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INTRODUCTION
Most of the social, economic and political problems in the Third World e said to have their root in the intractable problem of illiteracy. The ugly level of illiteracy in Nigeria for instance is said to be mainly responsible for the problems of political apathy, ignorance, disease, partition, poverty, political instability and underdevelopment, among tiers. Most governments have come to realize the need for literacy as a y of tackling the problems rooted in illiteracy. The Nigeria government for instance, realizes the important role of literacy in individual and national development. Efforts have therefore been directed at mass literacy education at different levels of government. The directorate for Social Mobilization (MAMSER) among other agencies of government, has been created to address the situation. MAMSER'S three main programmes are: i) Mass Mobilization for self-reliance, social justice and economic recovery. ii) Political education, iii) Mass education. This effort is an acknowledgement of the need for literacy education to be integrated with the creation of consciousness. This takes literacy - education beyond the level of the 3RS. A careful observation of the literacy programmes in Nigeria so far reveals that the slant has been towards reading, writing and arithmetic. UNESCO'S functional literacy was introduced to improve on the traditional literacy method. In spite of these efforts, the problem of illiteracy appears intractable. Besides, the social ills which literacy education was supposed to eradicate are still with us to a generous degree. This paper advances the argument that literacy education limited to the 3RS or even to UNESCO'S functional method has not been able to help Nigeria sufficiently well. Our thesis is that the methods above lack the consciousness creating elements which would empower the people to take charge of the adverse situations around them. Drawing exclusively from Freire's philosophy of education, the paper concludes that the need for the integration of literacy education with consciousness-arousal is paramount for the Nigerian situation.
established between mass illiteracy and poverty, ignorance, disease, famine, oppression, and exploitation. It is in this sense that Fordham (1983:12) concluded that: The illiterates are at a clear disadvantage when they try to participate in either the world of work or the world where decisions are made. "They are increasingly dependent on others and denied access to written cultures or to further education: above all, they are not able to make a full contribution to the life and work of any nation. In this respect both the illiterate individual or a society "bedeviled" by mass illiteracy "not only suffers most from the debilitating effects of illiteracy but also receives the heaviest economic and social blows resulting from being illiterate (Alemayehu: 1988:289). It is not only the illiterates who suffer from these ills imposed by illiteracy. The larger society also suffers in the area of development. If the majority of the population belong to the club of illiterates then it would be difficult to accelerate^, it would be difficult for technological advancement to take off. The socio-political areas would be affected by the people's apathy and ignorance.The need for literacy education therefore becomes imperative. However the problems which illiteracy has introduced have grown larger than society. It is therefore not sufficient to try to eradicate these problems by merely teaching people to read and write. Any attempt to eradicate the dehumanizing phenomenon of illiteracy must be drastic and liberative. It is in this respect that literacy limited to the 3Rs or even to UNESCO'S functional method becomes too week to tackle the problem. Literacy limited to this mechanical and functional level will only be feeble attempts at a proper solution. In this respect, illiterates must be empowered beyond reading and writing to be able to tackle the problems. Again Aji (1988:52) puts this point succinctly: In a country such as ours, mass poverty, hunger, disease, ignorance, unemployment and a host of domesticating problems could only be eliminated when people were given the weapons to .do so, since literacy was not merely acquisition of the rudiments of the letters and numbers. The "weapons" which Aji refers to in his speech are the empowering elements which incorporate consciousness arousal. The reference to conscientization takes literacy from the narrow "meal-ticket" and mechanistic confines to make it a liberating agent of transformation. It is in the sense of literacy as a liberating force that Paulo Freire's method of conscientization becomes relevant. It is not only the illiterates who suffer from these ills imposed by illiteracy. The larger society also suffers in the area of development. If the majority of the population belong to the club of illiterates then it would be difficult to accelerate*, it would be difficult for technological advancement to take off. The socio-political areas would be affected by the people's apathy and ignorance.
begin to take steps towards transforming the ugly elements of their existential situations. The empowerment through literacy seeks to make learners understand their world and their present position in it and also to make them undertake efforts to change the adverse social, economic and political situations Thus economic, social and political empowerment emanate from the symmetrical relation between literacy education and conscientization in Freire's philosophy. What comes out clearly from Frelre's use of conscientization as a literacy process is the need to involve the learners and their world in the learning process. Illiterates too are beings capable of reflection not only action. The task of our literacy educators then is to equip the illiterates to make conscious efforts as an exploited social class, to liberate themselves from socio-political and economic bondage. Under the present setting, any literacy education that fails to conscientize the learners is almost a wasted effort. Another implication of the Freirean approach is the role of the educator becoming more demanding. He is no longer just an educator but also a politician. He is a liberating educator whose task has been brilliantly summarised by Comrade Pinoda costa (1988:119): The basic task of the political educator is to teach adults to read and write their own reality by encouraging them to think critically about the world and to take their place in it with an increasing lucid awareness of their own changing 'reality. This takes literacy education beyond the level of reading and-writing the word to include reading and writing the world (Freire 1987: viii). This makes literacy a process of going to the roots of the problems of society. It is thus a process of blending critical reflection with positive and creative action. Literacy education limited to the quantitative mechanistic levels cannot aid illiterates to transform the lethal socio-economic and political world around them. Literacy educators especially in Nigeria, need to take advantage of the relation between literacy education and conscientization as enunciated in Paulo Freire's philosophy of education.
CONCLUSION
The havoc which illiteracy and its attendant 'problems have brought to society are glaring even beyond the scope mentioned in this paper. We have identified literacy as a major solution to the problems. It has however, been observed that literacy as presently conceived and practiced cannot effectively tackle the problems. Literacy at its present mechanistic and functional concerns is limited to the quantitative values which do not get to the roots of the problems. The Freirean approach which incorporates the element of consciousness arousal takes literacy education beyond the level of the 3Rs. Besides, it situates the art of reading and writing in the broader social, economic and political concerns of man's life. Thus literacy as the process of conscientization not only aims at eradicating illiteracy but, at the same time empowers the learners to transform the ills which illiteracy has wrought on society.
REFERENCES
Aji, U.(1988) "Nigeria has 56 million illiterates" in Adult Education and Development no. 31 Alemayehu, R.(1988) "Adult Education and the Third World: An African perspective" in Lovett, T. (ed) Radical Approaches to Adult Education A Reader Routledge, London. Costa, P.(1987) quoted by Paulo in Adult Education and Development no. 31 Fordman, P.(1983) Cooperating for Literacy a DSE Seminar report. Freire, P.(1985) The Politics of Education Begin & Garvey, South Hadley Freire (1987) Literacy: Reading the word and the World.