Drawing the linkage between Adult literacy and MDGs 4, 5 and 6: evidence from Ghana

Introduction

The importance of adult education as part of lifelong learning is increasingly being recognised all over the world. Exponential growth of knowledge, rapid technological and societal changes, growing levels of initial education and the need to keep what has been learnt up to date, and the growing life expectancy of the population, have all contributed to an increase in the importance of adult and lifelong learning.

The adult and community education sector plays an important part in improving human capital. Human capital is defined as the knowledge, skills, competences and other attributes embodied in individuals that are relevant to economic activity (OECD 1998, p.9). Just like physical capital, human capital is subject to obsolesce and depreciation over time. Many participants use adult and community education to re-invest in their human capital and to build lifelong learning. Improvements in skills provide flow-on benefits to the person acquiring them and to the surrounding community. Improvements in the skills and abilities of people are additions to human capital. Empirical research shows that improvements in human capital are an important source of social and economic growth.

Ghana’s adult literacy program

The Government of Ghana in 2000 replaced the functional literacy skills project which began in 1992 with the National Function Literacy Program (NFLP). The main objective of the program is to make literacy and life skills accessible to the rural poor and the illiterate population in Ghana. According to figures from the World Bank, Ghana’s adult literacy rate, adult total (i.e. percentage of people ages 15 and above) increased from 58 percent to 67 percent between 2000 and 2009 which appears very commendable according to regional standards.

The Non-Formal Education Division (NFED) of the Ministry of Education (MOE) is therefore responsible for the implementation of the functional literacy program which is to provide reading, writing and numeracy skills, and participation in community development and income generating activities (World Bank Document 1999:11). This program is available in all the districts in Ghana, and runs a 21-month cycle. Since its inception, the program has enrolled 2,821,973 (NFED, 2009).

The program’s contents among other things include subject matters on health, environment, civic awareness, income generating activities and education. The functional literacy classes, typically community-based, embark on many activities in their respective communities to raise the standard of living of the people as well as the development of the community. The functional literacy program since its inception has survived two phases of implementation by the NFED. Evidence from research conducted showed that limited results were achieved in the first phase regarding skills acquisition by participants but became significant as the years went on (Bunch, 2002). According to (Aoki, 2004), survey results from 1200 beneficiaries revealed that a high score of 80% was attained for reading skills. The administrators of NFED and other stakeholders of the NFLP have been reported to affirm the fact that the programme has helped to consolidate healthy and positive social life in communities.

Highlighting the linkage  

In the year 2000, the United Nations (UN) through its Millennium Declaration set out certain goals otherwise known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to be achieved by its member nations and their international development partners. These goals represent human needs and basic rights that every individual around the world should be able to enjoy - freedom from extreme poverty and hunger; quality education, productive and decent employment, good health and shelter; the right of women to give birth without risking their lives; and a world where environmental sustainability is a priority, and women and men live in equality.

As Ghana strives to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, it has become crucial for government and all stakeholders to accelerate the pace of social development of the rural areas through education. Education is an essential ingredient in ensuring the general well-being of a population and in strengthening people’s resilience to shocks that could have potentially damaging effects on their livelihoods. According to (CFSVA, 2008), at national level, 36% of household heads indicated to have completed JSS, 30% had no schooling at all, 13% completed SSS, 12% completed primary school and 8% had a higher educational background beyond SSS. Similar to the above mentioned literacy levels, geographic differences are striking: in Northern rural 76% of household heads had no schooling at all, followed by Upper West rural with 70%, 67% in Upper East compared to 9% of uneducated household heads residing in urban Accra. The study also found that, the higher the educational level of the household head, the better the family’s food consumption, the lower and the prevalence of malnutrition among children under 5 years and the more likely it is for their own children to currently attend school.

 The way forward

The United Nations (UN) MDGs report 2010 indicates that, though progress has been made, the targets are likely to be missed out by many regions. The UN has outlined the following as targets to be achieved by 2015.

MDGs 4, 5 and 6 respectively:

·       Reduce child mortality by 75%.

·       Reduce maternal mortality by 75%.

·       Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

A strategy to make majority of the citizens functionally literate is a sure way of achieving most of the MDGs. Education is highly linked with each of the goals outlined above.  Adult literacy levels (15 to 24 years) have been identified by the MICS (2006) with 68% literate women compared to 75% literate men at a national level. Large discrepancies appear in the rural areas of the country with just about half of the female population literate (55%) compared to 64% of the men. Literacy levels among women drastically decline with age: while 71% of girls between 15 to 19 years of age are able to read and write, only 64% of women between 20 to 24 years can.

As demonstrated by a number of researches there is a close link between education and the health of the populace. Research has related the educational levels of household heads to the likelihood of securing better livelihoods to reduce poverty and hunger; sending their children to school; reducing child mortality and improving maternal health; combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases and ensuring environmental sustainability (CFSVA, 2008).

Adult learners have also sought to display and articulate their knowledge acquired from the programme by staging dramas about everyday life issues such as the need for proper sanitation, the benefits of anti and post natal care, the need to educate the girl child, sleeping in treated mosquito nets, prevention and management of HIV/AIDS etc. But how has the Public Health Department (PHD) of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) partnered the NFLP to ensure that the adult illiterates, especially in rural Ghana are roped into the public education for the achievements of MDG 4, 5 and 6? It is therefore important to understand how the NFLP can be used as tool to mobilize communities to achieve MDGs 4, 5 and 6.

It has however become imperative to examine how the adult literacy program (NFLP) can be used as a tool for improving public health education. A sure way to approach this is to identify the areas of institutional cooperation between the PHD of GHS and the NFED’s NFLP for achieving MDGs 4, 5 and 6. Hopefully, the outcome can be applied in the redesigning of the NFED’s program to meet current trends and development needs of Ghana.