THE Jamaica Movement for the Advancement of Literacy (JAMAL) has widened its scope of programme offerings to incorporate the teaching of life-coping skills to enable persons to function in society.

Executive director of JAMAL, Seymour Riley, told JIS News that while the institution’s core curriculum remains the teaching of reading, writing and numeracy, a host of other programmes have been instituted, with the help of a number of local and international organisations, to meet the needs of adult education.

This includes a computer education course, with funding from the Carreras Foundation, targeted at graduates of the basic literacy programme.

The first phase of the course is underway at the 20-station computer laboratory based at JAMAL’s South Camp Road headquarters in Kingston, with long-term plans of making the programme available in all of its 27 centres.

Under a programme funded by the European Union, JAMAL is also teaching literacy skills to workers in the banana industry.

In addition to literacy classes held at the penal institutions, JAMAL is currently training correctional officers to train and teach within the prisons. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), a major JAMAL partner, is also involved in a life skills training programme for young persons in correctional institutions. Riley states that estimates show that the level of illiteracy within the correctional system is significantly higher than that of the general population.

Another major partner is the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), which has been funding the development of the numeracy and life skills training course through Hanshaw College in London, and there is an ongoing programme at George Brown College, Ontario, where students, as part of their course, are required to teach life skills classes at JAMAL centres for six weeks per year. Some members of the JAMAL staff have also been trained as life skill coaches at George Brown College.

JAMAL has also been training individuals and organisations that are involved in literacy training, including teachers who work with institutions such as the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), Jamaica Red Cross, and Children First. It is also receiving support from the Organisation of American States (OAS) in its literacy exercises promoted by local radio station, ROOTS FM.

In the effort to ensure that trainers have the requisite skills, the Jamaica Council For Adult Education, recently negotiated with Mount St Vincent University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, which is reputed to have the best recognised adult education courses, to conduct a masters degree in adult education.

Riley said the aim of all these measures are to reduce the country’s illiteracy rate estimated to be at about 15 per cent and foster the development of a productive workforce.

Pointing to the impact of illiteracy on national development, Riley said a recent survey found that 2.9 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was lost in productivity annually, as a result of illiteracy in the workplace.

Another survey conducted by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) revealed that the country’s product problems was, to a large extent, caused by the high illiteracy level.

Established in 1974, after a UNESCO survey showed that 40 to 50 per cent of the adult population was illiterate, JAMAL has been ‘lighting the lamp,’ in adult literacy, moving from being warily perceived as an institution for the stupid and ignorant, to the nerve centre of dynamic, modern, adult education.

Riley recalled that in the early years when the programme operated under a massive public awareness campaign, propelled by a large number of volunteers, radio, print, and television promotions, “every nook and cranny of this island was impacted. Consequently, the results were quite dramatic and the level of adult illiteracy was rapidly reduced.”

JAMAL, in the meanwhile, continues to make its presence felt with 27 centres throughout the island. In addition to these centres, classes are also held in schools, church halls and community centres. There are over 500 teachers and an enrolment of 12,000.

Despite the gains, however, Riley said more attention should be given to that segment of the population that is literate but is not able to get viable jobs.

“There is a set of people who are literate but are not sufficiently educated to benefit from what the system has to offer. There are also persons who have been through the secondary system, but are without certification,” he pointed out.

It is in the effort to address this deficiency that JAMAL and the HEART Trust/NTA are developing a High School Equivalency Programme. The programme offerings will be equivalent to grades seven to nine curriculum and is suited for persons who may need remedial work.