Literacy and adult education have always been held up at conceptual and policy levels with very lofty ideals in national development and in creation of an equitable society. Several developing countries, including India, had experimented and are still experimenting with different approaches and models of providing literary, some successfully and some not so successfully. However, literacy and adult education have not been on the priority list of social science research community, or on the priority policy agenda of the governments in many developing countries. As a result, a scholarly critique of the concepts, theories, and the programmes relating to literacy and adult education, has been scanty and scattered.
The volume, based mainly on the writings on literacy and adult education during the last two and half decades, seeks to fill this void by bringing together scholarly research writings on a range of related themes, covering both conceptual and theoretical dimensions as well as experiments at the field level.
A. Mathew is Fellow at National University of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi. He also served on the faculty of National Institute of Adult Education. He worked with UNDP and UNESCO for a year as Resource Person and Moderator of Education Community and served as Consultant to UNESCO for many projects and studies on literacy and adult education. He did his M.Phil., and Ph.D. in Education from Jawaharlal Nehru University. His areas of interest, work, research and publications include history and policy dimensions of education and the literacy movement. He conducted detailed study of the literacy movement in at least a dozen districts in different states, some of which were published in Leading the Way: New Initiatives in Adult Education, edited with Vandana Jena, former DG (NLM).
Jandhyala B G Tilak is Professor at the National University of Educational Planning and Administration. Doctorate from the Delhi School of Economics, Tilak taught in the University of Delhi and in the Indian Institute of Education, and as a Visiting Professor University of Virginia, Hiroshima University, and Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, besides working on the research staff of the World Bank. Recipient of Swami Pranavananda Saraswati award of the UGC and Dr Malcolm Adiseshiah award, Dr Tilak has published extensively in the area of education and development, including a dozen books and more than 250 research papers. Dr Tilak was the President of the Comparative Education Society of India. He is also the Editor of the Journal of Educational Planning and Administration.
Foreword
R. Govinda
Preface
1. Adult Education: Indian Perception in an Evolutionary Perspective
A. Mathew and Jandhyala B.G. Tilak
PART I: ADULT EDUCATION IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT
2. Indian Adult Education in the Context of Global Scenario:A Critical and Comparative Appreciation
A. Mathew
3. Literacy and the Concept of Adult Education: Colonial Contextand the National Quest
Joseph Bara
4. Eradicating Illiteracy as a Tool for Poverty Alleviation and Rural Transformation in Tanzania
Suleman Sumra
5. Literacy Development in Asia: Problems and Prospects
R. Govinda
PART II: ANALYSIS OF LITERACY IN INDIA
6. India's Literacy Panorama
Mahendra K. Premi
7. Growth and Regional Inequality in Literacy in India
Jandhyala B.G. Tilak
8. Impact of Primary Education on Literacy: An Analysis of Census2001 Preliminary Data
Arun C. Mehta
9. Trends and Determinants of Rural Literacy among ScheduledCaste Population: A State Level Analysis
A. Narayanamoorthy and B.N. Kamble
10. Inter-Household and Gender Equity, Efficiency and theMeasurement of Literacy
S. Subramanian
11. A Decomposition Model of Growth of Literacy in India
Shri Prakash, Tarujyoti Buragohain and Abha Gupta
PART III: ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF LITERACY
12. Economic Benefits of Adult Literacy Interventions
John Cameron and Stuart Cameron
13. Is Functional Literacy a Prerequisite for Entering the LabourMarket?: An Analysis of the Determinants of Adult Literacyand Earnings in Ghana
Niels-Hugo Blunch and Dorte Verner
PART IV: LITERACY AND GENDER
14. Literacy and Gender: When Research and Policy Collide
Nelly P. Stromquist
15. Gender Issues in Literacy Education
Ila Patel and Anita Dighe
16. The Role of Adult Education in Reducing Class and GenderDisparities
Anita Dighe
PART V: LITERACY CAMPAIGNS IN INDIA
17. Total Literacy Campaigns in India: A Study of Their Organisationand Cost-Effectiveness
N.V. Varghese
18. Total Literacy and Continuing Education in Kerala
P. Gopinadhan Pillai
19. Grassroots View of Total Literacy Campaign: Petachua Village in Durg District Madhya Pradesh
A. Mathew
20. Mopping the Floor and Closing the Taps: Linkages between TotalLiteracy Campaign and Elementary Education
Vinod Raina
21. Sustaining Literacy in a Non-Literacy Milieu: PLC Experiences Warrant Change in Policy and Perception
A. Mathew
22. Evaluating Literacy Campaigns: Issues and Prospects
Nitya Rao and R. Govinda
Contributors
Index