Gabon
Efforts to address high female illiteracy rate in Gabon

afrol.com, 13 December - In Gabon, in rural zones as in urban zones, illiteracy reaches some 48% among women 15 years or older and 25% among adult men. That produces a population of 400,000 illiterate women and 200,000 men in this rich country. A new Government programme involving Alphatique, an African software, now will address this.

In spite of Government efforts, there is still very high a rate of school dropouts on the primary education and secondary levels. This is especially true for girls. Even though the Government has used oil revenue to build schools, to pay adequate teacher salaries, and to promote education in urban and rural areas, traditional family structures still enhance girls' dropouts, which again ferments the structures of gender inequality in the country.

In the absence of any study relating to illiteracy, Governmental authorities never have been able to define precise objectives, nor create effective strategies to curb the problem. However, to face this situation, Gabon now has established a policy of promoting adult education, where it cooperates with various national and international actors related with the education of adults. 

Through the programme, public authorities and private interests are to establish "Centers of Elimination of Illiteracy". The technical and financial support is secured by the public funding and international donors. Educational centres will be both publicly run and run by private interests. In a test programme, the population reportedly showed great interest for the project. 

The IAI (African Institute of Data processing) provides the technological solutions and works in liaison with the promoters of the project. It will be "adapting to the needs for learning by developing new teaching approaches focused on the users," the institute states. IAI joined the promoters of the project from the very start in order to better include and understand the needs for learning. 

The Alphatique project has three essential aims, according to the IAI. The first is "to support the emergence of new educational approaches for learning and to arise interest to reduce the number of illiterates in Gabon." The second is "to plea in favour of education for everybody, and on all levels, so that the existence of illiteracy is recognized by the political and administrative authorities of Gabon." Thirdly, it is "to cause a massive participation of the population in the alphabetisation program and, mobilize the resources necessary to meet the fundamental educational needs of young people, teenagers and adults."

The company states that it aims at analyzing "the economic and socio-cultural way of life of the Gabonese population in order to work out the guidelines and the contents of a data-processing program." On this basis, it is to create a multi-media program for the elimination of illiteracy, adapted to the fundamental needs for learning through new teaching approaches. Nine of these multi-media programs will be placed then in each learning center.

To relieve Gabonese personnel, the programme also has found international support and funding. Canada takes part in the program through the FOCIL, the Agency of Francophonie and the IAI, as does the UN Development Programme. 

As illiteracy is mainly a female problem in Gabon, most adult students are expected to be women. Theoretically. Gabonese law provides that women have equal rights to access in education, business, and investment. However, with high female pupil dropouts, unequal access to basic rights throughout a lifetime start at an early stage. Gabon has been internationally criticized for not taking women's right seriously enough, but this Government initiative may become of significant value. 

Sources: Based on Thot/Course 2000

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