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“Literacy
is a right and a foundation for further learning that must be tackled through
quality schooling for all children, vastly expanded literacy programmes for youth and adults, and policies to enrich
the literate environment,” says Nicholas Burnett, the Report’s director.
This three-fold strategy places literacy at the core of Education for All. It
calls for measures to accelerate progress towards universal primary
education, to scale up literacy programmes for
youth and adults and to support libraries, the media, book publishing and
access to information.
“The powerful links that exist between adult literacy and better health,
higher income, more active citizenship and children’s education should act as
strong incentives for governments and donors to be much more proactive on
addressing the literacy deficit,” says UNESCO’s Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura.
According to the Report, three-quarters of the world’s adult illiterates live
in 12 countries**. South and West Asia has the lowest regional adult literacy
rate (58.6%), followed by Sub-Saharan Africa (59.7%), and the Arab States
(62.7%). Countries with the lowest adult literacy rates in the world are Burkina Faso (12.8%), Niger (14.4%) and Mali (19%).
Reflecting deep-seated gender inequalities in many societies, women account
for 64% of the adults worldwide who cannot read or write with understanding.
This figure is virtually unchanged from 63% in 1990.
Although adult literacy rates doubled in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Arab States
and South and West Asia from 1970 to 2000,
the rate of progress has slowed considerably since 1990. On present trends,
only 86 percent of the world’s adults will be literate by 2015, up from 82
percent today.
Severe poverty correlates strongly with low literacy rates: in Bangladesh, Ethiopia,
Ghana, India, Mozambique
and Nepal,
where three-quarters or more of the population live on less than US$2 per
day, adult literacy rates are below 63% and the number of illiterates exceeds
5 million.
Driven by the expansion of schooling, the literacy rate for those aged
between 15 and 24 in developing countries rose from 66% to 85% between 1970
and 2000-2004. Worldwide, however, more than 132 million people in this age
group are still unable to read and write even at a minimum level
On current trends, 30 out of 73 countries assessed are at serious risk of not
halving their level of adult illiteracy by 2015, the deadline set at the
World Education Forum in Dakar,
Senegal, in
2000. Most of these countries are in Sub-Saharan Africa but also include Algeria, Guatemala,
India, Nepal, Nicaragua
and Pakistan.
In both developed and developing nations, indigenous groups, persons with
disabilities and migrant populations tend to have literacy rates below those
of majority populations, often reflecting reduced access to formal schooling
and literacy programmes.
Schooling is the single most significant factor driving societies towards
mass literacy. But despite steady progress since the World Education Forum,
only 47 countries out of 163 with data available in 2002 have achieved
universal primary education (UPE). The charging of fees in 89 countries
stands as a major obstacle, as does the lack of a “literate environment”.
Over half of the Grade 6 pupils in Kenya,
Malawi, Mozambique, the United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, for example, learn in
classrooms “in which there is not a single textbook”.
On the basis of recent trends, 67 countries are at risk of not achieving UPE
by 2015; in 23 of these, net enrolment ratios are declining. Sub-Saharan
Africa and South and West Asia account for
70% of the world’s 100 million school-age children still not enrolled in
primary school.
The 2005 goal to achieve gender parity in primary and secondary education
will be missed by 94 countries even though many, including Guinea, Niger,
Senegal, the United
Republic of Tanzania and Yemen,
have increased girls’ access to the first grade of primary education by 30%
or more. On the basis of recent trends, some 86 countries are at risk of not
achieving gender parity even by 2015. In many middle- and High - income
countries, boys are underrepresented in secondary school.
The Report’s annual EFA Development Index (EDI), a composite of relevant
indicators on UPE, adult literacy, quality of education and gender, finds
that out of 121 countries with data available, only 44 have achieved the
goals or are close to doing so.
The relative neglect of adult literacy programmes
stems partly from the global drive to expand universal primary education.
There is a widespread belief that investing in primary-level education is
more cost effective. Recent studies, however, find that the cost of educating
an adult is on par with that of a primary school child (US$50), and that such
spending has a positive effect on individual earnings and economic growth.
Beyond intrinsic human benefits such as improved self-esteem and confidence,
literacy provides adults with the knowledge and tools to improve their lives.
Educated parents – whether through school or an adult education programme – are more likely to send their children to
school. Moreover, a recent study in 32 countries finds that literate women
are four times more likely to know the main ways to avoid HIV/AIDS.
The Report calls for a dramatic scaling up of youth and adult literacy programmes. This expansion will require more domestic
resources: typically, governments only allocate 1% of their national education
budget to adult literacy. Taking into account the standard costs involved in
literacy programmes, the Report estimates that
roughly US$26 billion dollars are needed over the next decade to make
significant progress towards the Dakar
goal of halving illiteracy rates.
The low status of literacy educators is a major obstacle to the success of
adult learning programmes. Research conducted for
the Report by the Global Campaign for Education and ActionAid
on 67 programmes worldwide found that the majority
of programmes paid their instructors between 25% to 50% of a basic primary school teacher’s salary.
Training often runs for one or two weeks and rarely leads to accreditation.
A majority of countries facing significant literacy challenges are linguistically
diverse, calling for clear policies that acknowledge the relationship between
literacy acquisition and language. The reality is that many learners end up
following lessons that are provided in a language different from their own. Programmes that provide initial learning in the mother
tongue are pedagogically sound but must allow for a transition to more widely
used regional or national languages.
Accelerating progress towards Education for All requires more national and
international support. While there is increased backing for UPE, literacy is
not high on the agenda of bilateral donors, according to a survey conducted
by the Report. No bilateral agency surveyed could quote with confidence a
single figure to illustrate its level of funding to literacy, an indication
of its low priority in aid budgets.
Bilateral aid to basic education almost trebled between 1998 and 2003 but
still accounts – at US$1.16 billion – for less than 2% of total Official
Development Assistance (ODA). Overall, nearly 60% of bilateral commitments to
education are still for the post-secondary levels, twice what is allocated to
basic education.
Assuming the share of funding that goes to basic education remains constant,
the increased overall aid flows pledged at the G8 Summit in Gleneagles in
July 2005 could by 2010 result in an annual total of only US$3.3 billion for
basic education, still far short of the $7 billion estimated necessary to
achieve the UPE and gender goals alone.
*The EFA Global Monitoring Report is an annual publication prepared by an
independent team based at UNESCO.
**India, China, Bangladesh,
Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia,
Indonesia, Egypt, Brazil,
Islamic Republic of Iran, Morocco,
Democratic Republic of the
Congo.
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