In the project initiated by DVV International, students learn not only to read and write, but also how to open small businesses and invest in agriculture. The government of Mozambique aims to reduce the illiteracy rate to 41% by 2019.
Tarek is 24 years old and comes from Syria. He has been living in Germany for about a year-and-a-half and speaks basic German without an accent. When I met him at the language institute, he showed a shy smile but was confident in answering my questions. Before moving to Europe from Turkey, where lived with his parents for two years, he confessed he didn’t know anything about Germany, not even how to say “Hello”. Yet he has made great strides in the language, taking the language test for the B1 level after 900 course hours.
The app aims to impart basic skills in German through “chunk learning”. “Chunks” are fixed expressions such as “How are you?”, and routines which for instance introduce a polite request such as “Could you please…?” These useful phrases help to quickly acquire basic communication skills, and generally facilitate social contact with the German-speaking population.
Maria Khan, Secretary General of the Asia South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education (ASPBAE), a partner organisation of DVV International, talks about successes and challenges of the new global education agenda.
When perusing the literature, discourse and practice of adult education, specifically adult literacy, it is interesting to note that the majority of authors refer to “adult literacy provision”. However, when we look at the literature and practices of the health, agriculture and other sectors, it seems that the terminology changes and the words “service delivery” are introduced. One may ask whether this matters. It seems it does, because it changes the way we think about our target group, what and how we offer what we think they need.
Almost every girl in the world has tried to create garments for her dolls – either in a simple way, twisting a piece of fabric over the doll’s waist or in a more sophisticated manner, trying to learn the craft while watching a skilled needlewoman. When Ludmila, a girl from Chisinau, Moldova was sewing dresses for her dolls, adults didn’t take her seriously. Yet a neighbour-woman kept repeating: “Surely one day you’ll be a fashion-designer.”
