ROLE OF LIBRARIES IN ERADICATING ILLITERACY IN BANGLADESH, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE SITUATION IN THE SAARC COUNTRIES
INTRODUCTION
Illiteracy is a universal problem, and even Europe and America arc not free from this scourge. Illiteracy is not a problem peculiar to South Asia. It is estimated that in 1995 there were 885.1 millions of illiterate people in the world.1 In the 25th September 1989 issue of Newsweek, an article titled “When Europeans can not read” reported that 16 million Europeans are illiterates. To arrest this embarrassing situation, the European Commission planned to declare 1990 the “European Book and Reading Year.” 2
Illiteracy is a major hindrance to the programme of human development, and the universality of the problem has led the UNESCO to declare the year 1990 “The International Year of Literacy.” To focus the whole world’s attention to it, an international education conference on the theme was organized in March 1990 in Thailand by UNESCO in collaboration with UNICEF, UNDP, and the World Bank. In doing so, UNESCO wanted to draw the attention of the whole world focusing on illiteracy, so that it can be wiped out by the year 2000.2
The situation of adult illiteracy in SAARC countries
The South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) was formally launched in Dhaka in December 1985.3 The heads of seven Asian countries jointly pledged to work together for a common future. Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka are the members of SAARC, which comprises one-fifth of the world’s population. Table 1 shows the distribution of illiterate population in the SAARC countries.
TABLE 1 . Illiterate population in the SAARC countries
| Country | Year of census | Illiterate population | Rural illiterates % | |
| Category | No. of population | |||
| Bangladesh | 1981 | Urban | 3,992,749 | 74.5 |
| Rural | 28,930,334 | |||
| Bhutan | 1995 estimates | 558,000 | 57.8 | |
| India | 1981 | Urban | 34,856,080 | 67.3 |
| Rural | 203,241,667 | |||
| Maldives | 1995 estimates | 10,000 | 6.8 | |
| Nepal | 1981 | Urban | 306,572 | 81.3 |
| Rural | 6,691,576 | |||
| Pakistan | 1981 | Urban | 7,144,396 |
83.2 |
| Rural | 27,569,428 | |||
| Sri Lanka | 1981 | Urban | 143,572 |
15.2 |
| Rural | 1,128,412 | |||
Illiteracy in SAARC countries constitute a serious socio-economic and political problem. The figure for some individual countries is as high as 60% or more. Table 2 shows the percentage of male and female illiterate population in the SAARC countries.
TABLE 2. Situation of illiterate population in the SAARC countries in 1995 1
| Country | Total of percentage illiterates | Male (%) | Female (%) |
| Bangladesh | 61.9 | 50.6 | 73.9 |
| Bhutan | 57.8 | 43.8 | 71.9 |
| India | 48.0 | 34.5 | 62.3 |
| Maldives | 6.8 | 6.7 | 7.0 |
| Nepal | 72.5 | 59.1 | 86.0 |
| Pakistan | 62.2 | 50.0 | 75.6 |
| Sri Lanka | 9.8 | 6.6 | 12.8 |
CAUSES OF ADULT ILLITERACY
In this paper, adult illiteracy means to cover the population of 15 years and above and who can not read, write or do elementary arithmetic. The causes of adult illiteracy are many. Only the major ones, i.e. economic and socio-historical causes, are highlighted here.
a. Economic causes
The economics of the countries of South Asia are among the largest and poorest in the world. They belong to the group classified by the World Bank as the ‘low-income countries’: their per-capita income is about 25% of the average for all the less-developed countries.4 A comparative analysis of GDP of some developed .and SAARC countries is shown in Table 3, which shows how the SAARC countries are economically weak.
TABLE 3. GDP of some developed and SAARC countries in 19955
| Country | US$ | Country | US$ |
| Bangladesh | 240 | France | 24990 |
| Bhutan | NA | Japan | 39640 |
| India | 340 | Norway | 31250 |
| Maldives | NA | Sweden | 23750 |
| Nepal | 200 | Switzerland | 40630 |
| Pakistan | 460 | UK | 18700 |
| Sri Lanka | 700 | USA | 26980 |
NA= Not available
Poverty, slow economic growth rate, low per-capita income, unequal distribution of wealth, unemployment, and heavy dependence on the external assistance are some of the common economic problems of the SAARC countries.6 All the SAARC countries are deeply engaged in solving the problems of food, hunger, cloth, etc., and/or required to give maximum attention to solve these problems.
