ABSTRACT
Fetenu Bekele describes a more recent national literacy programme than the Brazilian, the Kenya National Adult Education Programme (NAEP). As part of Kenya's Third Development Plan, dedicated to the Alleviation of Poverty, this programme had an explicit goal of improving the quality of life, whereas the Brazilian was only implicit. By contrast with Brazil, literacy is taught in many of the various languages of Kenya and the traditional local meetings, or barazas, of the chiefs were an important channel for promoting the programme. The NAEP in Kenya placed much emphasis upon functional applications through health, agricultural technology and also promotion of government policy, as well as on literacy and links to certification in the regular school system. Participation was again highly valued but, despite training efforts through short courses, literacy teachers, like the learners, again gravitated towards formal class-room modes of instruction.
