Adult Literacy in Nepal

Front matter

Publishing History: This report was published by the Institute of Nepal and Asian Studies, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Nepal in 1978.

Acknowledgements: This project was undertaken for the Research Centre of Nepal and Asian Studies, Tribhuvan University under: communication studies, matrix: 5.3 & 5.4 for the duration of one year. My first grateful thanks therefore go to the Director of the Centre, Dr. Prayag Raj Sharma for granting the finance and for letting us use the facilities under him. I am deeply indebted to Ms. Lindsay Freedman, who was not only an official consultant for four months, but also a friend and inspiration working closely together and offering editorial suggestions for the entire year. Also vary heart-felt thanks to Shree Narendra Pokhrel for his help as a research assistant, to the friendly members of Literacy House in Lucknow (India) for help in the construction of evaluation instruments, and to many others who helped and opened up. Ramesh Shrestha, Lecturer Department of English Tribhuvan University Kirtipur

Foreword: The present report embodies the findings of a project on "Adult Literacy in Nepal" completed in 1976-77. This programme has been implemented in Nepal for over two decades with the objective that non-literate adults of the most productive age group can get the benefit of education even though it had been denied them in their proper schooling age. Educational expansion work in Nepal would have received a great support from a vigorous adult literacy drive. But the present study shows how adult literacy programme has been kept alive only in name during these years in the paper works of the bureaucrats and has hardly got off the ground in its actual execution. It is really a most depressing story to hear of such a highly publicized programme. We, however, draw much consolation from the hope that a more sincere effort will be made in future to make a complete reappraisal of the programme both in terms of redefining the concept of literacy itself and the most effective strategy to attain it in the context of Nepal. Dr. Prayag Raj Sharma, Director Institute of Nepal & Asian Studies Tribhuvan University Kirtiput April 14, 1978 (Baisakh 1, 2035)

INTRODUCTION

1.1 The original plan of the project

The project was undertaken with the aim of producing a report of past achievements, current programs and problems, and future prospects for the spread of literacy from adult education in Nepal. The aim was to collect information on the work of all agencies significantly active in the field of literacy through adult education in Nepal both in historical and synchronic perspectives and to evaluate their contributions, with the main focus of evaluation on the more widespread agency, the Adult Education Section of His Majesty's Government. This necessitated the study of the available documents on the subject, both on adult education in general and adult education in Nepal. It also required field studies to acquaint ourselves with the implementation of the policies adopted and formulated by the AES, with the various teaching methods, materials, training of teachers, the qualitative and quantitative progress of the participants in terms of their number and their abilities to read and write, and finally, with the social and economic changes brought about by the achievement of literacy among the participants. It was also hoped that these enquiries would eventually lead to determining the level at which a person could be called literate in the Nepalese context, and how far existing programs seemed to achieve this level.

The work was then started collecting data or preparing materials for the history of literacy in Nepal, for the organization of current literacy programs, and, devising, the focal point of the study, evaluation instruments.

From the outset there was the limitation of the project in terms of time and staff. The project started in September 1976 and the report had to be finished by August 1977. There was one part-time researcher for the whole period, one part time research assistant and one consultant for four months. All these did some field work.

1.2 Methods of Study

The Study of the extent of the national involvement with literacy work in maters of its history obviously required an investigation of the documents and materials published by the sponsoring organizations and involved trying to meet with people who had acquired their literacy skills as a result of their participation in an adult education centre. Apart from the study of available documents, certain questionnaires where sent out to sponsoring organizations in order to get information on their participation in adult literacy work both past and present. Questionnaires were sent out specially to the AES, NWO, and UNESCO in Nepal.

The study of current adult literacy in the country required meeting the sponsoring agencies and visiting literacy centers. It was necessary to interview the personnel of these agencies to determine the extent of their involvement, their policies, and their administrative structures. By visiting literacy centers we hoped to acquaint ourselves with how these policies were implemented and what the problems were. Visiting centers to meet adult students and their teachers and conducting interviews and tests with them would acquaint us with their achievements and failure.

