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Functional Literacy in Romania: Between Myth & Reality. Chapter DOCUMENT RESUME ED 386 350 RC 020 242 AUTHOR Anghel, Florentina TITLE Functional Literacy in Romania: Between Myth & Reality. Chapter 13. PUB DATE 94 NOTE 21p.; In: Alpha 94: Literacy and Cultural Development Strategies in Rural Areas; see RC 020 235. PUB TYPE Information Analyses (070) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Adult Basic Education; Communism; Educational Development; Educational History; Educational Objectives; Elementary Secondary Education; Foreign Countries; *Functional Literacy; Higher Education; *Literacy Education; Political Power; Rural Areas; *Rural Education; Rural Population; *Social Change; *Totalitarianism IDENTIFIERS Bureaucratic Language; *Romania ABSTRACT This chapter reviews the history of literacy training in Romania through the pretotalitarian period (1890-1945) , the totalitarian period (1945-1989), and the posttotalitarian period (1989-present). Current literary development efforts face many challenges including the facts that 592 classrooms do not have indoor plumbing, that more than 1,700 teaching positions in village and commune schools are held by individuals without specialized education, and that 60 percent of functional illiterates live in rural areas. An evaluation of rural literacy training shows that, during the most difficult stage of totalitarianism (1980-1989), great strides were made, including establishing a school in every village, free education for all, access to cultural activities and written information, original cultural productions, and mass cultural demonstrations. However, the dictatorship controlled the content of written and visual communication, practiced censorship, and imposed codes of the Ruling Power through propaganda that became known as "gobbledygook." Objectives for a posttotalitarian rural literacy training program include abandoning the idea that only schools can provide literacy training; discovering community-based methods and encouraging nongovernmental agencies to launch literacy projects; producing tools to raise awareness of functional illiteracy in Romania; making use of projects and programs established by other agencies for the education of women and youth and for training; and enlarging the field of literacy training to include cultural minorities. Projects in progress include developing a rural university, a wide scale evaluation of the human and material resources in rural areas, and the establishment of a national network of facilitators for rural areas.(LP) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** Chapter 13 FUNCTIONAL LITERACY IN ROMANIA BETWEEN MYTH & REALITY Florentina Anghel Education Sciences 'istitute Bucharest, Romania THE MEANING OF LANGUAGE The text that follows is intendedas an essay on the contradictory history of U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION literacy training in Rornania (during the period e If eke abona Retea0.0.FI 0000,00 0', preceding and the period t Pt g A FIONA: INF OtilvtAt( following 1989) and some of the objectives, problemsand desired results of F NI( 1-1:t I-41( literacy training projects for development in rural 100 .unt.01 hat beet, .0,1., 101As areas. 1011. 11/041,000, The study's presentation in three parts,pre-totalitarian period, totalitarian to,r0110anyes na.e to000 .. period and post-totalitarian period, is justified, 1.00 on one hand, by the need to emphasize the relationship that should exist betweentraditions and current 0t.10.% ;If , .IS 51..1101 0 thIS 1.0 °, 11. 0,1 e0 '01 F' projects. On the other hand, we have tried to pointout current literacy problems in rural areas based on the idea that, duringthe totalitarian period, literacy really a "logocracy", a sub-system of the RulingPower through which it imposed the codes, symbols and structures of"communist literacy". We have tried to suggest newanswers to questions raised about literacy -PERMISSION TO REPRODUCETHIS research and action prouarns, such BY as: "What could be more normal than MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED literacy training that intends, according to its objectives,to be something other than evangelism through languageor a false social catalyst that is much too diluted to trigger the radical transformations itproposes?" The answers come are.r - only through understanding what language hasmeant in countries that have experienced totalitarianism: not so mucha way of communicating, understand- TO THE F DUCATIONATRESOURCES ing, arguing and philosophizing but rather,a subtle, external form of manipula- INFORMATION CENTER 'ERIC) tion designed to contaminate allmessages by reducing them to a single code: that intended by the Ruling Power. We have adopted the recognized meaningof "consciousness-raising", 177 I ) BEST COPY AVAILABLE Functional Literacy in Romania 179 178ALPHA 94 proposed and our way of thinking.In Romania's The village can easily fall prey to cultural pollution bymass media in unfair because it fits the objectives competition with authentic rural values, yielding disastrous effects. case, literacy has tofulfill a training rather than aninformation function, arithmetic). It is a Raising consciousness about change can compensate for the speed ofnega- because it is more than a sumof basic skills (reading, writing, of a social and cultural heritagethat must be tive change. What models are acceptable? What are the critical evaluation way of raising consciousness criteria for integrating contemporary urban models? What methodsare there for mobilized and revitalized. Enlightened(participative, involved) literacy train- renewing rural areas, and who are the social players (individuals,groups, ing must become a basic frameworkfor cultural development in rural areas, as quality of new relationships betweenthe individual organizations) ready to mobilize their resources? If an infrastructureor infor- much an expression of the that is mation structure exists, how can it assist the goals of literacy training? and the community as the startingpoint for the individual autonomy consciously find a place in the outsideworld, to It would be easy to believe that such an exalted purpose could only be necessary for Romania to unanimously accepted and recognized as an unquestionable national priority. communicate with self or others, toparticipate more fully in sociallife. The in its most generous sense. Yet, the literacy training problem is still evaded, in post-totalitarian Romania, overall purpose, in a word, is liberation, either by silence or by reducing it to a sum of insignificant, anachronistic problems. Politicians do not consider illiteracy a real problem in ruralareas, although GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS there are concerns about other problems there (privatization, repossession by former landowners, production associations andso on). When, in spite of Today, rural areas are obsessedwith their own stagnation.Although they quickly) to tranquillity, they do nothave the means. everything, literacy training is not forgotten, it is presentedas an issue from the want to return (perhaps too into a past or one that exists only for the aged. In this social milieu, transition isdifficult and painful. Peasants are thrust of the Without question, however, 1989 was a year of profound change. The avail- new role, that of farmer or owner,forced to deal with the new mechanisms translate all their problems intoprosperity or, ability of information sparked an information explosion in reactionto the market economy and expected to suppression of information by the past regime. For the moment, it finds at least, economic growth. expression in rural areas simply as an interest in information. But the time will Economic growth, however, has tobe questioned if rural areas are to repre- preservation of the status quo,maintaining come when peasants will express their need for access to information, andwe sent anything more than just a must be prepared for that day. privileges and submitting peasants to newslogans imposed for political reasons becoming that have not been explained tothem. Real development includes the general historical aware and experiencingwhat individuals can achieve in The Option of Literacy Training and community setting, when theyhave the opportunity to expressthemselves and creatively according to their aptitudes,beliefs and personal preferences, There are many "enthusiasts" who consider cultural developmentan inven- models that enable when society accepts theirindividual uniqueness, following tion of cultural facilitatorsPagitators". Such enthusiasts cite statisticsto show Development also means the oppor- personal and communal transformation. that it is impossible to raise the problem of illiteracy in ruralareas. Here are tunity to participate in every aspectof public and private life, allowingeach some of the data: conscious relationship with self andwith the individual the right to experience a There are 11,307 schools in rural areas as opposed to only 2,540 in urbanareas. environment. be Rural areas, moreover, should notbe considered a blank page that can There are 12,786 classrooms in rural areas and only 3,298 in urbanareas. filled with new codes and rousing messages.No political authority (party or In every village or commune, there is a cultural centre, library and movie theatre. organization) can assume the roleof writing and rewriting the historyof Out of a total of 15Z838 students, 35,189 came from rural areas (in 1992). literacy in the same terms
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