Empowering new readers in Egypt

CAIRO, Egypt — Raising literacy levels remains a significant challenge in Egypt, where almost 60 per cent of the population is still unable to read. For the churches, the Bible Society of Egypt and other organisations involved in Bible work, tackling illiteracy is vital if more people are to be enabled to read God’s Word for themselves.

One of the reading classes that the Bible Society of Egypt in partnership with the Coptic Orthodox Church. Photo: BS Egypt (EGY03DJ-1.JPG)

Many Egyptians attend literacy classes and gain basic skills. However, new readers often gradually lose these skills again if they do not have access to follow-up support and appropriate reading material. The Coptic Orthodox Church, which has run literacy classes for many years, has encountered this problem among many former students.

Formal

It has also become increasingly concerned that new readers are still not able to read the Bible, which is written in very formal, traditional Arabic, unlike the language of everyday life in Egypt, making it very difficult for people with limited literacy skills to understand.

It was against this background that the Bible Society began to collaborate with the Coptic Orthodox Church to devise a program which both reinforces and develops basic literacy skills and enables students to become independent readers of the Bible. This program is based on a participatory approach to teaching, rather than the rote learning technique which is still widely used in Egypt, and uses both the Bible itself and related material developed by the Bible Society.

Respect

The fact that Egypt’s Christians have great respect for the Bible means that it makes a very effective tool for teaching new readers, as they read it with great care and strive to understand every word. During this process, their knowledge of more advanced grammar increases without their even being aware of it. Students’ confidence in reading the Bible is boosted through the use of a special handbook which contains Bible passages translated into simple Arabic and makes links between the Bible and material found in newspapers and magazines.

Many students who use this handbook initially express concern about moving away from the traditional formal Arabic, but care is taken to explain to them that simple Arabic is being used just to help students understand the text of the Bible. The Bible Society has also produced a guide for teachers which introduces the basic principles of adult education and gives hints on working through the course material with the students.

The Bible Society has found that “the results of this method of Bible teaching can be quite remarkable,” according to General Secretary Ramez Atallah. So far, the program has enabled 24,000 people to begin to read the Bible. In some cases, the impact of using biblical material to acquire literacy skills has gone much further. Mr Atallah tells of a group of students who were on their way to a class when they found a dead donkey in the middle of the road. They simply walked round it, as is the custom in Egypt.

However, at the class they read a Scripture passage which emphasised the importance of practical involvement in the community. This passage had such an impact on them that, on their way home, they felt that they could not just walk around the dead animal again. Instead, they moved it out of the way to allow people to get past.

The cost of running this literacy program amounts to US$75,000 annually, part of which is being met by the Bible Society in Australia (New South Wales). (WR 378/11 - 7/8.03)