Appearances can deceive, Thank God!

How often have Rose Mayala and I asked the question, “Have we accomplished anything worthwhile in our literacy efforts?”

When we started training literacy teachers in rural areas, we imagined an effective network growing relatively quickly the way it had happened in Kinshasa. We would create a mobile team of highly motivated and capable teachers in each area. These teams would train volunteer literacy teachers in local churches, expanding the number of villages involved until we had each area more or less covered. Proud new readers would finish classes each year. Motivated students would pool their contributions to give the teacher a “thank you” gift and buy chalk, notebooks, pens and reading primers. They would start by sharing books. By pooling resources, each student eventually would be able to buy her own book, if she wanted one.

The dream hasn’t translated well into practice. The first literacy classes here in the Kwilu River area around Vanga began in 2001. Since then only one student has received a reading certificate.

People want literacy classes. Women flock to them. But they will not buy teaching supplies and readers, however enthusiastic they are about learning. Village people cannot articulate the reasons, but they very often feel that teachers owe them free classes . . . and all the supplies. Nearly all teachers sacrifice time otherwise spent providing basics for their families in order to teach classes. But most teachers say they get no help from students. Many that we train become discouraged and stop teaching.

Why do many village classes progress so slowly, when Kinshasa literacy classes have people reading pretty well in several months? It’s hard to know without visiting classes myself. But one can speculate. Supervision is much harder for several reasons: villages are far apart; transportation is scarce or non-existent; and fluid schedules and poor communication make it hard to coordinate so that the supervisor arrives when classes are being taught. This makes it more difficult to correct deficiencies and encourage teachers. Subsistence farming imposes an irregular schedule and often leaves women little free time for classes. The benefits of literacy are often not immediately as evident as they are in the urban setting. And sometimes even trained literacy teachers may not be confident readers themselves, especially in French.

The apparent results of 2008 seemed especially discouraging. Only two local groups reported on literacy classes. “Sidewalk radio” buzzed about other classes, but where and how many was hard to guess. One of our two supervisors spent the year taking care of family members at the hospital or being treated herself. The other has a heart for literacy but struggles to put together informative reports. Without a clear picture of what was going on in individual churches, it was hard not to assume the worst.

This year UNESCO finally geared up for a 10-year campaign to halve the number of illiterate adults in Congo. They wanted to register all literacy classes and teachers in return for promises to channel support their way. This was something to get excited about! Bureaucracy grinds slowly. The forms arrived only at the end of November and all registrations needed to be filed before the end of the year. How to do it?

December is not a good time for a general meeting. Many of our teachers are primary or secondary school teachers as well. Schools have finals in December and insist (quite rightly) that their teachers be present. And gathering teachers (who must walk or bicycle 40-50 miles) is not easy. We had no idea how many literacy teachers would show up. Imagine our surprise (and delight) when 57 teachers showed up with reports in hand to prove that they’d been teaching most of the year. A year’s worth of reports all at one time! I still can’t say how many villages that represents -- perhaps 70.


First, local literacy volunteers are accomplishing something, despite the obstacles. CBCO literacy efforts in Bandundu in 2008 were not the disappointment they seemed to be. We will be “reaping our first harvest.” Many students are close to finishing. Local classes will be graduating students all over this area. Graduations encourage teachers. They make the village sit up and take notice. They encourage other students to redouble their efforts and bring more people to join classes.

Second, most of our CBCO literacy classes in the Vanga area are registered. There is at least a glimmer of hope that the government and UNESCO will strengthen our literacy initiatives.

Of course the global economic downturn could turn Congolese government finances completely upside down, pitching adult literacy toward the bottom of the pile of priorities. And local corruption constantly threatens to divert resources intended to develop human capital. Those are good subjects for intercessory prayer. For the time being Rose and the team do what they can with the modest resources that God has provided – yearning to see opportunities created and lives truly changed as people learn to read.