Attack On Illiteracy

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31042, 23 April 1966, Page 15

Attack On Illiteracy

The goal of Liberia’s present campaign is to wipe out illiteracy by 1972. The illiteracy rate for the country as a whole is 86.7 per cent in the 20-24 age group, increasing gradually to 94.2 per cent in the 45-54 age group.

Present plans put first priority on the expansion of the Klay Fundamental Education Centre for training in literacy teaching and community development—established in 1954 with Unesco’s assistance—and the opening of at least two more centres in areas of major economic activity.

To help carry out the programme, the government plans to train a large group of part-time literacy instructors and to use English as the language of instruction. This will avoid the dispersal of efforts and resources which has limited the progress of literacy campaigns in the past. Modern transportation facilities will enable classes to be organised in remote villages and townships of the interior where two-thirds of Liberia’s population live and where illiteracy is highest. To meet the shortage of suitable reading materials for beginners and new literates, the government is seeking to set up a printing plant big enough to produce textbooks for the whole country, and to secure for Liberian authors the rights to adapt books by foreign authors to Liberian conditions. (UNESCO Features.)