To assess the achievements and failures of literacy work and to find its correlation with such variables as ethnicity, language, geography, occupation, etc, a set of evaluation materials were constructed based on similar evaluation work1 done elsewhere. The evaluation materials consisted of six sections:

Evaluation Instruments

Literacy Test

The test of literacy included tests on reading, writing, arithmetic, and use of literacy skills. The target respondents were to be the adults who had their training in adult education in the past few years and those who were undergoing the training currently.

Questionnaires on Motivation

A series of questionnaires were built under this section in order to determine the degree of which the training that these adults had undergone or were currently undergoing was related to the interests of the participants and has been able to hold it. These questionnaires were designed to elicit responses on the expectations and the interests of the learners in textbook content, language, and generally on their own interests, enjoyment, satisfaction and achievements2.

The target respondents were the two types as above. There were two sets of questions, on for the LEP participants, the other for the FAEP participants.

Questionnaires on Social Change

The questionnaires in this section were designed to elicit response on certain simple indicators of change in the participants.

Teachers Questionnaires

Two sets of questionnaires, one for the teachers of FAEP and one for the teachers of LEP, were constructed in order to investigate their background, their opinions, the problems relating to language and ethnicity as they feel it to be, their own motivation, their achievements and failures, their opinions on the usefulness of the textbook and other materials used by them, their methods, problems of relapse into illiteracy, and others.

Community Elites Questionnaires

Lastly, a set of questionnaires for the community elites, that is, the members of the local panchayat and other community leaders was designed to find out their views about literacy, the impact of literacy on the society, and their own involvement in the work. Sampling

Since the evaluation work involved both LEP and FAEP, the selection of places for field work had the initial constraint that the districts chosen for the work should have programs run both in the past and at present. Another constraint was the division of the country into such horizontal axes as east and west, and the vertical axes such as the northern hills and southern plains – a division the truth of which is recognized as both sociological and political. Keeping in mind the above requirements and constraints four districts were selected for field work by random sampling; two in the hills and two in the southern plains, one each from the east and the west respectively. These districts were: Kavre (eastern hills), Gorkha (western hills), Banke (western plains), and Jhapa (eastern plains). With the limited staff and time it was not considered possible to reach all adult education centers in each of these districts. So the aim was to take the places where a FAEP was run or running as the centre and then take the LEP centers clustered around the above, if possible, by random sampling. The lists of the LEP and FAEP centers were to be taken from the DEO.

Pre-testing

Pre-testing of the evaluation instruments was considered essential and a primary school was selected in a village outside the Kathmandu Valley for this purpose. This school was listed in the DEO office as having run a literacy class the previous year and as running a current literacy class. There was a FAEP of Agriculture running at the district head quarters also.

1.3 Change of Plan

A fundamental change in the plan of the project came about as a result of our experiences in pre-testing and in the first district selected for field work. The story is as follows:

Having prepared all evaluation instruments, pre-testing was started in December 1976. All preliminary questionnaires from the DEO were completed and the teacher of the selected centre was interviewed. It was reported by the teacher that the current class had not yet started although it was already late for the year. He spoke fluently about previous classes he claimed to have conducted. On being requested he agreed to find some new literates from the previous year for us to interview the following week. The following week he produced three adults who claimed to have taken adult literacy classes the previous year. Tests were given to them and interviews conducted. It became clear from circumstantial evidence that none had attended an adult literacy class. It appeared they were all literate (e.g. they could read the complete instruments for the test) and that they had not attended a class the previous year (e.g. they gave completely conflicting information about the so-called class). All the investigators were convinced that no class had taken place the previous year.

This was our first practical meeting with what we had been warned about by certain people involved closely in adult education.

Because of the shortage of time and because there was suspicion now on the value of the ‘scientific’ evaluation instruments – both from our first pre-testing and from our increasing contact with the adult education set-up, we decided to go straight into the first field work district selected by random sampling. It was decided to use this district as another pre-testing project.

