Vincent A David is a pioneer of adult literacy in Pakistan. At the age of 78, his main achievement lies in different techniques used in transforming non-productive ways of learning into meaningful ways. David joined the Literacy Section of Presbyterian Church in 1961. Working for 10 years in the field in different capacities, he became the founder Director of Adult Basic Education Society (ABES), based in Gujranwala. The organisation worked as an Integrated Literacy Section of United Presbyterian Church Literacy Programme from 1960-64. The ABES has published over 200 books/booklets for the education of adults. TNS spoke to David on the issue of adult literacy in Pakistan. Excerpts follow:

The News on Sunday (TNS): Many people term ABES as mother of all NGOs on adult literacy in Pakistan. How did you get the idea of educating old people?

Vincent A David (VAD): It is true, since ABES is working for the last 42 years as an NGO. Before that, I had been working for literacy promotion along with working for the Presbyterian Church Literacy section. The spadework on literacy in Pakistan was worked out by the Church from 1950 to 1969. Later, it was handed over to ABES in 1970.

In 1958, Dr. Frank C. Laubach, a literacy expert from the US, came to Pakistan and worked with Presbyterian Church missionaries and Village Aid programme of the government of Pakistan that were involved in improving literacy rate among the Christian Community and, generally, the Pakistani population. I was never a literacy man. I got my training from BECO as a machinist and had established my business in my hometown, Gujranwala.

I had employed about sixteen labourers who were mostly illiterate. I used to pay their wages every Saturday evening through a munshi (clerk). One day it so happened that I checked the payroll and found out that a person who had worked for four days had been paid for six days. When I asked the labourer about it he told me that he was given payment for four days. I told him that he had placed his thumb impression against six days and that showed that he had received wages for six days. He replied in Punjabi language, "We illiterate people cannot recognise what amount is written."

I realised that we should do something to help them. I was moved by this situation and did not want to just issue a warning to the clerk. That same evening, after the work hours, I began my very first adult literacy class with the workers. Turning steel wires to form alphabets the workers began to associate shapes and sounds that formed alphabets and words. They were taught how to write their names and numbers from 1-30 within two weeks.

Literacy is not meant only for old people but for people of all ages, especially the age group of 15 to 35. ABES experience shows that women are more responsive. It finds women to be far more interested and devoted to learning than men. Women are instrumental in sending their children to school.

Also read: Adult literacy from 1950 onwards

TNS: What does adult literacy mean for a developing country like Pakistan?

VAD: Literacy is essential for a country like Pakistan. You can see the figures: 25 million children are out of school. Pakistan is facing three challenges in the education sector: Access, quality and retention. Literacy rate is only 58 per cent. The basic requirement for a democracy to work is that its people must be literate. Unless a person is knowledgeable, how can he/she be able to contribute efficiently to the development of the country?

TNS: Do you think the government understands the challenge and is competent enough to cope with it?

VAD: Unfortunately, all projects in the past, and even today, only emphasised on developing a primer and never tried to see what is available and how is it functioning? They tried to invent a new wheel. Therefore, much of the energies and money is spent on these aspects and little is contributed towards the promotion of literacy. The push for enhancing literacy rate gets high after every ten years when the funds are made available.

TNS: Generally, we see very few NGOs working on adult literacy in Pakistan. What is their contribution and what more should be done?

VAD: It is because of lack of funds, policies of the government and their priorities. There is lack of understanding about literacy and, thus, they develop materials which are not relevant.

At ABES, the primer is that being used has a background of 50 years. It has been upgraded from time to time according to the need. It has a proper teaching methodology. Special teaching kit and training is given to the teachers. The whole process is highly technical. Now, we have linked literacy with skill training programme. It was implemented in 10 districts of Punjab by the literacy department and it was very successful. A total of 13400 women have benefited while the target was 12000.

TNS: Are we following good modules for adult literacy in Pakistan? What further improvements do we need?

VAD: ABES has developed a complete module, which is tested and modified accordingly. It is quite flexible and can incorporate the specific needs of the particular population. It the literacy package is not need-based, then the module won’t work. This is what is happening in different projects on literacy. Literacy programme must be run as a campaign and without discrimination. They must be backed by a strong political will that also reflects in the policies of the government. Unfortunately, this is not happening.

Related article: Not a good start of Punjab Literacy Movement

TNS: How do you see efforts for advocacy, monitoring, and pressurising government on this issue by NGOs?

VAD: As such, no advocacy is being carried out. No specific funds are available for this purpose. The NGOs are making efforts from their own limited resources.

TNS: You did a programme Nia Din about adult literacy in Pakistan in the 1970s. How was the experience? Why are we not seeing such initiatives these days?

VAD: It was a very successful experience. The programme was on national television for about six years. Tens of thousands of people benefited from that. The achievements also included a gold medal for me by the PTV for best presentation of 156 adult literacy programmes for six years 1975-1980, the International Reading Association Literacy Award in 1984, the Nadezhdak Krupskaya prize in 1991 from UNESCO on the International Literacy Day. We have not seen such initiatives because patronage is lacking.

TNS: Motivating people is seen as the biggest challenge in addressing this issue. Do you agree with this? What can be done to motivate illiterate people?

VAD: Please note that the programme is not restricted to old people only. We are focusing on people 15 to 35 years of age. For motivation, we have to see at the outcome of the programme. Literacy is about 3Rs: reading, writing, and arithmetic, which must be incorporated with functional knowledge. People want to have relevant and meaningful education. Therefore, literacy along with livelihood skills will address their economic needs.

TNS: One of the reasons behind increase in the number of adult illiterates in Pakistan is due to dropouts from schools? To what extent is this true and what is its impact on our society?

VAD: The issue of dropouts in formal schools is very complex. ABES, along with UNICEF, has been working on several initiatives, including Child Friendly Schools, Joyful Learning, Multigrade Teaching and have worked in different provinces. Illiterate parents do not see any value of education. This is having a bad impact on our society.

TNS: If Pakistan continues with this slow pace towards adult literacy, what will be the impact in future?

VAD: The number of illiterates will keep on increasing and one day it will be a total blackout.