An Ethnographic Study of Rural Community Literacy Practices in Bweyale and their Implications for Adult Literacy Education in Uganda

Abstract

In the case of formal education, moreover, it is not only oral proficiency that is needed: the skills of reading and writing are at least equally important to success. The higher one goes within the education system, the more essential is the information that are conveyed through books, and those who can access books for themselves and can read them without help enjoy the greatest advantage. Equally, students are regularly asked to demonstrate what they have learned through writing. If they do not have fluent writing skills, their knowledge of their subject, however extensive, may not be recognised. Nor is the practice of reading and writing confined to schooling. When individuals have finished their formal education, they still need to be able to access information, whether it be in their areas of work, or in the nation’s political life, or in their personal and emotional development (Nsibambi, A., 2000, p. 3).