I have used my Intellectual Property in this e-forum for the benefit of all members and the GF. I hope you recognize this. If you feel a need to quote any of my research presented or what I have directly contributed you need my permission and must give me credit. This includes the GF and all participants to this e-forum. This is my work from my manuscripts some of it already published.
This addition is for ANGIE JOY who raised a critical issue on world literacy being at a whopping 90%.
Angie, you shared with me that you attended a meeting last week and that someone told you that 90% of the world is literate. For the benefit of this esteemed global forum I will be publicly answering this question once and for all and lay this fallacy and farce to rest.
Let us look India. It is said to be having over 2000 languages and subs. Please refer respectfully to (Daswani, C. (1994). Literacy and Development in Southeast Asia. In Verhoeven L. (ed). Functional Literacy: Theoretical Issues and Educational Implications. John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam, Philadelphia )
A number of over 50% is said to be literate in India. I think it is somewhere close to 60% here and there from what others are saying. I vehemently dispute that. Let us take a look at my definitions of
1. Literacy
2. Functional Literacy
3. Illiteracy
4. Functional Illiteracy
For me to further answer this question I need to delve in my repertoire of NEUROSCIENCE to dispute and repudiate almost all global findings on the state of literacy in the developing and underdeveloped world.
These things I am teaching here are to empower you to understand how to comprehend and rationalize complex issues and how they affect critical thinking and lead to highly informed decision-making. This pertains to life and death issues. I apologize for sounding bookish and too abstract. These are abstract concepts and I cannot operationalize them into the concrete for you. We are now taking you down the winding and complex road where billions of neurons are travelling with language systems that have their own neuro circuitry. You are dealing with processes in neuroscience. I just love neuroscience and can build constructs and frameworks in this 24x7. I am really fascinated by all the new discoveries and just can’t have enough of it.
There are scholars that have labeled learners as "semi literates". Those fit between category 3 and 4. Now others have labeled learners as having "relapsed into illiteracy".This phenomenon presented itself not because learners are forgetful, didn't want to learn or simply aren't teachable. What actually happened is that the learner's short-term memory was exposed to the constructs, acquired the new constructs, but didn't retain them for it to become knowledge, because the learner didn’t put their own meaning and interpretation, understanding and idiosyncrasies to the subject matter or new construct(s). If this has to become knowledge, the symbols should've been stored, should’ve been able to be retrieved, constructs should’ve been able to be disassociated and recombined with one's own indigenous knowledge system.
When newly acquired constructs combines with one's indigenous knowledge system it needs to find that convergence to acquire functionality of language. If the transfer from short- term memory to long-term memory never took place in the first place, then logically it may not have stored the new constructs long enough in short-term memory to transfer it into the long-term memory. When your long-term memory has done all the above processes successfully with the new constructs you can generate new patterns and form abstractions and inferences. This is when you become functionally literate.
In my conservative estimation, and I repeat this is an estimate, close to 2/3 of the global populations in the developing and underdeveloped countries, which is likely way over 3 billion precious souls haven’t achieved anything close to a hairline of this level of functional literacy in the acquisition of a secondary knowledge system to become functional in that language/culture. Why for God's sake are you people blindly following those literacy rates as predictors for effective service delivery when those numbers don't mean anything unless the studies have been done the way they were done in Kenya?
Kenya currently has the closest to a credible literacy study on the African continent. I can't vauge for other continents or countries because I need to put you under my microscope. I commend all agencies that have made such a huge effort to show Africa how Adult literacy Research Studies need to be conducted and to allow the country to take ownership of the entire process. If we make the assumption that in the post- independence era 3- 4 decades ago most African countries became independent, we see a frightening pattern emerging that may look like 1/2 or 2/3 or in some countries close to ¾, still don't have the minimum desired levels of mastery of literacy skills and competencies needed to function in a literate society. Of course Ghana became independent on the heel of India in the mid 50's and both former British colonies have made headway, but have a long long way to go when it comes to the literacy issues.
This is absolutely necessary for the GF activities to be successful and to have good patient outcomes...This then explains why people relapse into TB and why we see chronic versions of hard to eradicate forms of TB that goes in the brain, spine and other organs where its difficult to treat. Let us not even talk about the new strain of TB that is severly contagious and drug resistant.
Then of course if I take you into the field of Epidemiology, we see all sorts of high prevalence opportunistic infections associated with HIV/AIDS, which are also new co-morbidities we must deal with. They are very difficult to treat once they are developed, especially in HIV/AIDS...the encephalopathy of the brain, Kaposi sarcoma etc. Now you will also understand why traditional people, many a time don't adhere to their medicine regimens and why we have the "monster" called drug resistance. You know TB can also cause serious problems once it gets in the Placenta. Malaria also can take on a monstrous phase where it can go into other systems in the body and really cause havoc. Then the HIV virus itself develops new deadly variants/strains and science has to keep up with all the new deadly strains all the time and drugs may or may not respond effectively to certain strains.
Now permit to continue my example of some failed literacy initiatives. What I am really saying here is that UNESCO, UNICEF, NGO's and CBOs have started literacy initiatives in Asia for example a very long time ago. Some UNESCO studies that I reviewed in Nepal for instance highlighted that women can teach others from pictures, but still cannot read. This is exactly what functional illiteracy is. You can't count these women as functionally literate or even literate.
This has to do with the plasticity of the brain…(this means the ability of the brain to change itself), short term memory not linking with one's own indigenous knowledge systems to put their own meaning and interpretation, understanding and idiosyncrasies to the subject matter or new construct.
Service providers on all levels need to understand the pathophysiology of the diseases we are trying to manage and also the epidemiology. We need to understand how intricately it relates to the functionality of literacy and worldview transformation for these GF initiatives to have greatest impact.
WHAT I'M SHARING WITH EVERYONE HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH OVERSIGHT, COORDINATION AND IMPLEMENTATION. IF THE GLOBAL FUND AND ALL ITS STRUCTURES -- I CALL IT THE ENTIRE FOODCHAIN FAILS TO UNDERSTAND THIS, IT WILL BE THE WORST DISASTER, WORSE THAT 10.0 ON THE RICHTER SCALE.
Fenna E. Bacchus
The Literacy Doctor