Chapter VII - Convergence and Partnerships

Chapter VII - Convergence and Partnerships

Adult education, especially in countries with enormous literacy challenge, cannot simply be a government programme; it has to be a national and societal enterprise and engagement. It is even more so given the cross cutting nature of adult education, which is “as wide as life itself”, as the celebrated Education Commission Report (1964-66) said. Unless the different ministries/departments and their agencies join together, it cannot assume that mammoth scale. Convergence and partnership within and outside government, the private sector and NGOs and CBOs is not a luxury, but a necessity. This is true across the globe.

Based on strong evidence, the Belem Framework stated that: (i) Adult learning flourishes when states implement decisive initiatives in adult learning and education in alliance with key civil society institutions, the corporate sector and workers’ associations; (ii) Public-private partnerships are gaining currency, and South-South and triangular cooperation are yielding tangible results in forging a new form of adult learning for sustainable development, peace and democracy; (iii) Regional and supranational bodies and agencies play crucial and transformative roles, influencing and complementing the initiatives (Jagmohan Singh Raju, 2011[1] & [2]; UNESCO, 2009: 10); and (iv) For a meaningful international cooperation, it is aimed to set up a Centre for Policy Research and Training in Adult Education to promote adult education in E-9 and SAARC countries.

The Belem Framework did perceive that forging partnerships for adult learning and education as one of critical “challenges for adult learning”, especially in: promoting and supporting inter-sectoral and inter-ministerial cooperation; and fostering translational cooperation through projects and networks for sharing experiences and innovations.

Based on the experience of literacy initiatives in the 35 countries, the LIFE document suggested that: (a) Proactive partnerships need to be built through networking for planning and implementing literacy-related activities through consultations and dialogue; (b) The critical factor in the success of literacy and adult education initiative is the cooperation of the partnering agencies. Their commitment for national literacy policy, legislation and resources mobilization is critical for the success of the programme; (c) The partners will include: Agencies within the delivery system including government and private and NGO-providers; civil society and NGOs, including youth and women’s organization and trade unions; the private sector; the media, including newspapers and educational publishers; Universities, research institutes and institutions for teacher training; Teachers, facilitators, and other extension workers whose function cover literacy provision; Learners and their communities; (d) To promote synergies among partners, a multi-level advocacy and communication strategy needs to be put in place, consisting of a two-pronged approach: one, for convincing major players in the area of education and development of the urgent need to address literacy; and the other, to involve the media, with the aim of reaching the general public; (e) Sensitize national partners to the importance of integrating literacy into their programmes of work; (f) Identify non-traditional partners and promote innovative and creative actions focusing on literacy; and (g) Lobby decision-makers for greater investments in literacy ((Jagmohan Singh Raju, 2011[1] & [2]; UNESCO, 2006: 23-25).

India’s Situation in Partnership: Recommendations of Workshop

India is an ardent signatory to international commitments on EFA Goals and is keenly interested in forging international cooperation with international bodies engaged in adult education, both to share and learn from other countries’ experience.

The Workshop shared the experience of exploring collaboration through: Public-Private Partnership; NGOs; Public-public Partnership; and International partnership. It was revealed that, forging purposeful Public-Private Partnerships in the fields of capacity building, TLMs development, use of ICT, resource generation, environment building and setting up model AECs, Basic Literacy, Equivalency, Skill Development and CE programmes could all be important areas.

The experience shared illustrates a feasible scenario of joint efforts, either in entirely shouldering the programme and sharing its activities, of different government organizations – Ministries/Departments, their constituent agencies and institutions – as varied as NHPC, Border Roads Organization, PWD, Health, Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal Husbandry, Rural Development, ICDS, etc. The collaboration can be in various ways, as for example: (a) Identification of learners within their departments and also within the areas of their jurisdiction, and identifying Volunteer Teachers (VTs) to teach them. The VTs could be from their own employees. (b) Self-Help Groups (SHGs) present another huge platform to undertake the literacy initiative, to cover their own non-literate members. SHGs present a ready target because they are already organized and does not need a separate motivation drive. The VTs could be from among the SHGs itself. (c) The financial institutions dealing with the SHGs like banks, etc. can also facilitate their literacy initiative. (d) Literacy through students by involving teachers and students of Secondary and Senior Secondary Schools. (e) Collaboration for imparting literacy would be grossly inadequate both to the plethora of agencies with expertise and also with people whose learning needs go beyond basic literacy and relate to vocational training, continuing education, life skills, etc (O.P. Bhuraita, 2011).

Therefore, the Workshop endorsed the idea that livelihood and income generation, individual interest programmes etc., could be networked with different departments and their related agencies and institutions for information sharing, extending training opportunities, and trainers. Also, occupational areas for extending vocational and life skills training could be as wide as life, depending on the institutions and agencies which could be approached.

In the life context of non-literates, given their pervasive deprivation, literacy per se has no appeal and immediate and tangible utility. Linking literacy with such aspects that are vital to their existence and wellbeing makes it more relevant and creates appeal for their participation. Literacy’s connection with agriculture is one such critical area. The Workshop recognized that functional linkages between literacy and agriculture constitutes a symbiotic relationship, mutually reinforcing, and recommended that in order to facilitate this connection, there needs to be conceptual and functional linkages between the policy bodies of NLMA and Department of Agriculture and Cooperation from national to Block and Gram Panchayat levels and corresponding guidelines about enduring programmatic interface between education and agricultural extension(A. Mathew, 2011). The Workshop also underlined that cross-sectoral collaboration with institutions of research and training at every level needs to become a mandate, backed up by policy and legislation.