Int’l Literacy Day’ 2021 Narrowing The Digital Divide
Masum Billah :
The slogan of International Literacy Day of 2021 has been chosen as “Literacy for a human-centred recovery: Narrowing the digital divide” that definitely goes with the current Covid affected global scenario. The education and literacy situation has seriously been hampered across the world coupled with further widening the gap that prevailed in the field of education in terms of using digital device. It has adversely affected the life of 773 million people throughout the world. In response to the COVID-19 both developed and developing countries adopted some measures that failed to include literacy situation – neither to keep it functioning let alone improve it. Many organizations that worked for removing illiteracy had to stop their programs in the Covid pandemic. It is, of course, true that the affected people must be cured and unaffected must be protected. This effort claimed a huge amount of money that many developing countries could not afford.
However, the alternative way of running educational activities using digital devices has further widened the gap between the poor and rich, urban and rural, slum dwellers and city dwellers. Those who could afford Zoom, google meet, bdren have achieved literacy as well as advanced way of using it and just the opposite thing happened to the poor students. I paid a visit to Ranpur and Gaibandha to see for myself the current situation of education from 30 August to 02 September and talked to the teachers, students, guardians and education officers and people concerned. What I found the students have forgotten to write something in the usual pace. They are taking huge time to write some known words and sentences. This has happened due to not being in touch with reading and writing as I assumed and the people concerned expressed the same opinion.
Quickly nodding towards digital learning, the gap has become widened that the slogan of this year’s literacy day tells. However, it’s a positive thing that many students, teachers and people concerned with education quickly adopted this changed situation. People of various ages could adjust with this and that has created a big virtual world with which we didn’t have any connection before Covid-19. Those who could not adjust with this changed system are `digitally illiterate’. The current world does not want to see the `digitally illiterate’ people.
Covid-19 pandemic reminds us once again the importance of literacy. Beyond its inner meaning, literacy empowers men and helps develop their standard of living as it is the driving force of sustainable development. An illiterate man can hardly contribute to the development of a society and nation. But today’s literacy does not necessarily mean learning how to write merely the names and address, it means being familiar with the digital devices, being able to use digital technologies as they have penetrated every aspect of our social , national and international communication.
Out of School Children Program under PEDP-4 children are coming to school as the second change of their life whose age ranges between 8 and 14 years. Five lac students were supposed to be enrolled in the January, 2021 that did not happen due to Corona pandemic. 32000 learning centres were supposed to be established that was also not done. One lac children who have never been to school or dropped out of school in six districts such as Dhaka, Chattogram, Kishorgonj, Gaihandha, Sylhet and Sunamgonj are receiving primary education as pilot project under the leadership of Bureau of Non- Formal Education (BNFE) but Corona seriously hampered the entire process. This project is going to be closed in December 2021 and will partially continue till March 2022 to get the students enrolled in grade six. But we think it should be extended up to December 2022 so that the enrolled students can adjust themselves with the new situation in secondary schools otherwise they are supposed to drop out as they have already experienced serious learning gap that may discourage them to continue education.
Our Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) showed a report in 2017 that showed the dropout rate in the primary education was 18.4 percent and the children who had never been to school constituted two percent. On the basis of this statistics, the country saw 2.8 million children aged between eight and fourteen who have been out of school. The `Reaching Out of School Children’ (ROSC) project established more than twenty-two thousand schools for the helpless and deprived children that accommodated six lac 24 thousand 104 students in more than one hundred fifty upazilas. However, many of these schools have been closed due to irregularities and corruption.
After reopening schools we are not sure how many of them will get back to schools. Those who will come back to schools will have to face serious setback, and hence special arrangement will be necessary for them but do our authorities have such kind of plan? These children are plagued by poverty, negligence of the society, separation of their parents, and natural disasters. About 20 percent of these children become subject to physical torture and 14.5 percent sexual harassment and 46 percent girls experience sexual harassment as the Ministry of Social Welfare identifies. Social and Economic Enhancement Program shows in its research that 44 percent of these children are drug addicted, 41 percent don’t have any bed for sleep and 40 percent cannot take bath, 54 percent go without any care when get sick and 75 percent cannot meet any doctor even though they get disease. What will happen to the literacy scene of these children? What will happen to the children and adult who have become literate according to the traditional definition of literacy but still digitally illiterate?
(Masum Billah is Chief Of Party – Out of School Children Education Program– BRAC Education and President- English Teachers’ Association of Bangaldesh)
