CHAPTER ONE: BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
4.3 Socio-economic characteristics of the study sample
4.3.1 Gender
instruction. Whereas instruction in the Beginner's level was done purely in Lugbara, the instructors in the other two levels (Basic and Intermediate) tended to use both Lugbara and English. In the Intermediate level, learners were more keen on being taught in English than Lugbara.
As shown earlier in Table 2, a total of 32 participants were interviewed in the course of the study. These included six instructors, 12 child learners, 12 adult learners, and two URLCODA officials. The details of the outcome of the 32 interviews conducted and eight observations made during the study are described in the following sections.
Table 3. Categories of interviewees by gender Comp. Of the
Sample Facilitators Adult Learners Child Learners URLCODA Officials Total
No. of Males 4 4 7 1 16
%
67 33 58
50 50
No. of Females 2
8 5
1 16
%
33 67 42 50 50
Total No.
6 12 12
2 32
Total
% 100 100 100 100 100
Of the 12 adult learners who took part in the study, 67% were females and 33% were males. 58% of the child learners were boys while 42% were girls.
67% of the instructors were males and 33% were females. The percentage for the URLCODA officials was 50% male and 50% female.
The above figures suggest that there are significantly more female adult learners in the literacy programme than male adult learners, slightly fewer girls than boys and, above all, fewer female instructors than male instructors.
Although attempts were made to include every aspect of the study population in the sample, the conclusions drawn in this study should be generalised with a lot of caution. This is because the study was exploratory and the size of the sample selected was very small.
Accordingly, the lower number of male adult learners than female adult learners, and the fewer girl learners than boy learners is not surprising to the researcher. The URLCODA officials and the instructors indicated that people in Micu village in particular, and the Lugbara community at large, still have a tendency of not according a high priority to the education of girls. There is therefore a general tendency of thinking that adult literacy classes are for
women and thus regarding it as a women's affair. When the male learners were asked why their friends were not attending, one of them said:
My neighbour always quarrels with his wife about attending literacy classes. When his wife tries to convince him to join the classes, he always says that it is a waste of time and that it is women who can afford to waste that time.
Another one said that his brother has refused to attend the literacy classes because he believes that the things that are discussed or taught and learnt such as health/hygiene, agriculture, nutrition, water and sanitation mostly relate to home keeping which is best suited for women who should be the best target group for adult literacy classes.
However, the lower number of female instructors in the programme does not seem to tally with the reality the researcher observed on the ground in Uganda in general, and Arua district in particular. This observation relates to the issue of the number of female teachers in primary schools. Generally, the affirmative action policy ushered in by the NRM government in Uganda since it came to power in 1986 has now brought in a significantly large proportion of women into public offices and positions of authority (Kharono 2003). This is also true of the number of female teachers in almost all the primary schools. The government of Uganda launched an affirmative action policy to increase the number of women in all sectors of the economy, which seems to have yielded fruit. Kasozi (2002) and Kharono (2003) have detailed
information about the progress so far made in the area of affirmative action policy in Uganda.
Since 67% of the instructors were found to be trained primary school
teachers, one would have expected that the majority of the instructors would be females. It would therefore be logical to assume here that the female primary school teachers might have responded more readily than their male counterparts to come and facilitate in the adult literacy programme in which the 67% of the participants are also female adult learners. This could greatly
boost the morale of female learners and together they could positively contribute towards the struggle to emancipate the women in the various sectors of the economy.
However, when asked why there were fewer female instructors in the literacy programme than their male counterparts, the reason male learners gave was that most female adult learners are not interested in having a fellow female as their instructor. One of them said:
My personal experience is that women do not normally like each other. If there are fewer female instructors than male instructors, it is not a surprise to me. Since the majority of the adult learners are
women, it discourages and repels female instructors.
This tendency appeared to be more common in the Beginners and Basic classes than in the Intermediate class. This is because the two female instructors who took part in the study were both facilitating in Intermediate classes.
However, when the female instructors were asked to give their side of the coin, they disagreed with the male learners' point of view. Both the female instructors argued that the female teachers in the primary schools have too much on their plates because of the abnormal number of pupils in the UPE.
One of them, who was also a primary school teacher herself, remarked as follows:
/ really feel there is too much to do in primary schools. Can you imagine marking over 300 exercise books and prepare for the next lesson... Then you have to go back home do your domestic work after the pupils have gone home, and prepare for the next day. I just feel that there is no extra time to sacrifice....
Indeed the number of pupils in primary schools after the introduction of UPE has been overwhelming to handle. I tend to agree with the view given by the female instructor. The URLCODA officials (one of whom was a primary
teacher) strongly supported the view expressed by the female instructor regarding their numbers in the literacy programme.
The female learners never gave a convincing reason as to why there were fewer female instructors. One of them said: "You know it is true that we women sometimes do not like ourselves, maybe that is why the female
instructors are not interested in coming to help us." Another one said: "Maybe they are just not interested, otherwise we have not refused them to teach us". The majority of them said that they were not sure as to why there were few female instructors.
However, from the observations made in the classes and my interactions with the participants, if the resentment towards female instructors by the female learners in the Beginner and Basic levels is true, it could be explained in terms of their relatively short period they have stayed in the programme. Possibly, they have still remained embroiled or entangled in the male-dominated culture as compared to the learners in the Intermediate levels. The learners in the Intermediate levels have been in the programme for some time and interacted variously with other learners and instructors and discussed some of the gender-related issues in classes. In male-dominated culture, it is common for women to believe that what men do is always and necessarily the best and this tendency could still be percolating among the learners in the two stated levels of classes.
However, the above reasons advanced for the conspicuous lack of female instructors in URLCODA's adult literacy programme should be taken with caution because of the small size of the sample used and the exploratory nature of the study. It could therefore be possible that a larger sample size than this and probably in a different study area might produce very different results. This is why generalisation of the findings of this study has to be made with a lot of caution.