102 Book R~vieW$
Literacy in Development. People, Language, Power, Brian V Street (ed), Report of a
Seminar, Education in Development, Kings Lynn. Norfolk, UK. 1990 (74pp. £4.50).
Literacy in Development. People, Language, Power is the report of a seminar which was
part of the British contribution, spearheaded by Education for Development (ED), to the
International Literacy Year 90 (ILY 90). Its objective was to "direct the attention of the
general public to matters related to literacy in Third World developing countries - to increase
their awareness and understanding" (P2).
The publication is the product of the efforts of 118 participants. It contains two valuable
as yet unpublished Keynote Addresses by Manzoor Ahmed (on Literacy and Development)
and Lalage Brown (on Literacy and Women). and the workshop papers and verbatim
renditions of the four plenary sessions. The workshops follow a logical progression: NFE
and Development, Definitions and Politics of Literacy, The Setting up and Maintenance of
a literacy Programme, and, fmally, Teaching and Learning Methodologies and Materials.
The reader is presented with ten contributions and reflections on the potential role of
literacy in (rural) development inthe nineties. These contributions are held together by the
bonding compound of the organisers' introductory and concluding comments, and the
participants' reactions during the plenaries.
The organisers question whether the basic dilemma of "whether literacy has any role at
all inrural development" was addressed in any meaningful way in the Conference (Rogers,
p4). If it ended, in that respect, on a rather inconclusive note, it may be because the
participants were predominantly practitioners whose basic problem "was one of strategies,
not principles" (p4), and because the organisers themselves failed to properly set out,
because of time constraints, "the theoretical context".
Ontheonehand there is aremarkableconsistency and willingness to stick with the major
foci of the Conference: People, Language, Power. These three aspects are well represented
in the powerful investigations into literacy and language by Street, Jules and Saraswathi.
The wider implications are further emphasised by Ahmed's contextualisation of literacy in
the freezing economic climate of the 1990's (he uses the image of a water bucket with a large
hole in the bottom when referrirtg to absolute illiteracy figures - North America has 30
millionfimctional illiterates). Brown points to the added problems of women's 'invisibility'
within this already dire picture. MacCaffrey (on the student writing movement in Britain)
and Saraswathi and Mukhapadyaya, in the context of India, link up with Freirean tradition
and an understanding of liberating education and its attendant participatory, empowering
methodologies, curricula and materials.
The conference, on the other hand, avoids paying the same attention to an exploration
of possibly empowering meanings of development, particularly rural development, as it
does to literacy. A further weakness occurs when it 'broadens out' into the field of Non
Formal Education (NFE), without going into the historical and ideological foundations of
this essentially negative way of describing what are often independent, positive and self
directed educational activities. The two case studies ofNFE initiated, set up, fmanced and
maintained from the centre (Alexander and Townsend Coles) are not counterbalanced by
grassroots-initiated NFE. The 'People, Language and Power' connections of these
examples are, at best, tenuous. Would it not have been better, in view of this, to concentrate
Book Rt!v~ws 103
on what Jomtein (1990) identifies as the real literacy.
Despite some inconsistencies and a lack of uniformity which, in a report such as this,
is not necessarily a weakness, the Conference does succeed in shedding light on ILY9O;and
the problematic of literacy in the next decade, putting them in the limelight. TI1e report
contains a wealth of information and insights, and is highly recommended for "those
interested in development, education and literacy in the Third World"
Reviewed byR E Carmen. Centre for Adult and Higher Education, University of Manchester,
Manchester, United Kingdom.
Reference
Jomtien (1990) '''Framework for Action' for the Nineties" in Bask Education, 8.
Ageing in Developing Countries, Ken Tout, Oxford University Press and HelpAge
International, Oxford, 1989 (xvi and 334 pp, £30, ISBN 0 198272790 hbk, 0 19827276
6pbk).
Doctoral dissertations rarely succeed in being transposed to readable and informative books.
This one manages, though I have some qualifications to make. Its success and its limitations
arise from the same cause, the unusual conditions under which the author completed his
work. Ken Tout worked fulltime for the UK-based NGO, HelpAge International, and
specialised on projects in South America for seven years.
The first six chapters of his work set the scene. The introductory chapter contains
defmitions of ageing, and points out how the extended family network ofsupport for elderly
is disintegrating; then the author discusses demographic data on the greying of populations;
analyses the impact of socioeconomic factors (rural decline, lack of social security,
migration, "ageism", malnutrition); reviews some surveys of the elderly in South America,
Africa, Western Pacific, Malta, and the Caribbean; looks at a selection of individual case
studies and themes focusing on those elderly who live in destitution, in isolation and in poor
health; and outlines the available information on existing social services (pensions, health
care, institutional social services) in different parts of the Third World.
The remaining five chapters discuss policies and projects for enhancing the lives of
elderly in developing countries. Experimental projects that provide income generation,
substitute support, andemphasise integration into alocaIcommunity are discussed: a bakery
run by elderly, specialising in delicacies of yesteryear; a laundry run on behalf of old
peoples' homes but open to the public; a fast-food outlet; weaving project; farms and
cooperatives. Tout also includes acomprehensive analysis of problems and mistakes in pilot
care projects for the elderly, but with relevance to other development projects - culturally
inappropriate project design, dishonesty, staff shortages, the difficulty of targeting the really
needy. The author then proposes a typology of three model programmes, at district,
metropolitan and national levels, and in a separate chapter concentrates on national
strategies on ageing.