EDUCATION-SERBIA: Govt Deals with the Legacy of Adult Illiteracy

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Dec 12 2001 (IPS) - Serbia is trying to deal with the legacy of adult illiteracy and with the country’s inability to keep pace with the modern world.

“Serbia will be turned into a big classroom,” Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic said at the opening of a recent conference dedicated to promoting adult education in Serbia. “Without learning and making up for the lost knowledge, Serbia will not be able to keep pace with its neighbours.”

The conference, held under “The Education of Grown Ups”, focused on the education of people above the age of 18.

“We are a very neglected nation and state, currently in a big trouble,” says Professor Miomir Despotovic of the Belgrade School of Philosophy.

“Simply, people here lack knowledge and information on what is going on and what lies ahead … They barely want to acquire knowledge and have no vision of their future … And that is a dangerous obstacle for any reforms this state proclaims as its goals,” he adds.

Despotovic, a leading expert in the field of adult education, says more than 50 percent of Serbia’s nine million people are functionally illiterate.

Functional illiteracy means that one can put a signature on a document, but not be able to understand the document or simple instructions on a postal form for sending money.

Serbia ranks fourth on the list of European countries with the largest number of illiterates, after Albania, Bulgaria and Romania.

“On surface, since WW II, we had a proper schooling system,” says Katarina Popovic, an assistant lecturer at the Belgrade School of Philosophy.

She blames former president Slobodan Milosevic for destroying Serbia’s education system. “Milosevic’s decade brought impoverishment to all, education included,” she claims.

The only research on literacy in Serbia was completed three years ago, under the title “Functional Literacy and Self- Education”. Its results were hidden from public during Milosevic’s era, but now make the basis in efforts to educate the adults.

“Some 2.5 million people in Serbia have not completed the obligatory eight-year elementary school,” the study says. “They can sign a document, but cannot understand its contents. Some 700,000 people are completely illiterate.”

A recent survey, completed after Milosevic fell from power last year, showed that education of young people was also neglected during Milosevic’s rule.

The state spent an average 400 U.S. dollars per pupil a year. Neighbouring and Western European countries spent six to 14 times more on each student per year.

“In the era of computers, it is disastrous to find out that only 20 percent of people with elementary education know what a library is … Some 40 percent of them are afraid of the idea of further education,” the study says.

“Education and learning are desperately needed in this country,” Popovic told IPS. “In the near future, the social and economic reality will force people to think on how to keep their jobs, search new ones or acquire new qualification for a new job. At the level of the state, one can not expect to promote reforms with the population scared with computers, automatic teller machines (ATM) or written instructions on how to punch tram tickets”.

Computers are still rare in Serbia, where not more than 150,000 people have private access to the Internet. ATMs are non-existent, while tram tickets are still sold by conductors.

Foreign donors are planning to open 120 centres to promote adult education in Serbia.

Serbia has only 13 adult education centres, where people above 18 can complete the elementary education they failed to attend in the past.