[AAACE-NLA] White House Conference on Global Literacy

[John Comings]

Yes, I agree.

The disrespect for adult literacy in UNESCO is not new. I was at one UNESCO 
meeting 15 years ago, when their Asia/South Pacific director said, "We need 
to turn off the faucet before we mop up the floor" as a defense of his 
position to put all funds into primary schooling.

--On Friday, September 22, 2006 1:57 PM -0400 Jon Steinberg 
<jons at lacnyc.org> wrote:

> Reply to John Comings:
>
> Conferences bringing together prominent officials and their wives and
> mothers in support of literacy can be valuable, but as Director of
> NCSALL, I'm sure you would agree that an organizational structure that
> promotes and supports adult literacy work is vital as well. On the
> international level, that structure was the Adult Literacy and Non
> Formal Education Section within the Division of Basic Education of
> UNESCO. On July 1, this section was eliminated by the Assistant
> Director-General for Education, Peter Plympton Smith. Mr. Smith was
> nominated for his position by the Bush Administration.
>
> The high-level adult literacy specialists at UNESCO have been dispersed,
> their positions eliminated. Responsibility for programming has been
> transferred from Paris to a UNESCO "project," in Hamburg Germany, now
> known as the Institute for Lifelong Learning. The United Nations
> Literacy Decade has been transferred to a newly-created Division for UN
> Priorities; in place of the international literacy specialists formerly
> in charge, the new office has one mid-level functionary and an
> assistant. The Assistant Director-General for Education cancelled the
> September 8 International Literacy Day celebrations and the
> International Literacy Prizes award ceremony. (One of this year's prizes
> was to go to Venezuela; this may have had something to do with the
> cancellation.). At least one international meeting of literacy educators
> has also been cancelled.
>
> Laura Bush may be an effective Honorary Ambassador for the Literacy
> Decade, but a strong, highly visible UNESCO program staffed by trained
> specialists would also seem useful in a campaign to bring literacy to
> hundreds of millions of people throughout the world. Thanks to the Bush
> Administration, that program no longer exists.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org
> [mailto:aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org] On Behalf Of John
> Comings
> Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 11:08 AM
> To: National Literacy Advocacy List sponsored by AAACE
> Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA] White House Conference on Global Literacy
>
> I attended this conference, and I feel it should be viewed within the UN
>
> culture. Some of you, Tom Sticht for example, are familiar with that
> culture and some are not.
>
> One of the ways in which UNESCO supports positive change is through
> conferences in which Ministers of Education, officials from donor
> agencies,
> and sometimes heads of state are educated about an issue and persuaded
> that
> they must take action. This conference targeted Ministers of Education
> and
> spouses of heads-of-state. The conference will be followed up with
> conferences in the Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Caribbean,
>
> and Asia/Pacific regions. The goal, as I understand it, is to generate
> the
> support of national governments and donor agencies for efforts that
> provide
> opportunities for the 800 million adults and youth who have never had a
> chance to learn to read, with a  particular focus on women and girls.
>
> I've been to some of these UNESCO conferences before. This one was the
> most
> spectacular, in terms of US government participation. George and Laura
> Bush, both of their mothers, Condolezzsa Rice, Margaret Spellings, the
> director of USAID, Karen Hughes, and many others attended. You may not
> like
> them, but they are our government. The Director General of UNESCO, the
> CEOs
> of several foundations, and many other important players in
> international
> development attended.
>
> I have no way of knowing if the Bush administration is going to put
> money
> behind this initiative, and the only new US investment announced was a
> US
> grant for $1 million to UNESCO's new statistics institute in Canada to
> develop a form of the NALS for use in countries with very high rates of
> Level adults. However, something called the Millennium Challenge Grants
> was
> mentioned as a source of US funding. Even if the US support is not much,
>
> the real payoff will come if UNESCO can capitalize on the momentum
> generated by this conference and persuade member countries and donor
> agencies to invest in adult literacy and improve access to and the
> quality
> of primary schooling in countries with very low literacy rates.
>
> Several people who teach in or run adult literacy programs in Asia,
> Africa,
> the Middle East, Latin America and the US spoke about their programs as
> part of the conference. Their stories were amazing. Those of you who
> have
> visited adult literacy programs or primary schools in poor rural
> communities around the world know how much work needs to be done. UNESCO
> is
> the UN agency that should be leading the advocacy effort.
>
> Ten years ago, I worked at World Education, which was founded by an
> extraordinary woman, Welthy Fisher. Welthy was once criticized for
> taking
> money from a source that held views that contradicted her own. Her
> response
> was, "I will take money from the devil and sanctify it." Given the
> recent
> remarks of the President of Venezuela, Welthy Fisher might have some
> good
> advice for those who support literacy but not the Bush administration.
>
> John Comings
>
>
>
> John Comings, Director
> National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy
> Harvard Graduate School of Education
> 7 Appian Way
> Cambridge MA 02138
> (617) 496-0516, voice
> (617) 495-4811, fax
> (617) 335-9839, mobile
> john_comings at harvard.edu
> http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu
>
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John Comings, Director
National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy
Harvard Graduate School of Education
7 Appian Way
Cambridge MA 02138
(617) 496-0516, voice
(617) 495-4811, fax
(617) 335-9839, mobile
john_comings at harvard.edu
http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu