. He or she only recognizes it in its verbal or visual format.

Such a programme can start by all of us, individually and collectively. Each of us who can read and write take the firm commitment and responsibility to teach just 10 illiterate adults to read and write. Actually, reading and writing are synonymous. When a person can read, that person can copy the written words: writing. It is not that difficult. Such an educator needs no Ph.D. in education to accomplish this simple task. I reckon it would take no more than six months for an illiterate adult to learn how to read and write. It also does not require large budgets or resources to start such a programme and conclude it. It is simple and it is private. In the case where abject poverty prevails a literate person can gather the illiterates individually, preferably, collectively under a tree and scratch the alphabet on the sand with a stick. An hour of such effort should be sufficient to engrave the pictorial form of alphabet in the brains of the learner. Conjugation of letters shall follow. Illiterate adults are more enthusiastic and diligent than children are. 'They want to learn'.

Illiterate adult's responsibility, after becoming literate, is to teach 10 other illiterate adults. That is all. It is simple. It is workable and it is our individual responsibility and obligation to eradicate the scourge of illiteracy.

Now let us look at the calculations on the basis if only one person starts the 'chain reaction'.

Modus operandi of the assignment can be summarized as follows. The volunteer allocates a maximum of 10 hours a week for this assignment for six months. It can be an hour or two in evening and two to three or four during the weekends or it can be two hours every other day and four during the weekends. It is a flexible system. There are no hard and fast rules in this programme. The aim of the programme is to familiarize the illiterate to basic reading skills and nothing more. The tutor and the students can decide the time, place and method of learning. It may be individually or collectively, depending upon the circumstance and situation of the tutor and students. The venue can be a private place or a public place. The time for teaching and learning will depend on the availability of the tutor and the students. It may be in evening for two hours in an evening or an hour for two evenings or one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening.

The volunteer tutor can decide the methodology of teaching suitable to the tutor and learner's needs. The tutor and learners should be able to meet and learn from other tutors' and learners' experience. Let us not forget that the learner is expected to become a tutor after six months or even before. It would be a great joy for a learner to become a tutor.

No certification or recognition is envisaged but if the tutor and learners want then they should decide on the type. The best certificate and recognition is the leaner itself that he or she can read, write, and pass on the skills to others. Let us look at the possible outcome of such an effort, INDIVDUALLY and COLLECTIVELY:

Starting with 1 person 100 persons 1,000 persons

End of:

Six months 10 1,000 10,000

One year 100 10,000 100,000

One and half year 1,000 100,000 1,000,000

Two years 10,000 1,000,000 10,000,000

Two and half years 100,00 10,000,000 100,000,000

Three years 1,000,000 100,000,000 1,000,000,000

Three and half years 10,000,000 1,000,000,000

Four years 100,000,000

It might look like a statistical fantasy. Figures do not lie. Even if we achieve half of what we have projected, in less than four years, all the adult population of Nigeria, who were illiterate, should be reading and writing just by the effort one individual. It is not a long time. It is not a long time for humanity. Imagine if only 100 individuals start this activity, the results would be staggering. Imagine if 1,000 literate undertake such a task. They would have hard time finding illiterate people to continue their efforts.

The aim of this programme is not to replace educational institutions or educate the illiterate. Education is their responsibility, once they become literates. If they wish they could or would continue, if they did not, it is their fare. We only wish to teach the illiterate adults how to read and write, and wipe out this scourge of our society.

Once they learn the alphabet and come to know as to how to read and write our job is completed. It is not a large commitment. It is only for six months or 24 weeks making a total of 240 hours. It is nothing. We waste more time watching rubbish on the television and talking nonsense at the local beer joint. Besides, it is only for six months not for a lifetime. Not only we should but also we must. It should be the first obligation of literates to wipe out illiteracy.

-Zaidi, a scientist wrote in this piece from Abuja