Adult education and development

Abstract

Nuno Rodrigues rides his motorcycle across Dili, Timor-Leste's capital city, every morning, from his home in Caicoli to the Non-formal Education Centre a few kilometres away in Vila Verde. The Centre occupies a group of run-down buildings which include classrooms, a gymnasium style hall and some dilapidated flats for students or teachers visiting from the districts. From a small office attached to the library, Nuno coordinates the work of the Secretariat for Timor-Leste's National Literacy Commission, which has embarked on ambitious national literacy campaign, aiming to reduce the adult literacy rate in the country from its current high of nearly 50% down to less than half of that within five years. Nuno's workmates and colleagues include a team of Cuban technical advisers, several teachers from the Non-Formal Centre, and a group of university students who are doing this work part time in their final year of studies. During the first half of 2007, they recruited and trained over 400 part-time literacy monitors or tutors to help deliver classes in every 'suco' or local government area in the country, as well as a campaign coordinator for each of the country's 65 sub-districts and the first classes began in several districts. As the campaign moves into its next stage, over 10 000 adults will be enrolled every three months in a basic literacy course, delivered via five audiovisual lessons per week, watched on government supplied TV screens and DVD players in homes, schools, community centres and other venues.