With my question “How many illiterate at the conference in Bamako” I  wanted to draw attention to a problem that slows down the process of bringing literacy to adults in Burkina (and probably also in other countries in the region). The majority of politicians, public servants and people in charge of national education are unable to read, write and calculate correctly in their native language. In a restricted – but yet important – sense, they could be described as “illiterate in their mother tongue”.

The consequences of such a state are countless. Some examples: 

• At the post office, the county council and other public institutions,  a notice written in the local language is nowhere to be found. All birth certificates and personal documents of identification and nationality are issued in French exclusively.

• If one of the elder boys in a rural family has “been successful”,  that is if he has had the good fortune of going on to secondary school and higher education in the city, the letters he will send home to his village will be written in French.

• In secondary school and at higher education level, students are rarely encouraged to improve their proficiency in their native local language. Most of them are never asked to learn to read and write in the language they still use in conversation with one another! They tend to lose interest in the languages spoken in their villages. To them only the French language, used by the national administration and at exams, deserves an effort.

Therefore, it is difficult for an adult, who continues to live in the village, to understand why he or she should take the trouble to learn to read, write and count in the native language.

As repeatedly stressed in Bamako, the most important objective is to have literacy included in a strong political agenda, so that the African states recognise it as a priority and an inalienable right. It all then boils down to deciding how such a strong political will should be translated into actual fact. I do not believe that the primary obstacle is a financial one.

If Africa wants to lift itself out of illiteracy, a revaluation of its languages is a necessity. There must be a change of heart and mind among the elite, so that they cease to despise their mother tongue. Why is it that many, when venturing to write something in their native language, will gladly make three mistakes in a single word, while they would find it unacceptable to make one sole error on a full page in French?

On the other hand there would be little purpose in teaching adults reading and writing skills and then leave them in a void. It is vital that people who have just learnt to read have access to reading material in their language. It is disheartening to see farmers, who have made the effort of completing a 2 month course, leave the training centre and go back to their fields without something interesting to read back home.

At an earlier stage I had made the following proposals:

1)  At the end of a literacy course  teachers should provide participants with new reading material which they can take home. Every teacher should be able to provide books for the new “graduates”.

2)  Organisers of literacy courses ought to offer a one year subscription to a newspaper to participants who have learnt to read. A person declared “literate” should be entitled to such a subscription.

3)  In  court-yards in villages, where several inhabitants have learnt to read and write, a black-board (or green-board) in concrete should be put up for them to write on, just like the ones used by students in the city.

4)  In the villages (near the market, the church or the mosque), there could be a communal place for “writings on the wall” – for instance a wall of 2 metres by 2 metres, accessible from both sides, for contributions by people who have learnt to write and have information to share.

5)  After completing an initial and follow-up basic course, all participants should be given an opportunity to take part in a small 3-5 day refresher session adapted to their needs. Manuals exist to assist teachers in this task.

6)  All the various associations, NGOs and parishes involved in this educational work should double their efforts to supply the newly trained with texts written especially for them in their language. You could help us in the circulation of newspapers in local languages.

7)  All projects designed to help a partly illiterate population should include a reading/writing course in the local language.

I close on a more encouraging note. A few days ago I went to see the women working at the new dairy in Pa. They had just finished a training course in the fulfulde language, partly language course, partly technical training. Their accounts are kept in fulfulde. The books were very neat and accurate. With my pocket calculator I checked the accounts. And I did not discover a single error. I congratulated them. They returned my compliments with a wide smile, a true expression of their joy and pride!

Koudougou September 24, 2007

Maurice Oudet

Director, SEDELAN