2. Socio-historical causes
Before the advent of Europeans in this subcontinent, emperors were the custodian of the society. Then Madrasha and Maktabs were the centre of education. The arrival of the Europeans drastically changed the way of life of the people of the Indo-Pak subcontinent. The white man superimposed his way of life and culture upon that of the indigenous culture. To understand the white man’s new culture and, of course, his government and language, the people had to acquire the ‘magic’ of writing and reading. To do this, a new system of education, the formal school system, was introduced by the missionaries and later on by the colonial government. But the people did not gladly accept the education policy of the Europeans. Some people, especially Muslims, thought that to learn English is sin. The people who acquired the skills and mastery of reading and writing through the alien education system became known as an educated or literate person, but those who failed to acquire the skills of reading and writing remained illiterate.
ROLE OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN ERADICATING ILLITERACY
The traditional public library system in the SAARC countries has not yet been able to satisfy the needs of the neo-literates by providing adequate and suitable reading materials. Although most people in the SAARC countries live in rural areas, most public libraries are, however, located in urban areas.
Even the public library system has not made any meaningful impact on the population living in urban areas. This is so because in the first place public libraries do not stock suitable reading materials for the neo-literates. Secondly, no conscious efforts arc made to relate the public library system to literacy campaigns.
In the SAARC countries, public libraries arc not well organized, and their collections arc also not rich. As a result, the libraries can not meet the requirements of the literate population. As for the new-literates, where they exist, they arc mostly left to fend for themselves.
Obviously because of their inadequacies and funding, the public libraries in the SAARC countries have not done much to help neo-literates to retain their literacy. This situation can be partially overcome if the governments of the SAARC countries tackle the problem seriously and with a sense of purpose. During this decade, public libraries must review, and the governments of the SAARC countries must be prepared to allocate more money to their public libraries to enable them to contribute meaningfully to eradicate illiteracy.
| TABLE 4. Public libraries, collections and borrowers1+ | |||||
| Country | Year | No. of public libraries | Collection | No. of borrowers | Additions (annually) |
| Bangladesh Pakistan Sri Lanka |
1989 1992 1989 | 57 04 15 |
5,21000 5,43000 4,81000 | NA 62,325 98,006 |
26,600 7,339 10,500 |
NA= Not available
1+ Data for the rest of countries are not available, so the information is not presented here.
PUBLIC LIBRARY SITUATION IN BANGLADESH
The area of Bangladesh, which came into existence as an independent state on 16 December 1971, is 143,998 sq. km.7 The public library movement in Bangladesh dates back to the mid-19th century. In 1854, four non-government public libraries were established in the important district headquarters of this region. These four libraries arc: Woodburn Public library (Bogra), Jessore Public Library, Barisal Public Library, and Rangpur Public Library. But the establishment of government public libraries started with the opening of the Bangladesh Central Public Library in 1958.8
The Government of Bangladesh has been trying to develop public libraries in the country. During the first, second, third and fourth five-year plans, public libraries have received an increasing attention. The government allocation front the first to fourth five-year plans is shown in Table 5.
TABLE 5. Government development allocation from 1st to 4th five-year plans
(figures in lac) 9‘12
|
Name of library |
1st five yr. plan |
2nd five yr. plan |
3rd five yr. plan |
4th five yr. plan |
|
Central Public Library |
341 |
90.90 |
91.49 |
X |
|
Rajshahi Public Library |
181 |
116.40 |
X |
X |
|
Khulna Public Library |
X |
61.15 |
X |
X |
|
Chittagong Public Library |
191 |
198.45 |
40.00 |
X |
|
District public libraries |
501 |
X |
341.16 |
|
|
Thana public libraries |
X |
101.00 |
999.46 |
XX |
|
Training programme |
X- |
X |
X |
80.00 |
Till now, the Government of Bangladesh has allocated an amount of Taka 22,49,01,000 for the development of public libraries and the training programme for the library personnel. At present, 66 government13 and 883 non-government14 public libraries are in existence in the country. In spite of all these efforts, till now, the government did not take much initiatives to eradicate illiteracy through public libraries, although public libraries can play a vital role in eradicating illiteracy from the country.
THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT AND NGOS
The government, however, took a programme named INFEP (Integrated Non-Formal Education Programme) in 1991 to educate the country’s illiterate persons. This organization, located in Dhaka, had been converted into a Directorate of Non-Formal Education (DNFE). DNFE has set up 735 Gram Shikkha Milon Kendras (Village Continuing Education Centres) in 69 thana project areas. DNFE considers these centres as rural libraries, which maintain follow-up materials, national dailies, weeklies, monthlies, wall magazines, a radio, and indoor sport items, like ludo, carom, etc. A full-time librarian is appointed for each centre. To supervise the learning activities and operation of the library, a supervisor is assigned for every ten libraries. Other than helping neo-literates, each librarian is entrusted with the responsibility of making ten literates a year.15
In Bangladesh, some NCOs have been playing a vital role in eradicating illiteracy by organizing resource centres at the community level. These include: Community Development Library (CDL), Action aid Bangladesh, Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), Gono Shahajjyo Sangstha, Rangpur- Dinajpur Rural Services (RDRS), etc. BRAC has already established some rural libraries on an experimental basis, and has plans to establish 350 libraries in the rural areas by the end of 1998.16
The Community Development Library (CDL) maintains 30 Rural Information Resource Centres (RIRCs) throughout the country. One of the main objectives of these RIRCs is to provide facilities for continuing education of the local community. The RIRCs organize seminars, workshops, and discussion meetings every month, followed by video shows. Students from the community are regularly taken to the RIRCs for orientation visits, to accustom them to continue to visit in future.17
The Library Association of Bangladesh (LAB) has already been working vigorously to create awareness and active interest among the various sections of people, including policy-makers, and has been making all-out efforts to socialize and materialize the concept of grameen library and information centres, through organizing meetings with policy-makers, organizing seminars, meeting the people concerned with the development of the rural community, and writing articles and disseminating these through seminars and the newsletter Upatta. A 7-day training programme on how to provide information support to the village people was organized in January 1996 to train 60 young people of three villages.
With the support of UNESCO, three gramecn library and information centres have been organized and maintained jointly by the Bangladesh National Scientific and Technical Documentation Centre (BANSDOC) and the Library Association of Bangladesh (LAB) in three villages (Hajipara, Kakrain, and Tetulia) of Dhamrai thana, about 40 km from the Dhaka City.17 LAB had also organized a one-day National Seminar on “Development of a Grameen Library System for Providing Information Support to the Rural People of Bangladesh.” A concept paper on a gramecn library system was presented by Mr. M. Shamsul Islam Khan, the President of LAB, at the seminar.16
ACTIONAID is an international development organization based in London. It has both urban and rural programmes, and most are centred around the samity. In the education sector, this organization promotes both non-formal primary education for children, as well as adult literacy classes, stressing functional and practical literacy.
The Rangpur-Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS) is one of the largest rural development agencies in Bangladesh. It has been working in 28 thanas of six northern districts. It also works for Non-Formal Primary Education (NFPE) which meets the needs of non-school-going children. NFPE is a national initiative of the government’s Primary and Mass Education Division, funded by the World Bank.
The Gonoshahjjo Sangstha (GSS) is a well-reputed NGO working in Bangladesh in eradicating illiteracy and in other fields. It has two programmes in this regard. These arc: (i) Adolescent Literacy Centre (ALC), and (ii) Adult Literacy Programme. The Adolescent Education Programme of CSS commenced in 1993 with a suitable two-year curriculum in 434 groups. This programme is aimed at helping those in the 11-15-year age group who have cither dropped-out, or have never been exposed to formal (or any) school system, to acquire any literacy and numerical skills. In phase II (1994/5-1996/7), there were 2170 groups in operation with approximately 30 students per group. It was found from experience that students did not achieve learning targets. So, the curriculum was extended to three years. For the programme to work properly the community is encouraged, through active participation of village committees, to participate in decision-making and cost-sharing in setting up these centres.
The Adult Literacy Programme was started since 1983. It patronizes 46 adult literacy centres, and also maintains 300 Gram Shikha Milon Kendras of DNFPE (Directorate of Non-Formal Primary Education). If a centre is continued for two years, a library or reading centre is established there. At present this NGO has set up 234 reading centres for students, adult persons and others. This centre is open to all, and they also supply 60 books and magazines per year for collection development.
