| Abstract: | To the individual, literacy has promised a new mentality, a new social definition, and new economic capacities. At the collective level, literacy has promised modernization of institutions, democratization of political systems, and cultural renewal of societies in the Third World. Have the promises of literacy been fulfilled? The processes of policy formulation, policy analysis and policy assessment are essentially social processes and a search for ‘proof’ of the effects of literacy is naive, to say the least. What we need is a position on literacy promotion that is plausible, credible and probable, and thereby compelling for action. While both the enthusiasts for literacy and the sceptics continue to draw different conclusions from the same research and experience, a consensus is emerging that the question ‘Why Literacy?’ should now be laid to rest. The question to ask now should be: ‘How Literacy?’ In regard to the question of ‘How Literacy?’, there are two basic positions: Should literacy be taught within the specific small-frame of the selective and intensive approach to literacy, with the provision of basic needs? Or, should literacy be taught within a large-frame of literacy as a ‘potential added’, on a mass-scale and with the political orientation? This paper clearly opts for literacy asgenerative rather than merelyinstrumental. |
