R.I. Literacy Committee Chairman Bill Boyd, of the Rotary Club of Pakuranga, N.Z., reads to children at Mayfield School in South Auckland, New Zealand.

Q: Why is literacy such a pressing problem today?
A: If there is one factor more than any other that distinguishes the haves from the have-nots, either in your community or between countries, it is literacy. Illiterate families are locked in the poverty cycle. Countries with low literacy levels cannot compete and fall further behind.

Q: How does illiteracy relate to other social problems, such as poverty and violence?
A: It is very difficult to teach illiterate people the paths to good health, the advantages of family spacing, the way to increase crop yields, nutrition for their children, and how to earn a living. They are denied access to so much of today’s knowledge. The poor often cannot afford to turn their backs on any means of obtaining the necessities of life. In developed countries, we see the impact of illiteracy in people who become antisocial when they cannot obtain a driver’s licence or read instructions on machines or labels. For those of us who can read this interview, it is hard to realise how crippling illiteracy must be and how difficult it is to survive without the knowledge we gain from the written word.

Q: Why is it important to give special attention to the education of girls and young women?
A: Research in Africa has shown that women who have less than four years of education have on average six children, and those with more than four years of education have on average two children. We also know that in Africa, women produce most crops. Add in the importance of the mother in family health, education and upbringing, and it is easy to see why educating women is so important. Despite this, in many developing countries, the literacy rate for women is abysmal. The best value for the aid dollar is when it is spent on the education of women. The benefits flow from generation to generation.

Q: How has Rotary responded to the problem of illiteracy?
A: Our response has varied depending on the local need. In developed countries, we have given books to families with babies, books to children in homes that have none and libraries to communities and schools. We have given reading assistance to slow learners and supported students through mentoring. What we have done in less developed countries is exciting. We have taught women in Turkey to read and given them vocational skills. We have educated street children in Egypt. We proved the efficacy of the Concentrated Language Encounter (CLE) method of teaching reading and writing in Thailand, and saw it adopted as the official way of teaching in schools. Now we are working in Thailand to use the method to teach English as a second language. In Malaysia, the use of CLE in teaching English as a second language in three trial schools lifted the passing rate from 35 per cent to 78 per cent. In the East Cape region of South Africa, we have trained teachers in 10 pilot schools and have a solid base of trained staff. In East London, South Africa, we are just beginning an adult literacy program, and while waiting for a grant from The Rotary Foundation to be finalised, a trainer (who had been trained in Thailand) trained all of the remedial teachers in the province – 117 church ministers, 77 primary school teachers and 35 teachers of adult literacy, all in the CLE method. The impact of our literacy efforts is almost impossible to quantify. And I haven’t mentioned the excellent work in Brazil, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Nigeria, the Philippines, and the many other countries where Rotarians are working to bring literacy to people. In the past four years, we have had more than 100 literacy projects funded by The Rotary Foundation grants in addition to the countless projects funded directly by clubs and districts.

Q: What is the CLE method?
A: CLE is a method of teaching reading and writing that was substantially developed by District 9630 Past Governor Dick Walker, of the Rotary Club of Salisbury, Qld., in Australia, and it has been tested over 15 years. It teaches from an interest/activity approach, rather than the rote repetition methods more common in developed countries and has the advantages of using low-cost materials, being easy to train to teachers, being culturally acceptable in all countries and yielding quick results. We can teach a woman to read and write in about 45 hours and at the same time train her in a vocational skill. One of the great advantages, which R.I. President Rattakul saw in Thailand, is that the students enjoy learning. CLE is just the method we use, though, and we have developed within Rotary a full strategy that begins with a pilot project in a country that becomes what we call a “lighthouse’’ to demonstrate to educational officials and teachers a way to go forward. The ownership of the program is local, and our role is to provide support and guidance in establishing the program and then by monitoring performance and developing the progression to more advanced levels. Our ultimate aim must be to hand a sustainable program to the officials of the country with whom we are working.

Q: Why not use CLE in developed countries?
A: It is not logical to challenge existing and traditional teaching methods, which are generally working well. What we are realising is that there may be a place for CLE to help minorities finding it difficult to assimilate if shut off from reading and writing the language. Their children suffer, and countries are becoming concerned about potential problems when immigrant communities are not absorbed into the wider society.