3 Strategies of material preparation

Prof B. Krishna Reddy

Content outline

i. Introduction

ii. Types of materials

iii. Institutions involved in material production

iv. Content for adults

v. Strategies of material preparation

vi. Conclusion

Objectives

•  At the end of this module, the learner will be able to
•  Differentiate between different types of learning material
•  Identify Institutions involved in material production
•  Explain various strategies of material preparation

Introduction

Education is life- long process. It stops with the last breath of the human beings. Adult education   has   become   essential   now   a   days   with   the   innovations, technological advancement taking place in the world at a greater speed that the adults working in the organized sector and unorganized sectors need to improve their knowledge and skills so as to benefit with the results of the science and technology. Adult education is considered to be a change agent as it aims at developing the adults in all the spheres of life. Hence  Adult education is viewed as   life-long education and learning, has no theoretical boundaries and should  meet  the  particular situations created  by  the  specific  needs  of  development,  of participation in community life and of individual self-fulfillment; they cover all aspects of life and  all  fields  of  knowledge  and  are  addressed  to  all  people  whatever  their  level  of achievement. In defining the content of adult education activities priority should be given to the        specific        needs        of        the         educationally         most         underprivileged         groups. Civic,  political,   trade  union   and   co-operative   education   activities   should   be  aimed particularly  towards  developing   independent   and  critical   judgment   and  implanting     or enhancing the abilities required by each individual in order to cope with changes affecting living and working conditions, by effective participation in the management of social affairs.

at every level of the decision making process.The material Preparation for the clients of adult education is an important area as the skills acquired by them need to be strengthened for application in their life. Various agencies will involve in the production of materials. The National Literacy Mission document on the scheme of continuing education programme(1997) envisages a wide spectrum of learning activities.

Some of them are structured viz.,Equivalency programmes, Income generating programmes, quality of life improvement programme and individual interest promotion programmes. The contents of these programmes have to be programme specific. The contents of unstructured learning activities would encompass the national goals, set out in National policy on education,1986. These goals are referred to as core contents(national integration, conservation of environment, observation of small family norm, promotion of women’s equality and development of scientific temper).Besides these core contents, local and regional contents should also be the subject matter of the books.These could be related to health, sanitation, developmental programmes, social, political and cultural issues, entertainment ,etc.

Types of materials

The material in adult education can be divided into four kinds viz.,Basic literacy material, Post literacy/continuing education material and training material and AV materials..This kind of classification is made on the basis of nature of adult education programme in India.

1. Basic literacy material: comprises of primers and supplementary readers and these would be used in the teaching learning process so as make the learner literate and the learners who acquire literacy skills are called as neo-literates.
2. Neoliterate material: Achievement of basic literacy is not an end in itself. It is an entry point to the world of communication and information. The ultimate goal of literacy programme is to create a learning society by providing for a life long and lifewide learning opportunities which may result in release of creative energies of people.
3. Training material: Thailand’s concern about the need for an appropriate curriculum approach. “The functional content of a literacy training pro- gramme and its application should encourage people to change themselves or their environment or both, but not to endanger themselves, emotionally or physically, or their environment in the process. The field functionaries will be trained on different themes of adult education and for each theme training modules are required and it would be the job of the State Resource Centres.
4. Audio visual materials: Audio visual materials include: posters, pamphlets, handouts, folders, audio cassettes, video cassettes, CDs, films. These are meant for using in the training and some of them would be for sensitizing the adults on certain themes such as, small family, protection of environment, women’s environment, health issues and social issues. The CDs can be prepared on different themes and it may be supplied to all the adult education centres and it may be played for the benefit of neo-literates.

The learner, who has gone through the basic literacy programme successfully, will enter into post literacy stage and continuing education and these learners are called neo-literates and these neoliterates need very scientifically developed material for further improvement. The material is needed in order to prevent relapse into illiteracy, stabilization of literacy skills, continuation and communitisation and application of literacy skills I the real life. Neo-literates literacy skills are not uniform. Their needs and interests also differ which should be served by books and varied. The books, therefore have to be prepared with well conceived criteria and plan.

The literacy skills of the neo-literates are of different reading able persons and hence it would become necessary to prepare books of different grades o that the book is compatible with the reading ability of neo-literates. The neo-literate books help the readers to reinforce the literacy skills already acquired , continuation of skills, and application leading to self reliance.

Institutions involved in material production

1. Directorate of Adult education, New Delhi: It plays the role of information centre and it develops the guidelines for developing the materials and approves the material produced by the agencies. Further it develops model material and supplies to the state level academic agencies for developing the material. It also undertakes training programmes on how to prepare the material for the adults.
2. State Resource Centres in the states: State Resource Centres are established in each state to extend the materials required for the adult education department. It prepares the sample books in regional languages. It also simplifies the literature of development departments and provides training in the art of simple writing. At present there are 32 SRCs established in India working for the promotion of literacy programmes and supporting the agencies involved in the adult education programmes.
3. National Book Trust:It produces books for the neo-literates based on the field studies . Also orient the private publishers and organise seminars, exhibitions and workshops. National Book trust has branches in some of the states and work in collaboration with the agencies which are working for the development of literature not only for adults but also children.
4. Indian Adult Education association: Association brings journals and bring out materials for the adult education.It also conducts seminars and meetings on various issues related to adult education and it has involved recently in the evaluation of literacy campaigns.
5. Urdu academy in every state: It brings out sample materials in urdu and involve urdu publishers in bring out suitable books for adult education centres.
6. Dept of adult and continuing education in some universities : Prepare innovative reading material, conducts experimentation, rearch studies, organize seminars, workshops and prpare study papers.
7. Private publishers:Produce books for neoliterates,promotes general readership
8. ACCU: An International agency which produces the neoliterate material and send to the member countries

Content for adults

The suggested contents for basic literacy programme as per the handbook brought on IPCL guidelines (2003)are: national values under core content and locally relevant contents. Policy guidelines (1998) suggested the following areas for developing neo-literate material .

1. Individual society
2. Individual and Family
3. Culture and Recreation
4. Health and Hygiene:
   • Preventive measures
   • First aid and home remedies
   • Mother and child care
   • Agents of diseases
   • Common diseases, causes and prevention
5.  Vocational development
   • Animal husbandry
   • Industry

Strategies of material preparation

There are multiple strategies adopted by the agencies for developing the material in adult education. Some of the practical strategies followed are detailed below.

1. Strategy for development of literacy material (workshop based material)

In India, the model TLM will be developed by the Directorate of adult education, New Delhi and the respective State Resource Centres will develop the TLM on the same lines suitable to the learners including locally relevant content. The State Resource Centres play a main role in preparing the basic literacy materials, neo-literate material and training material on the basis of the guidelines of the Directorate of Adult education, New Delhi.Some of the Zilla Saakshara Samithies and NGOs have also developed the basic literacy and neoliterate materials.Private publishers also developed the neo-literate material and supplied to the Zilla Saakshara Samithies for distribution among the Adult education centres. Most of the material developed so far is prepared in the workshops, where the expert writers were invited along with the subject experts. Ex financial literacy, legal literacy material, disaster management,etc. The contents included in the basic literacy material are under core content and locally relevant material:

Core content: This will be presented under five main areas. The main areas of core content and specific areas in each main areas considered are listed below:

2. Translation of Neo-literate material

The books which are developed in other languages by the respective SRCs, which were found to be good were translated into regional languages by some of the SRCs and gave it to the State Directorates for printing and supplying to the Adult education centres(AECS). Directorate of adult education has organized workshops and regional levels and listed certain books developed in different languages and suggested for translation into the respective regional languages.

3. Adoption of Neoliterate materials

The material which are developed by the agencies and found to be good were adopted with minor changes in the same language spoken states.This would reduce the cost and time saving strategy.The basic literacy primers developed by thre State resource Centres were also adopted in all the districts that fetched time to the Zilla Saakshara Samithies.

4. Translation of ACCU materials

The neo-literate material developed by the ACCU were translated into regional languages and the same were given to the implementing agencies for printing the sufficient number of copies and supplying them to the AECS. The areas on which the material developed are savings, health etc. The material developed following international standards, it would be of great importance to the nations to adopt such material. Some of the SRCs translated such materials. A few books developed by ACCU are narrated below:

Save little, save a lot(2002)

This booklet is a motivational and instructional material for individuals to form and operate a savings group by adopting the habit of saving money regularly.

It is intended to motivate individuals to save regularly and more effectively as members of a savings group. Encouraged by NGOs and supporting agencies, savings groups (self-help groups) have become an effective part of the community development process in many regions of Asia-Pacific countries.The material was developed for learners at self-learning level. A booklet on Micro-Credit is recommended along with the book on savings.

Story-“Mina’s Village and the River”(Water pollution) (1998)

While continuing to attend literacy class, Mina is living happily with her family. Her village life seems peaceful as ever, yet some changes in their environment begin to affect their daily life. One evening, Mina’s family get food poisoning from eating polluted river fish. Later that evening, a heavy rainstorm hits the village, and water from the polluted river flows into the well. Having taken medicine together with unboiled well water, the family’s health condition worsens.

Mina, having learnt the causes of her family’s illness, decides to improve the village environment. Moved by Mina’s environmental activism, even her mean neighbour starts to help her, along with Mina’s family and friends. A year later, as a result of the villagers’ efforts, the river water becomes clean again.

Literacy Clip Art (LCA)(2001)

It is a collection of more than 900 illustrations covering 8 categories relevant to literacy materials, such as ‘health, sanitation and nutrition’, ‘income generation’, or ‘education’, is designed to serve as an instrument for local facilitators to develop their own learning materials easily and effectively at grassroots level. According to distinct cultural differences, the illustrations are divided into two sub-regions: South Asia and South East Asia. LCA is produced in two different formats: CD-ROM (Windows) and book format. While the CD-ROM provides high-quality digital illustrations for Desktop Publishing (DTP), the book version is for manual production process, such as tracing, duplicating, or copying in a village where no computer is available.

Mina smiles (1993)

This video introduces the important role of literacy in daily life through Mina, a woman living in a rural village in Asia. The situations illiterate people face and their difficulties are depicted to encourage them to learn reading and writing and at the same time to raise literate people’s awareness of the problem of illiteracy.

“Mina Smiles” is produced in collaboration with UNESCO and specialists of literacy and animation in 17 Asian/Pacific countries. The English version is distributed to concerned organizations worldwide to encourage production and dissemination of vernacular editions, thereby contributing to the “Education for All” UNESCO initiative.

5. Rewriting of the material of the developmental Departments

All the Developmental departments have brought the material of their department activities and information related to different programmes implemented by them. This material may be difficult to be followed by the neo-literates due to their limited literacy skills and requires modifications. As neo-literate require specific literature with language control and it is necessary to rewrite the material and it was done by the SRCs and supplied to the concerned departments. This strategy would help for reaching majority of the people in the society, who are the beneficiaries of the programmes.

6. Digital learning material strategy

This is the present strategy and the thematic matter will be converted into CDs and the CDs will be supplied to the AECs for the benefit of the stakeholders. The themes identified for the benefit of the neo-literates will be converted into CDs and it would be given to the agencies working for the adult education. Digital learning is now picking at present as the technology is accessible to the people.This is the latest strategy and however the adult education centres require to be supplied with Computers so as to play the CDs to the neo-literates. Now a days the shift is towards electronic material. Some of the SRCs have developed digital lessons under basic literacy to impart literacy skills. Besides, Tata consultancy services also developed computer based functional Literacy programme to impart literacy skills and it was experimented in some of the literacy centres and the results are satisfactory.

7. Media strategy

The radio, TV will be used to broadcast and telecast the themes of importance to the adults in order to bring change in them .These mediums would reach majority of the people . All the present programmes on agriculture, health, sanitation etc are directed at the target group of the adult education. Even the film can be made and shown in the rural areas during evening times so that the change would occur and the objective of the nation will be realized. Doordarsan in its rural development programmes included adult education component and telecast.

Conclusion

One of the basic issues in writing for neo-literates relates to the selection of suitable topics, languages, illustration, etc. which would arouse interest of learners to read a book. This requires an intimate and objective understanding of the background and environment of the neo-literates. One of the approaches to obtain objective information is to spend time with the learners and interact with them to understand their life and environment and what is required to be sensitized through the literature based on the comprehension. If this is not possible the recorded data and information may be utilized for writing the material to the learners/ the neo-literates.The adult learners will appreciate realistic description than the rosy one of the world around them. Multimedia approach would help in bringing desired results.

The material preparation requires multiple strategies starting with direct approach of developing the material in the workshops to the digital presentations in order to reach the population for bringing about desired change in them. The media strategy will reach the nook and corner of the country and following it, the department needs the equipment of the Adult education centres with all the electronic goods required for the dissemination of the material.