Chakrabarti, Sharmistha. (1999). A CRITICAL STUDY OF FAMILY PROBLEMS FACED BY THE LEARNERS, SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS, PHYSICAL FACILITIES AVAILABLE IN LITERACY CENTRES, ORGANISATIONAL AND INSTRUCTIONAL ASPECT OF LITERACY PROGRAMME AND THEIR RELATION WITH LITERACY ACHIEVEMENT OF FEMALE LEARNERS IN WEST BENGAL. Unpublished. ERIC, Education

Objectives of the study:

• To study the difficulties faced by the female learners at home for attending literacy classes and to judge how it affects their achievement in literacy.

• To study the physical facilities available (in terms of light arrangement, display of materials, teaching-learning method, instructor’s knowledge and use of teaching aids etc.) in the literacy centers and its relation to the achievement of female literacy.

• To study the socioeconomic background of the learners and to judge how it affects the achievement of learners.

• To study the organizational aspect of literacy programme(in terms of teachers attendance, learners attendance, participation of booth/village Education Committees etc. In the programme, supervision, monitoring and their motivation for the programme etc.) and its relation to the achievement of literacy.

Sample:

302 female learners were selected from two districts of West Bengal on the basis of recorded data on literacy achievement.

Tools:

• Socioeconomic background -schedule

• Physical facilities available at library centres- questionnaire

• Information schedule regarding instructors

• Organizational aspect of the literacy programme questionnaire

• Family problems faced by the learners for attending literacy classes- Interview Schedule

• Literacy Achievement Test

• Home visits, individual interview and discussions with the learners, instructors, members of local committee and various functionaries was undertaken to judge family background of the learner, literacy achievement, organizational aspect of the programme and to have first hand experience of detailed information about various constraints faced by the learners for literacy achievement.

Design of the study:

Survey Method

Statistical Techniques:

percentage, mean, Standard Deviation, Coefficient of Variation, Correlation Coefficient, t-test and z-test.

Findings:

• Majority of female learners were around 9 to 13 years and rest of them were 14 to 16 years. Out of 302 learners 56% learners were Hindus, 44% were Muslim in the study. Out of these Hindus, 60% learners were SC, only 13% learners belonged to ST and they were belonged to ST and they were all Santhal and only 27% learners were from other general caste of Hindus. It was also found that per-capita income of the family was around Rs100 to Rs.300. The main occupation of the guardian of the female learners were agriculture and were working as agricultural labors. Some of their occupations were area specific and related to religion, caste and tradition. In Muslim locality besides agriculture works guardian do petty business such as selling mix, cow, goat,vegetables, bamboo, hay etc.

• The percentage of female learners in the age group (9-16) years was 25.5% in this study. They scored more than 70% marks in literacy achievement test and their score is above 50%. The performance in numeracy was higher than writing and reading in study. Their performance in writing was poor. In writing majority of learners scored below 50% marks and only 11% learners scored above 70% marks. The reasons for poor achievement in writing was lack of practice in the center, due to non-availability of writing materials adequately in time in centers and instructors non-adoption of scientific method of teaching for developing writing skill. Teachers did not encourage reading and writing simultaneously which reinforced each other and most of the learners showed mastery in addition and subtraction up to two digits.

• The performance of ST learners was poor in this study. It was felt by discussion with ST learners that they have language problem. In literacy center, the medium of instruction was Bengali and aslo the primer was written in Bengali. The santhal children use their own dialect at home. So they have difficulty in learning through Bengali medium.

• The performance of learners in literacy achievement of Birbhum district was significantly higher than south 24- Pargnas district.

• The achievement of literacy of female learners was not dependent on income level of the family. There was not much variation regarding income and occupation among the learners, as such income level was almost a constant variable. It was found that there was no co-relation between per-capita income of the learners and their achievement in literacy.

• It was revealed that the motivation of the learners were important for literacy achievement and to them work load did not appear to be an impediment in attending literacy centres regularly and achieving the target achievement.

• Educational level of the family influences learners literacy achievement in this study.

• The instructor was the most significant factor of any literacy programme and literacy achievement of learners influencing success and failure of literacy programme in a decissive manner.

• Significant difference was not found in the context of overall population. It was observed that family problems faced by the learners, a such, didnot influence literacy achievement of the learners because the time scehdule and duration of the classes were being arranged on the basis of the convinience of the learners.

• Also, the rate of literacy was higher where the supervisor, village education committee, panchayat were working jointly for organizing literacy centres.

Keyword(s): Women Education