New survey to assess adult literacy level |07 August 2009

The aim is to set up an integrated adult learning information base that will harmonise the databases of post-secondary institutions, including the Adult Learning and Distance Education Centre.

The survey will also measure the two main goals of Education for All (EFA) and look at the extent of learning opportunities that are appropriate for young people and adults.

The EFA is a commitment made by countries of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) during a conference in 2000 in Senegal to ensure education for all by the year 2015.

Six goals were identified to ensure the learning needs of children, youths and adults are met by 2015.

Each country was called on to prepare its own EFA action plan to meet the targets, which in Seychelles covers the years 2001 to 2015, with the literacy decade action plan set for 2003-2012.

The survey will focus on two goals of the EFA – to ensure the learning needs of young people and adults are met through access to appropriate learning and life skills programmes, and to achieve a 50% improvement in adult literacy.

Director-general for technical and further education (TFE) Fiona Ernesta, who is also the project manager, said Seychelles has been successful in raising the level of adult literacy, as the census of 2002 confirmed the figure as 91.1%.

The survey will, therefore, focus on assessing the levels of literacy and numeracy in people aged 15 and above in the general population, including TFE institutions.

It will also help to obtain baseline data on those institutions and to identify areas of concern in terms of comprehensive sub-sector planning and delivery of TFE programmes.

The project is divided into four main phases, the first being the concept and planning stage, which has already been done.

The second phase, which is now being carried out, is to pilot the adult learning survey, including the tools to be used, and carry out the full baseline survey in post-secondary and TFE institutions.

The third step is the full integrated adult literacy survey, after which data will be analysed and published. 

Data collection for the full adult literacy survey will run from September 12 to October 3 in around 1,000 homes on Mahe, Praslin and La Digue.

After analysis, the results will help in future plans to achieve the goals set by Unesco for the EFA and to aid policy development in education generally.

The information will also be used by the National Statistics Bureau (NSB), and all other stakeholders will have access to it.

Anse Royale, Glacis and St Louis are the districts chosen for the pilot exercise, which started yesterday and will end on August 12.

This will act as a trial run to test the process to be used in the third phase, the full survey.

Several officers from the Ministry of Education, post-secondary institutions and other departments or ministries will visit homes.

A three-day training programme was organised for the group so they would be familiar with the procedures of the exercise.

They will give out questionnaires, as well as numeracy and literacy tests to be completed by adults and youths over 15 years old, and also conduct interviews.

Those following post-secondary courses will be contacted separately at their institutions.

The exercise will be carried out on weekdays from 4.30pm and all day during the weekend of August 8 and 9.

The project officers will be identified with a badge, and people chosen to take part in the pilot survey are called on to cooperate with them.

Names will not be revealed and information will be confidential, being used only to draw up the general results.

Further training sessions will be held for those who will be collecting data in the full adult literacy survey.

This project is a joint venture between the Ministry of Education and the NSB, with a technical committee set up to administer it.