-
c h a p t e r 1. Literacy and Education
- University of Texas Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
16 c h a p t e r 1 Literacy and Education “Culture in this country is dead!” the owner of the Jerusalem weekly alMunadi proclaimed in 1912. In an intensely pessimistic editorial, he depicted a dismal state of affairs in Palestine. Having abandoned science and learning, people had sunk in ignorance bordering on unbelief, indeed in unbelief itself. Nothing concerns them but vain talk and senseless squabbling , he noted in dismay. This editor was not alone in his gloom. Many others voiced frustration with the country’s cultural realities at the outset of the twentieth century. “The readers shall know,” stated Raghib al-Khalidi, a prominent Jerusalem notable, “that two forces have a grip over the Islamic community in Palestine, the force of despair and the force of poverty.” Khalidi might well have added a third force, that of illiteracy, reflected in widespread apathy and ignorance of which he and his colleagues complained. Such phenomena were inevitable, Isa Daud al-Isa of the Jaffa-based Filastin soberly noted, “in a society of which merely two percent are literate.”1 This last assessment by Isa, obviously no more than a raw speculation, is nonetheless of some interest to us. In a study dealing with a community adopting reading habits, literacy rate is of the essence. The editor of Filastin , of course, sought to convey a sense of anguish rather than to offer a solid estimate; Palestine would have to wait another two decades before its first orderly survey would address the issue systematically. The tiny rate Isa quoted may thus have been deliberately minimized, but perhaps not grossly so.2 The first authoritative evaluation of literacy at our disposal comes from the general census of 1931, conducted by officials of the British mandatory government, who applied modern methods. The survey put the overall literacy rate among sedentary Arabs, 7 years old and up, at c. 20%. Among Muslims it was c. 14% (men c. 25%, women c. 3%), and among Christians l i t e r a c y a n d e d u c a t i o n 17 c. 58% (men c. 72%, women c. 44%).3 This reflected the situation after a decade of enhanced educational endeavor. A reasonable assessment by a seasoned observer in 1947 put the overall literacy rate in Palestine’s Arab community at 27%: 21% for Muslims (men 35%, women 7%), 75% for Christians (men 85%, women 65%).4 Such figures—we are unlikely to get any better—may or may not have been close to the mark. But what was the mark? More practically, what was the concrete meaning of “literacy” and “literate,” and what did the figures signify with regard to the bulk of society, which was left out of this rubric ? We may assume that in defining 2% of society as “literate,” Isa Daud al-Isa intended fully educated people who could read texts of any kind, as well as write; or, more to the point, those who would have made up the potential reservoir of readers for his pioneering newspaper. But what about the 98% he excluded? Were they utterly incapable of deciphering any written text, not even of the simplest type? Not even the headline of a public notice, or a street sign? Were they unable to decode an inscription in a mosque, or a passage in a prayer book? Were they able neither to read nor to write, or even sign their names? Maybe some of them did have some such skills, but perhaps not enough to place them among the “literate” whom the editor of Filastin would have as his readers? Isa, again, was merely airing his despondency, and we should not read into his statement more than that. The authors of the 1931 census, by contrast , aspired for a more reliable picture. They presented a host of tables on the state of literacy in Palestine, with a breakdown by religion, age, sex, district, urban/rural origin, and so forth, as elaborate as one could possibly hope to get. Yet the surveyors did not pretend to resolve questions like those posed above, nor did they directly address them. Rather, they acknowledged that “literacy is a condition with a wide range, so that its definition for the purpose of an inquiry is a matter of considerable difficulty.”5 When conducting the census, they chose to determine “literacy” on the basis of answers to two questions which they...