The fourth instalment in a series giving snippets of life in Jamaica 50 years ago.

With September 8 celebrated as International Literacy Day, not many in Jamaica’s Generation Y are aware that 50 years ago, 500,000 people in their country struggled to read or write. To combat this, the Government launched the Jamaican Movement for the Advancement of Literacy (JAMAL) in October 1974.

JAMAL replaced the National Literacy Programme that was established in September 1972 by Prime Minister Michael Manley’s Administration which came to power in February that year. Its objective was to eradicate illiteracy, especially among people in their 40s, 50s and 60s.

To achieve this, the Ministry of Education recruited 20,000 volunteer teachers from diverse backgrounds. Once deemed suitable, they participated in government teaching programmes to prepare them for a challenging task.

One of those volunteer teachers was Paul Burke, a 22-year-old member of the governing People’s National Party (PNP), who taught three times a week at Holy Rosary Primary School in east Kingston.

He recalls businessman Danny Williams being the first chairman of the JAMAL board of directors. Actor and cultural activist Easton Lee was also on the board, along with a member of the Church.

The clergy played a major role in JAMAL at local and parish levels. Most of the classes — divided into morning, afternoon, and evening shifts — took place in schools and churches, often with a maximum 10 students.

Based on government research, most of the people with reading/writing challenges were workers from the sugar-belt parishes of St Catherine, Clarendon, and Westmoreland. The JAMAL curriculum, Burke recalled, was uncomplicated.

“They would learn from easy-reading stories like the Paul Bogle story, Marcus Garvey, Bustamante and Norman Manley. Adult learning they called it,” he told the Jamaica Observer. “It was felt that once they continued, once they had the fundamentals, they would self-improve.”

Ultimately, JAMAL students received a Level Four primary school education. Based on individual progress, some graduated as soon as six months or as long as three years.

Burke, who stopped teaching after seven months, admits it was tough on volunteer teachers, some of whom found it difficult to honour assignments because of personal and professional duties. The Government would present awards to teachers who were “consistent, regular and dedicated”.

Because of the stigma associated with illiteracy, many JAMAL students were wary about ridicule.

“There were people who would not go to classes in their community. There were people in Rockfort who would go to a literary class in Half-Way-Tree, Vineyard Town or Papine,” said Burke, who believes JAMAL began paying dividends three years after its launch.

“You could see it in the graduations which were a big thing. There was one graduation at Twickenham Park, I think in 1977, where nearly 1,000 people graduated.”

When the PNP lost the 1980 General Election to the Jamaica Labour Party, there were fears the programme would be discontinued. However, Prime Minister Edward Seaga chose to keep JAMAL, but agreed with his Education Minister Mavis Gilmour to reduce government input and commit more resources to the primary school system.

Ironically, JAMAL ended under a PNP Administration in 2006. It was replaced by the Jamaica Foundation for Lifelong Learning.

Last April, Education Minister Fayval Williams reported that Jamaica was 88 per cent literate, a vast improvement on 50 years ago. Burke credits JAMAL for those remarkable strides.

“I was amazed at some of the testimonies at those graduations, where a 60-year-old woman said she could read her Bible for the first time, or dem can read dem daughter letter…JAMAL was liberating, it empowered, and it gave dignity to people,” he said.