This article is based on information from 2014. For the latest information, please refer to A Catalog of the Asian Research Library Collection of the Literacy Education Materials Formerly Owned by the Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO.
In June 2014, a collection of literacy education materials that had originally been published and used in the Asia-Pacific region was donated to the library by the Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU). The collection has been developed by the ACCU since the 1970s. It contains about 2,300 volumes of teaching resources such as illustrated textbooks, booklets, and games which were prepared by local governments or NGOs to teach people (mainly adults) with literacy difficulties.
Four specialists provided us with a commentary on the significance of this collection (please see the links below):
Receiving the Materials Donated by the Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO: Binding Together the Thoughts and Hopes Accumulated Along with the People of Asia
Yuto KITAMURA (Associate Professor, Graduate School of Education, the University of Tokyo)
The Academic and Societal Value of the Literacy Education Materials Donated by the Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU)
Yusuke NAKAMURA (Professor, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, the University of Tokyo)
Bhutan’s Languages throughout History and Its Literacy Education
Hiroshi TAKAHASHI (Researcher, Japan Institute for Bhutan Studies, Writer/Editor for Chikyū no arukikata Globe-trotter Travel Guidebook: Bhutan [in Japanese])
The Yi Language and Its Texts
Kazue IWASA (Researcher, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Researcher of the Yi language)
The literacy education materials are characterized by being designed for “non-formal education (NFE)” outside of school. The purpose of NFE in this case is to teach people who had no opportunity to receive a “formal education (FE)” because of child labor or flaws in educational systems. Compared with those of FE, NFE materials are less likely to be archived (they are not necessarily preserved even in their regions of publication), making this collection very valuable.
The texts are in 28 languages: (in decreasing order of items) English, Bengali, Urdu, Chinese, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Thai, Nepali, Mongolian, Tagalog, Khmer, Burmese, Lao, Dzongkha, Malay, and other languages. They were published in 25 countries: (in decreasing order of items) Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Cambodia, Burma (Myanmar), and other countries.
The contents of the textbooks and booklets are closely related to the lifestyles and cultures in the regions: the influence of smoking on health, first-aid for electric shocks, disaster, the harm of drugs, sanitation, health and food for infants, agriculture and domestic animal husbandry, beekeeping, handcrafting, calculation, and other methods for income generation. There are also booklets dealing with social problems like human trafficking, environmental pollution, human rights, morals, gender, divorce, and gender equality. The collection also contains materials which focus on female problems like maternal and baby health, nutrition for women, violence against women, and the roles of women in society, reflecting the fact that the illiteracy rate of adult females is higher than that of males(*).
This collection is a valuable primary source for studies in education, linguistics, sociology, area studies, public health, and many other fields.
* In 2011, the global population of illiterate adults is 773.5 million, 63.8 % of which are female (Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, September 2013).
September 19, 2014
Last updated: May 12, 2023
【Addenda】
In March 2023, Research Advancement Section for the Asian Research Library has published A Catalog of the Asian Research Library Collection of the Literacy Education Materials Formerly Owned by the Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO, (in three volumes) . For more information, please refer to the Asian Research Library website.
●Libraries holding the catalog （CiNii search results）：Vol1 Vol2 Vol3
●”List of Asian Research Library Collections” (the Asian Research Library website)：
https://www.lib.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/library/asia/publications
●”About the Collection of the Literacy Education Materials Formerly Owned by the Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO” (the Asian Research Library website)：
https://www.lib.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/library/asia/collectionall/accuguide
●Report on the publication of the catalog：
KAWAHARA Yayoi,“アジア研究図書館所蔵ユネスコ・アジア文化センター識字教育資料目録 1』 (アジア研究図書館叢書1)刊行報告”, アジア研究図書館ニューズレター, Vol. 7, Research Advancement Section for the Asian Research Library （RASARL）, April 2021.
「『アジア研究図書館所蔵ユネスコ・アジア文化センタ-識字教育資料目録』 (アジア研究図書館叢書2, 3)第2巻・第3巻刊行報告」, アジア研究圖書館 : アジア研究図書館ニューズレター, Vol. 11, Research Advancement Section for the Asian Research Library （RASARL）, April 2023.
Original Japanese article posted in August 26, 2022
Translated in September, 2022
Last updated: May 19, 2023