The first field work confirmed our suspicious. It was impossible in the space of 2 weeks to find a genuine, as opposed to a pseudo, new literate. Here is a brief outline of this first field work: From the Adult Education Section, Ministry of Education, a District Survey Form was filled, that is, information was obtained about the number of LEPs and FAEPs and other related facts about the selected districts. The same form was filled at the DEO. This was supposed to check on the information obtained from the AES. It was found that they did not tally much. At the DEO, lists of names of the students who had participated in the previous year’s literacy classes were obtained for the centers selected for evaluation. To avoid arousing suspicion and hostility a local man was brought in to help obtain information on the people listed and to locate them. To summarise what appears in more detail in chapter III, all the people on the lists who were identified could or would not have attended an adult literacy class. They had been dead for some time, had attended formal schooling, etc.

Parallel to searching for new literates, current literacy classes were sought in order to obtain information from participants and to observe. Almost none of the literacy classes said to be running currently in the field work area were in fact operating.

We had to assume, and this turned out to be correct, that the first field work area was not a-typical. We had to assume that there was little likelihood finding any or enough literates to be able to use our carefully prepares instruments. It had taken a lot of time in the field work area to ascertain the absence of literacy classes. It was, therefore, clearly a waste of time and money to try and obtain a random sample. The three other selected districts, which happened to be little known by the field workers, were abandoned. It was decided that the most useful and revealing information would be obtained by doing field work in two districts intimately known by the researchers, namely Bhojpur and Dhankuta. All ideas of obtaining ‘scientific data’ from the field work were abandoned. Instead, the researchers went into the field with the simple aim of trying to find some sign of adult literacy, both in the terms of new literates of the past year or two years, or in the form of current literacy classes. They were to use the evaluation instruments when or if possible.

As it turned out, intensive field work in Bhojpur and Dhankuta and very few field works in Dadeldhura and Kathmandu confirmed the findings of the first field work. The report then contains no evaluation facts or figures. It contains, in fact, nothing on the evaluation which was supposed to be the focus of the project, because there was nothing found which could be evaluated. The chapter on field work is a simple account of what was found in the field areas.

1.4 Final shape of the report

The report is divided into 8 sections. The first chapter is the Introduction which is a brief account of the project in terms of plan and implementation. The second Chapter, the history of adult education in Nepal, is an attempt to recreate a clear picture of the history of adult education in the country by piecing together reports and documents as far as available. The chapter presents the history from the pre-revolution period (before 1950) to the period just before the NESP was introduced (1970).

The third chapter, the organizations of current adult education in Nepal, is an attempt to draw a picture of the adult education program at the present time in the country, based on published documents answers to our questionnaires, and our own experiences.

The fourth chapter presents a summary of previous reports.

Chapter five, report on field work, is a description if adult literacy as we found it in the of the field work carried out in the districts of Kavre, Bhojpur, Dhakuta and of minor enquiries in the districts of Dadeldhura and Kathmandu during the months of January-March.

Chapter six contains our commentaries on adult education in matters of policy, implementation, textbook, and other issues of literacy.

Chapter seven contains broad recommendations.

Chapter eight presents conclusion.

The appendix contains tables and graphs, mostly incomplete because of lack of data.

The reference contains list of publications consulted.

1.5 Limitations

1.The history of adult education in Nepal is based on government and other available reports and documents. The picture presented here is therefore valid in so far as these reports are. Even with these reports all the necessary facts and figures could not be presented because of the often quoted reason that the Singh Durbar fire burnt the documents.

2.Because of the frequent changes in staff, very few of those personnel who had been involved in adult literacy prior to 1970 were available for interviews.

3.The account of the organization of current adult education which draws to a large extent on documents and reports, and certain responses to our questionnaires, again, is valid only in so far as the latter are valid. It is our strong suspicion that the extent of adult education in Nepal is perhaps not as extensive and successful as these agencies lead us to believe.

4.It was often extremely difficult to obtain information about current literacy work and its organization. If relevant facts are omitted, crucial or minor, it is because we were unable to find them.

