Failing adult learners: Why Rwanda’s adult literacy education is not delivering

Pamela Abbott; Roger Mugisha; Peter Mtika; Wenceslas Nzabalirwa

doi:10.31124/advance.12464567.v1

Failing adult learners: Why Rwanda’s adult literacy education is not delivering

Pamela Abbott^* (Corresponding Author), Roger Mugisha, Peter Mtika, Wenceslas Nzabalirwa

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

3 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Having a literate society has been a policy objective of the Rwandan Government for 20 years. However, in practice, it has never been a high priority, although investing in adult literacy education has the potential to contribute to socio-economic transformation. This paper reports on findings from a survey, key informant interviews and focus group discussions. We show that learners rarely benefit from attending literacy classes. Extreme poverty, lack of a ‘culture of reading’ and the poor delivery of literacy classes are the main barriers to student learning. Without more investment in training tutors, infrastructure and learning resources, the policy implementation gap will persist.

Original language	English
Article number	102288
Number of pages	9
Journal	International Journal of Educational Development
Volume	79
Early online date	29 Sept 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.31124/advance.12464567.v1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2020.102288
Publication status	Published - 30 Nov 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding:
The project of which this research forms part was funded by the Scottish Government [Grant no. RW3]. The Scottish Government had no involvement in the conduct of the research, in the writing of the article or of the decision to submit the article for publication.

Keywords

Adult literacy education
Rwanda
Empowerment
Social practices
Community tutors
Literacy environment

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.31124/advance.12464567.v1Licence: CC BY
10.1016/j.ijedudev.2020.102288Licence: Unspecified

Abbot_et_al_IJED_FailingAdultLearners_AAM
© 2020. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Accepted author manuscript, 273 KBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

@article{e0238de48c854eccae479788461ec5ba,

title = "Failing adult learners: Why Rwanda{\textquoteright}s adult literacy education is not delivering ",

abstract = "Having a literate society has been a policy objective of the Rwandan Government for 20 years. However, in practice, it has never been a high priority, although investing in adult literacy education has the potential to contribute to socio-economic transformation. This paper reports on findings from a survey, key informant interviews and focus group discussions. We show that learners rarely benefit from attending literacy classes. Extreme poverty, lack of a {\textquoteleft}culture of reading{\textquoteright} and the poor delivery of literacy classes are the main barriers to student learning. Without more investment in training tutors, infrastructure and learning resources, the policy implementation gap will persist. ",

keywords = "Adult literacy education, Rwanda, Empowerment, Social practices, Community tutors, Literacy environment",

author = "Pamela Abbott and Roger Mugisha and Peter Mtika and Wenceslas Nzabalirwa",

note = "Funding: The project of which this research forms part was funded by the Scottish Government [Grant no. RW3]. The Scottish Government had no involvement in the conduct of the research, in the writing of the article or of the decision to submit the article for publication. ",

year = "2020",

month = nov,

day = "30",

doi = "10.31124/advance.12464567.v1",

language = "English",

volume = "79",

journal = "International Journal of Educational Development ",

issn = "0738-0593",

publisher = "Elsevier BV",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Failing adult learners

T2 - Why Rwanda’s adult literacy education is not delivering

AU - Abbott, Pamela

AU - Mugisha, Roger

AU - Mtika, Peter

AU - Nzabalirwa, Wenceslas

N1 - Funding: The project of which this research forms part was funded by the Scottish Government [Grant no. RW3]. The Scottish Government had no involvement in the conduct of the research, in the writing of the article or of the decision to submit the article for publication.

PY - 2020/11/30

Y1 - 2020/11/30

N2 - Having a literate society has been a policy objective of the Rwandan Government for 20 years. However, in practice, it has never been a high priority, although investing in adult literacy education has the potential to contribute to socio-economic transformation. This paper reports on findings from a survey, key informant interviews and focus group discussions. We show that learners rarely benefit from attending literacy classes. Extreme poverty, lack of a ‘culture of reading’ and the poor delivery of literacy classes are the main barriers to student learning. Without more investment in training tutors, infrastructure and learning resources, the policy implementation gap will persist.

AB - Having a literate society has been a policy objective of the Rwandan Government for 20 years. However, in practice, it has never been a high priority, although investing in adult literacy education has the potential to contribute to socio-economic transformation. This paper reports on findings from a survey, key informant interviews and focus group discussions. We show that learners rarely benefit from attending literacy classes. Extreme poverty, lack of a ‘culture of reading’ and the poor delivery of literacy classes are the main barriers to student learning. Without more investment in training tutors, infrastructure and learning resources, the policy implementation gap will persist.

KW - Adult literacy education

KW - Rwanda

KW - Empowerment

KW - Social practices

KW - Community tutors

KW - Literacy environment

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85091646404&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.31124/advance.12464567.v1

DO - 10.31124/advance.12464567.v1

M3 - Article

SN - 0738-0593

VL - 79

JO - International Journal of Educational Development

JF - International Journal of Educational Development

M1 - 102288

ER -

Failing adult learners: Why Rwanda’s adult literacy education is not delivering

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Pamela Abbott

Shaping the Delivery of Adult Literacy Education in Rwanda

Cite this

Failing adult learners: Why Rwanda’s adult literacy education is not delivering

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Profiles

Pamela Abbott

Impacts

Shaping the Delivery of Adult Literacy Education in Rwanda

Cite this