Cultivating peace …. in the hearts and minds of adults with low or no literacy skills in Germany

The celebration of the International Literacy Day 2012 by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and its partners provided a special forum for learners who became literate in their adulthood to be celebrated for their courage and determination. Five German learners read the “Manifesto: Voice of Writing and Reading Learners in Europe” which they produced together with other European learners in the framework of the EUR-Alpha network (2009-2012), a network of exchanges among practitioners, learners, trainers, researchers and policymakers from 12 European countries. A video by EUR-Alpha portraying this group and the award ceremony of 2012 in honor of two highly committed adult learners and a literacy expert vividly demonstrated that literacy education builds peace in the hearts and minds of women and men who are, due to social issues, excluded from omnipresent written communication in contemporary societies. Adults with low or no literacy skills find themselves in a constant emotionally stressful situation of social dependency.

Recognising low literacy skills as an important social issue, Germany established adult literacy and basic education as a funding priority between 2008 and 2012. The transfer agency of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, “Alphabund”,  covers 100 projects for research and educational practice. Today, the new funding priority is literacy and basic education at the workplace.

Links:

EUR-Alpha: http://www.eur-alpha.eu/

Alphabund: http://www.eur-alpha.eu/

German Federal Ministry of Education and Research: http://www.bmbf.de/de/426.php

Press release (in German): http://www.unesco.de/ua38-2012.html?&L=0

Article on International Literacy Day 2012 (by the German Commission for UNESCO, in German): http://www.unesco.de/uho_0912_alphabetisierung.html