5.The areas surveyed are a few places in the district of Kavre, Bhojpur, Dhankuta, and even fewer in Dadeldhura and Kathmandu. The impression given by these surveys may not be generalized for the whole country, since, as has been explained above, this was not a random sample, and personnel and time available for field work was extremely limited.

6.For the reasons mentioned above, the methods and instruments were not used in strict schedule during the field work. Of necessity the report on field work is generally impressionistic.

7.For the reason mentioned above, the chapter on field work presents no quantifiable information, or scientific method. It is a simple description of the findings of field work.

8.The tables are not completed in the appendices because the necessary information was not available.

2. HISTORY OF ADULT EDUCATION IN NEPAL

2.1 Pre-nineteen hundred and fifty

The usual tendency is to trace the history of adult education in Nepal to some distant half-historical, if not mythical, past, to the ‘comparatively undocumented world’ of the kings of ancient times who had to their credit one or two festivals ‘calculated to advance adult education’.1 However, this could not possibly have affected the illiteracy among the mass in any meaningful way, especially when it compounds with the fact that it was mostly only the people born in the Brahmin castes who took to reading and writing in a highly specialized Hindu society.

The literacy rate estimated for the whole nation prior to 1950 is 1%.2 This low literacy rate has been ascribed to the educational policy of the Rana regime for 104 years before 1950 which was one of opposition to mass education.3 Altogether there were 256 primary schools throughout the country. Deva Shamsher, one of the Rana Prime Ministers, is reported to have opened 150 primary schools in and around 1901 when he decreed that any community which could provide 50 students should be given a teacher and free education. However, they were closed down as soon as the family feud drove him out of the power. His curriculum included the three R’S, and some readings of history and geography.4

Padma Shamsher, another Rana Prime Minister, also committed himself to schooling and in 1948, under the basic education system, adult education centers in 5 villages (in Devtapani, Swanra, Chyanpata, Gashahar, and Pustun) of Lamjung district were reported as open with adult participants up to 50 years of age.5

Some literacy also came, and continues to come, from India, from the centers of Brahmin and Buddhistic learning. Some literacy came, and continues to come, from the soldiers serving abroad as Gurkhas who return home after the completion of their service. According to British and Indian estimates, about 3,000 Gukha soldiers are made fully literate each year in the British and Indian armies.6

The educational situation in Nepal by 1950 may be summarized by the following table:7

Illiteracy statistics for the period before 1950 are given as follows:9

Year of census survey Age Level Illiterate Population Percentage of Illiterates

Total Male Female Total Male Female 1952-54 14+ 4,808,919 2,190,869 2,618,050 94.9 90.0 99.4

2.2 The First Five Year Plan (1956/57-1960/61)

The conscious adult literacy drive for the masses began in Nepal only with the first Five Year Plan for the country. However, it involved preparation of not less than 3 years. In 1952 The Government of Nepal established an Education Board to organize education in Nepal. The meeting of Education Board members in November 1953 suggested that a National Commission for Planning Education for Nepal be appointed to survey existing educational facilities and to prepare a scheme for national universal education in Nepal. This Commission was to include adult education.

In 1953 the Ministry of Education of the Government of Nepal, in co-operation with the United States Operation Mission (U.S.O.M.), invited Dr. Frank Laubach of the World Literacy Foundation to advise the government on adult education. Dr. Laubach set to work together with a team of three educationists. This team prepared a set of five charts, a primer, and a second reader in four parts. The primer contained thirteen lessons and the second readers about twenty five lessons each. The charts contained alphabets according to the Lauback method.10

On March 1, 1954 (reported sometimes as March 8), the Nepal Government and U.S.O.M. signed an agreement to design and undertake the responsibility for adult education in Nepal. The immediate goal of this undertaking was the elimination of illiteracy. In order to administer and carry out the program such personnel as an adult education officer, an assistant to him, a radio education officer, four field organizers, an illustrator, and two typists were also employed.

A Teacher Training Center opened this year.

