The attitudes, knowledge and skills of district literacy coordinators in three regions of Zimbabwe
Keywords:
Adult literacy, literacy coordinator, attitudes, skills, knowledge.Abstract
This study was conducted to investigate the attitudes, knowledge and skills of District Literacy Coordinators (DLCs) in
Mashonaland East, Mashonaland Central and Manicaland Provinces of Zimbabwe, with a view to determining their
training needs. A descriptive survey design using data collection instruments involving face- to- face interviews and
questionnaires was adopted. Thirty conveniently sampled DLCs participated in the study. The findings established
that while the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture still recognized the services of the DLCs who were
recruited during the 1980’s and 1990’s, these had gradually become disillusioned with the literacy programme due to
lack of motivation by the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, lack of a clear career path and poor
remuneration. The study findings also indicated that the DLCs did not show credible knowledge and skills of
approaches originally commensurate with those used in such literacy programmes elsewhere. The study recommends
that the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture conducts training workshops on attitude change and employs
professionally qualified Adult Educators as Administrators in the Non-Formal Education Division.
