Kinds of literacy personnel

A major key to a community literacy program's acceptance and success is recruiting, selecting, and training respected community members to take responsibilities in it.

In any literacy program, personnel are needed to

• direct and manage
• select and develop materials
• teach, and
• train trainers, writers, staff personnel, and others.

No two literacy programs are alike. Personnel needs are unique to each situation. The number, roles, and responsibilities of program personnel depend on local needs, interests, and culture.

Large programs may require many people in certain positions; small programs may allow one person to fulfill the responsibilities of several positions.

There are many personnel roles needed by literacy programs. Position titles for these roles vary greatly. In the chart below, a general title is given first, with common variations in parentheses. Click on each title to see typical responsibilities for that role.

Here are some kinds of personnel commonly needed by literacy programs:

• Administrator (director, coordinator, facilitator)
• Literacy committee (steering committee, advisory committee, support committee, board, executive council)
• Literacy materials developer (materials producer)
• Public relations person (liaison, speaker, representative)
• Supervisor
• Support staff (clerk, typist, secretary, records-keeper)
• Teacher (instructor, tutor, facilitator)
• Trainer

See the following online books for more information:

• Planning for literacy in Papua New Guinea

  • Recruiting literacy workers
  • Sample page: Workpaper recruiting provincial level literacy workers
  • Sample page: Workpaper recruiting community level literacy workers

• Fact module: Kinds of literacy personnel
• In overview module: Literacy personnel, by Stephen L. Walter
• In modular book: Plan a literacy program, by Stephen L. Walter, Barbara K. Trudell (contributor), and Trudy K. Stewart (general editor)
• In bookshelf: Literacy

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 8 December 1998

© 1999 SIL International