This project, which is receiving ongoing support through the Yemen Social Fund for Development, was initially supported by the Bank’s Culture and Poverty Learning and Research Group. In partnership with Yemen's Ministry of Education, the World Bank-funded project responds to the needs of women who wanted to learn to read and write simple letters and documents, short Quranic verses, road signs and instructions on food and pesticide containers. Initially, about 100 rural women learned to read by creating and sharing poetry with other women in their communities. The project has since attracted interest from other donors. The project, whose innovative literacy curriculum has received international attention, was featured in National Geographic News (which was also syndicated), The Anthropologist, and the Women's Quarterly. Moreover, the project was presented as part of Celebration of International Women’s Month and the World Bank’s March 2004 Celebration of Diversity. (see Fighting Illiteracy Through Poetry - article from National Geographic). The project, which has been participatory since its inception explores potential links between traditional arts and effective learning strategies through utilizing learner’s own oral poetic traditions to teach literacy. Initially, five communities participated in this pilot: four rural agricultural communities in the Sana’a governorate and one newly formed literacy center in the city of Sana’a which serves a diverse population of recent migrants from rural areas in Yemen. Four new classes (two in Sana’a and tow in Manakha) were added to the pilot by the Social Fund for Development in May 2003. Two broad questions addressed by the pilot are: can a focus on local oral traditions encourage women to attend literacy classes, and does the attainment of literacy skills by these women encourage the perpetuation of local poetic traditions? Freirean teaching methods are used to generate class discussion on topics chosen by the learners, and learners are encouraged to interject proverbs and poems into their discussions. The teacher then writes a summary of the discussion on the board or flip chart paper, including any poetry or proverbs generated. This becomes the text from which students learn reading and writing skills. At the end of the course, each student will have her personal dictionary as well as a “book” of the collected texts generated in class. Project goals included the acquisition of reading and writing skills, as well as encouraging women to express themselves. One goal of teaching rural women literacy and affirming their poetic traditions was to restore their sense of competence in an increasingly literate world. Pilot successes to date include high rates of literacy achievement on the part of learners, a low drop out rate, and renewed community discussion and interest in traditional poetic forms and in the education of women. A major success with implications to the feasibility of the pilot has been its participatory component. The training of new teachers for the pilot expansion was conducted entirely by local trainers. Additional information:
World Bank Culture & Poverty Website |
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