Population (approx.)7 millionLiteracy StatisticsOverall: 35.9%Male: 49.9%Female: 21.9%GNP Per Capita (US Dollars)$1,720Source: The World Bank Development Indicators, 1996; CIA World Fact Book 1997 |
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Country Report presented by Adrien Koffa Kamano
The current illiteracy rate in Guinea is 65% (81% among women). With the goal of helping to reduce this rate to 49% by the year 2003, the Guinean Institute of Higher Education has designed a training program for specialists and other literacy facilitators.
The program has targeted some 61 agricultural graduates, who were formerly teaching in secondary schools, to become trainers of literacy trainers.
The program objectives are to teach the trainers how to:
- set up, run, and assess a literacy training center;
- design, plan, implement, and assess a literacy training program; and
- coordinate several literacy training centers.
This training was conducted over 12 months and included both theoretical and practical training. The theoretical training included designing a project, materials development, assessment, course management, pedagogy of learning, group dynamics, sociology, economics and community management, community health services, and environmental issues. The professional practice training included hands-on experience in training and in coordinating several centers.
Although this project has only recently been completed and its impact on literacy not yet fully measured, it has already yielded some positive outcomes. As a result of this initiative, a Swiss institute will partner with the Guinean Institute of Higher Education to explore the use of new information communication technologies, with a particular focus on distance training programs for literacy trainers and facilitators.
INTERNATIONAL LITERACY
INSTITUTE