Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-8kt4b Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-03T02:35:13.348Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Adult Literacy for Development in Mozambique

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Extract

The history of literacy learning in Mozambique proceeds through a number of sharply contrasting phases, and is particularly interesting in the way that it reveals its dependence on the political and economic strategy being practiced by the government. In each phase, the motivations of the providers and the seekers of access to literacy differ, as do the literacy results, in line with the prevailing relations of power, mode of production, and political situation.

Underlying this paper are two basic understandings about the provision and use of access to adult literacy:

—adult participation in literacy teaching-learning programs is first and foremost a question of motivation; and

—large-scale successes in literacy programs are dependent on factors that raise and sustain that motivation, and therefore, principally on the power, legitimacy, and encouragement of the state (Lind and Johnston, 1986).

The effects of literacy on society seem reasonably clear; at least, it is clear that societies with a high level of literacy are materially better off than those with a low level, and that the presence of widespread literacy skills in a society substantially affects its culture, relationships, power structure, and economy. To an extent this has given rise to the idea that education has the value of material capital and that economic development will take place if (and maybe only if) enough effort is invested in education. A careful look soon shows, however, that one is rather faced with a typical chicken and egg issue. Consequently, heavy investment in the promotion of literacy skills in a society does not automatically guarantee economic development. Nor is it necessarily satisfactory to begin by defining development as synonymous with economic growth.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, Perry. 1962Portugal and the end of Ultracolonialism,” New Left Review nos. 15, 16, 17.Google Scholar
Chissano, Joaquim. 1974Speech at the Investiture of the Transitional Government, 20 September 1974.” In Datas e Documentos da Histôria da FRELIMO (Frente da Libertaçao de Mozambique), 208214. Maputo: Imprensa Nacional.Google Scholar
Gasperini, Lavinia. 1984Direction Culturelle education et développement au Mozambique,” Revue Tiers-Monde: Culture et développement 25: 97 (Jan-Mar).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnston, Anton. 1984Education in Mozambique, 1975-84: A Review.” SIDA Education Division Documents 15, Stockholm.Google Scholar
Johnston, Anton. 1989 Study, Produce, and Combat! Education and the Mozambican State, 1962-84. Stockholm: Academy Press.Google Scholar
Johnston, Anton, Amigo, Antonio, Elijah, Felisberto, Agy, Jacinto, and Constantino, Jose. 1989Resultados, Conclusoes e Recomendaçoes do Estudo em Relaçao à Educaçao e Formaçao da Força de Trabalho em Empresas sob a Tutela do Ministério de Construçao e Aguas.” Unpublished consultancy team report. Ministry of Construction and Water Affairs, Maputo, June.Google Scholar
Lind, Agneta. 1988 Adult Literacy Lessons and Promises: Mozambican Literacy Campaigns, 1978-82. Stockholm: Academy Press.Google Scholar
Lind, Agneta and Johnston, Anton. 1986Adult Literacy in the Third World: A Review of Objectives and Strategies.” SIDA Education Division Documents 32, Stockholm.Google Scholar
Machel, Samora M. 1982Organizar a Sociedade para Vencer o Subdesenvolvimento,” Notícias, Maputo, 17 February.Google Scholar
Marshall, Judith. 1988Literacy, State Formation, and Peoples Power: Education in a Mozambican Factory,” PhD diss., University of Toronto.Google Scholar
Peixoto, Valentina. n.d. (1974?) “O Seminàrio de Bagamoyo.” Unpublished seminar report typed after April 1974 seminar, in file at DNAEA, Maputo.Google Scholar