The Nepal National Education Planning Commission, appointed according to the suggestions of the Education Board in 1953, presented its mimeographed report11 to the Minister of Education on March 1, 1955. This report set out the guidelines for future adult education in Nepal. The Report recognized literacy as the first step in adult education.

The Report made the following recommendations

1.Following the reaching of literacy, the three R’s should be taken up, then religious textbooks, current affairs, and vocational education according to the needs of each locality. 12

2.Preparation of the textbooks by adult education experts. Construction of post literacy literature aimed to give skill and practice in reading newspapers, books, and magazines, and provide information and knowledge of problems and subjects of wide interest.

3.Wall newspapers, education poster, and maps with special issues for festivals and national holidays.

4.Easy language leaflets for home to home distribution.

5.Mobile projection vans and equipment ‘for the composite blend of entertainment and instruction to stimulate the desire for education and to waken interest in the various aspects of village or town improvement.’

6.Encouragement of traditional folk arts and crafts.

7.Solicitation of cooperation of students, social workers, and voluntary agencies.

The Commission set a goal of making literacy classes available to all who want them by 1975.

The Five Year Plan13 for education in Nepal, the first plan of this sort for the whole nation, was drafted in 1956 by the National Education Planning Commission which followed closely the policy contained in the Report. The Plan made adult literacy its second major target after primary schooling as it was considered ‘critically essential to the development and survival of democracy. 14

Targets for the National Plan Education in Adult Education15

Immediate 1960 1965 1975 Adult Education (Age 16+) 600 Literacy classes per year. 100,000 new literates by 1960, some other adult education. 100,000 new literates per year; extensive other adult education. Village libraries and radio for all. Universal voluntary availability of complete adult education program. Teacher Education 300 teachers of adult literacy

The estimated budget is as follows16

Adult Literacy Radio Education Total

No. of part time teachers No. of adult students 2 groups per year Teaching costs Administration and materials cost Personnel Equipment

I year 300 15000 54,000 50,000 5,000 50,000 159,000 II year 500 25000 50,000 50,000 5,000 25,000 170,000 III year 1000 50,000 180,000 75,000 5,000 25,000 285,000 IV year 1700 85000 306,000 75,000 5,000 25,000 411,000 V year 2500 125000 450,000 110,000 5,000 25,000 580000 Total 6000 300000 1,080,000 350,000 25,000 150,000 1,605,000

More than half of the costs for the first year available from U.S.O.M. 17

The plan stipulates teacher’s salaries as Rs. 45 per month for each 3 months course consisting of 65 periods of one hour each.

The implementation actually began only after the program was turned over in September 1956 to the Bureau of Adult Education which had been recently opened as a branch of the College of Education. The Bureau took up the programs in terms of six months, that is twice a year. The immediate purpose of the adult education program was defined by the Bureau as to spread literacy among the adult mass to make them aware of the problems of the country, able to think in terms of their daily and remote needs of life, express freely and meaningfully and to practice the democratic ways of life.18

After this two year’s preparation, the actual classes began to be set up19. By the following June (1957) 179 classes were reported as open. Opening new classes was felt to be an arduous task and the difficulty was ascribed to the unavailability of trained teachers, the meager number of field organizers, and the shortage of educational materials.

It is also reported that all the staff members and the four field organizers were given a short training course in the adult literacy program and the methods of using the material, charts, and other materials. A refresher course on the methods of teaching adults and using the materials was also given to the teachers.

During the second year of the plan (1957-58) 346 classes were opened and 4,280 illiterates were taught how to read. Arithmetic is reported as being taught only after a year of language instruction.

In spite of the target for starting 600 new literacy classes, only 139 literacy classes were started this year (1958-59) due to the problem reported as ‘the lack of cooperation of the inspectors and sub-inspectors’. Some more teaching materials were added to the total.21

The following years of the Plan show a progressive deterioration of the program.

Teacher Training for adult education.22

A Teacher Training Center opened in 1954 to run a training program for primary school teachers. The curriculum included methods in teaching adults. Several primary teachers and village social workers were recruited from six villages in Kathmandu and given refresher courses in adult education with special emphasis on methods of teaching. By 1955 more than 500 teachers and field workers were reported as trained.

