The authors discuss their recent study on Women’s Literacy and Information and Communication Technologies: Lessons that Experience has Taught us’ and highlights the key findings on the role ICT can play in reducing illiteracy among women.
About 18 percent of adults worldwide remain illiterate, the majority of them women and mostly from the poor sectors of society. How common is the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for women’s literacy training and what strategies can help ensure a project is successful?
Education and literacy have become extremely important for people’s personal, social and national development amid the rapid economic, technological and social changes currently taking place. However, while these technological changes have created what has become known as the “information society”, a massive 771 million adults remain illiterate worldwide. Almost all of these people live in developing countries, especially in South and West Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab states, where around 60 percent of the population is literate. Globally, women make up 64 percent of illiterate adults.
In 2003 the United Nations launched the UN Literacy Decade (2003 to 2012) in an attempt to tackle this huge problem, and aimed at achieving UNESCO’s Education for All goal of increasing literacy rates by 50 percent by 2015. As the relationship between illiteracy and poverty is well established, reaching the Literacy Decade goals is central to successfully achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Yet the interconnection between literacy and ICTs is currently not well understood by policymakers and literacy practitioners around the world.
Women’s illiteracy will only worsen the already serious problem of `digital divide’. A study by the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (as part of Commonwealth of Learning) shows that there are limited experiences in the use of ICTs for women’s literacy in the South Asian region. The study therefore reviews research to understand concepts, examine experiences, and highlight policy as well as implementation strategies in the use of ICTs for women’s literacy.
A primary focus of the study is to highlight why the problem of women’s illiteracy needs to be addressed, and what experiences exist in using ICTs to address illiteracy. After reviewing what have been some of the experiences of running literacy programmes for women in developing countries, the study then provides a brief description of the status, trends and problems relating to application of technology to adult literacy, with a special focus on India. Thereafter, the study analyses research experiences relating to the use of ICTs for women’s programmes, the use of ICTs for poverty alleviation, and women’s empowerment through ICTs, highlighting the lessons learnt.
The study offers a substantial list of strategies to be considered when using ICTs for women’s literacy training that include the following:
- Developing countries need to formulate a policy for the use of ICTs in adult literacy programmes that is both gender ‘exclusive’ and ‘inclusive’ within a gender equality framework. This would need to address poverty and include a rights-based approach.
- ICTs-based adult literacy projects must take into account the obstacles that women face and the issues limiting their participation in planning, project design, implementation and evaluation. Gender should be an integral part of the project process as early as possible.
- Using appropriate technology that is learner-centred and learner-friendly is the best way to ensure access by women. Many prefer a multi-media approach using the traditional and modern.
- The problem of high running costs needs to be addressed at the planning stage to ensure that projects are sustainable.
- An ICTs project for women must work through women’s organisations, which could provide resources support and organise training programmes.
Source(s):
‘Women’s Literacy and Information and Communication Technologies: Lessons that Experience has Taught us’, Commonwealth of Learning, by Anita Dighe and Usha Vyasulu Reddi, 2006 (PDF) Full document.
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