Moreover, the Islamic Foundation is also trying to increase the literacy rate among the rural people by the help of mosque-based libraries. In this regard, the Foundation offers training to the Imams of mosques.
PROGRAMME OF ACTION
The adult literacy programmes and policy-makers in Bangladesh have so far virtually left public libraries out of their scheme of things. All their efforts and the huge amount of money being pumped into their literacy programmes have been and will continue to be of little consequence so long as they fail to make suitable reading or learning materials available to their neo-literates through a well-conccivcd rural library system. However, to eradicate illiteracy from Bangladesh, I would like to emphasize the following programme of action at the national level:
1. A public library grid should be established all over the country with their branches in all the villages; the establishment of libraries for all villages should be completed within five years.
2. NGOs may take a vigorous and integrated programme jointly with the government to establish and maintain village libraries and information resource centres. A favourable government policy relating to library may encourage NGOs in this regard.
3. The village library should run a night school and impart adult education and literacy. The librarian should be entrusted with the responsibility of creating reading habits among the village people, especially among the children and school-going students.
4. Separate budget should be allocated for library service under the Adult Education Programme Funds. In this regard, the government should give more funds for the development of pubic libraries.
5. The Primary and Mass Literacy Directorate, Non-Formal Education Directorate, Rural Development and Co-operatives Division, Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development (BARD), Islamic Foundation Bangladesh, and the Social Welfare Directorate may prepare their own action plan for using their own potentiality in the promotion of mass education and mass literacy.
6. The Primary and Mass Education Division may also consider to institute a separate plan for using the maktabs as feeder schools where the Imams and Muazzins can teach children and which may be helpful to increase the literacy rates.
7. The government should set up publishing houses to produce cheap, plentiful and suitable reading materials which can be distributed free of charge that may be helpful to be literate.
CONCLUSION
The Government of Bangladesh has given top priority to mass literacy. So, different activities and programmes for promoting literacy are being implemented through the government agencies and NGOs. The government should take necessary steps to involve public libraries in the literacy movement. Public library services should be strengthened, and support services, like the radio, television and film vans, should be introduced in the adult education programmes. Without these ancillary services, the neo-literates will soon relapse into illiteracy.
References
1. Unesco statistical yearbook 1996. Paris: Uncsco, 1996
2. Kedem KA. Libraries as partrers in the fight to eradicate illiteracy in sub-Saharan Africa. IFLA ] 1990;16(4): 447-57
3. India Q 1996;1&2:73
4. Asian Development Bank. Key indicators of developing Asian and Pacific countries, 1991:20
5. The World Bank. World development report 1997. New York: Oxford, 1997: 214-5
6. Naqash NA. SAARC: challenges and opportunities. New Delhi: Ashish, 1994:11
7. Statistical yearbook of Bangladesh, 1995. Dhaka: Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 1995
8. Ahmad SU. Librarianship and the state of libraries in Bangladesh. Dhaka : Lutfun Nessah Begum, 1994:53
9. Bangladesh. Planning Commission. 1st Five Year Plan, 1973-78
10. Bangladesh. Planning Commission. 2nd Five Year Plan, 1980-85
11. Bangladesh. Planning Commission. 3rd Five Year Plan, 1985-90
12. Bangladesh. Planning Commission. 4th Five Year Plan, 1990-95
13. Bangladesh. Department of Public Libraries. Bangladesh Central Public Library: introducing. Dhaka, “1996
14. National Book Centre. Pathagar nirdeshika (Directory of libraries) Dhaka: National Book Centre, 1995
15. Bangladesh. Directorate of Non-Formal Education. Let there be light. Dhaka: Directorate of Non-formal Education, 1995:9
16. Khan MSI. Development of a grameen library system for providing information support to the rural people of Bangladesh. Paper presented at the Seminar on Development of a Cramcen Library System for Providing Information Support to the Rural People of Bangladesh, Dhamrai, 2 May, 1997. Dhaka: The Library Association of Bangladesh, 1997.
17. Harun-ur-Rashid. Community information services in rural Bangladesh. DevPrac 1996;6(4):358-62
Dr. Md. Hanif Uddin
Assistant Professor ,Dept. of Information Science and Library Management,
University of Dhaka
Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh
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