The primary school teacher was recognized as the best qualified person in the community to promote interest in the literacy classes. Each trainee in the Training Centre was supposed to receive instruction and demonstrations and was encouraged to practice these skills on illiterate adults of their acquaintance. The method of teaching reading and writing is reported as being based on drill and practice. The teaching method is also reported as being the Laubach method. Each trainee was supposed to take with him one set of literacy materials from the training centers and to receive additional materials when a literacy class was established.

Field organizers were entrusted with the job of supervising various adult education centers and of reporting to headquarters on top of organizing literacy classes.

Radio Education

The ‘School-of-the-Air’ Education for adults from radio broadcasting, went into effect in Nepal on July 2, 1958. 125 radio sets together with 200 batteries and 125 loud speakers were distributed to different adult literacy classes. The Bureau had a modern sound-proof studio where scripts were taped and then sent out to Radio Nepal for broadcast. Adult literacy teachers were notified of the program schedules and were encouraged to have their students listen to the programs.

However, very few centers had any access to the radio sets, and the radio receiving sets were distributed to village in and around the Kathmandu valley only. No provision was made for maintaining these sets and there was no further distribution of additional sets.23 The program was discontinued in 1960.

Libraries

There were no more than 150 libraries started between 1953-1961 in the whole country and these were seriously lacking in books and other reading materials.

To conclude, during the First Five Year Plan period, the adult education program got off the ground in a vigorous way but deteriorated progressively towards the end. The College of Education Evaluation24 (1957) found that the period of training for the adult education teachers was very short and inadequate to give them any skill to educate adults and that the materials taught to them were not very comprehensive. Besides that, the course taught to the adults was found to be badly written. Wood and Knall also report that in 1961 the program lapsed. The literacy newspaper and other publication efforts were discontinued. They made the following comments: ‘The adult literacy program during the past decade can only be described as ‘erratic’…, the result has been wasteful as well ineffective in terms of the Commission’s goal. The reason is said to be the lack of any follow up materials.

Statistically speaking, instead of the proposed number of 100,000 adults to be made literate during the plan period and instead of the proposed 3,000 literacy classes only 47,950 adults were made literate and only 1917 classes were opened. Instead of training 2,500 part time teachers, the actual number of teachers trained did not exceed 500.

2.3 The Second Three Year Plan (1962/63-1964/65)

The National Committee appointed in 1961 recommended that materials should be prepared for the new literates to prevent them from relapsing into illiteracy. It was also suggested that social organizers be appointed in each of the 75 districts and that special arrangements be made to educate the blind, deaf, dumb and otherwise physically handicapped persons.

According to the Plan, 25 the target for the plan period was to teach more than 100,000 adults in literacy and open 4,050 adult education centers. The duration of classes was also to be extended from 6 months to 9 months although it remained 6 months when actually implemented. 26 Nearly 2,000 teachers were to receive training in adult education methods.

The Adult Education Section of the Government of Nepal in 1962 consisted of a Head, and assistant Head, and an assistant for women’s classes plus supporting staff of 14 organizers (1 per zone). The Section Head, one women’s worker and one field organizer were trained in the U.S. in 1961 and 1962 respectively. Over 50,000 copies of reading materials were distributed. Over 100 transistor radios equipped with extension loud-speakers were also distributed. The Section also broadcasted weekly programs over the radio. For women’s classes 45 hand operated sewing machines were distributed. 27

In addition 75 supervisors were appointed to supervise adult education classes in each of the 75 districts. The Panchayats were also asked to organize literacy classes.

The Unesco team28 in 1962 found that the several programs in adult education being administered by various ministries were not effectively coordinated. The team recommended that an Adult Education Coordinating Committee be established with representatives from several ministries and that a coordinator of Adult Education be appointed to develop a strong, unified and expanding program of adult education. They also recommended, among other things, that the literacy training be raised to 100,000 adults per year by 1970.