EDGI 500 Week 4: Stephanie Pauloski by

There are about 781 million illiterate adults. The rate of literacy is likely to have dropped slightly from 18% in 2000 to 14% in 2015

spauloski — 2015-10-21 01:26:19 UTC

--> This means that the Dakar target of halving literacy has not been acheived

Diagram: Local & Global Factors that both facilitate AND impede policies & practices

spauloski — 2015-10-21 01:28:56 UTC

Key: + Facilitate, - Impede

spauloski — 2015-10-21 01:29:59 UTC

Local Factors:

- Literacy rates decline because of lack of practice/use

- Urban vs. rural gap

- Opportunities to be assessed in mother tongue

+ Occupations that do not encourage or require a literacy environment

-Inadequate teacher recruitment and/or preparation and training

Lack of a global definition:

spauloski — 2015-10-21 01:42:44 UTC

Monitoring adult literacy requires consistent information to allow comparisons, but obtaining such information can be sometimes challenging because definitions of literacy have evolved since 2000, when the EFA was put into effect

*Consistent definitions of literacy are needed for global comparisons*

spauloski — 2015-10-21 01:47:24 UTC

Global Factors:

+ Moving towards gender parity

+ Surveys/programs to assess literacy levels

- External monitoring: Inconsistent information such as the lack of a global definition for "literacy"

- Lack of global commitment

+ Programs such as PIACC, STEP, LAMP

Developing Countries:

spauloski — 2015-10-21 01:50:35 UTC

*Rates have rarely improved in adults

Female literacy rates to consider:

- Malawi had highest literacy rate within the developing nations at 50% among population. First, ages 20-34 in 2000 and then at ages 30-44 in 2010

- Yet, Nepal started off lower, but had a higher increase in literacy among females ending at about 65%

Challenges & Issues

spauloski — 2015-10-21 02:02:46 UTC

- Unclear global commitment

- assumption that universal primary education would eventually lead to adult literacy
- Adult literacy was neglected compared to other EFA goals

- Literacy campaigns & programs

- Less focus when international shift was towards universal primary education
- Often lack research on their effectiveness (set targets, but no monitoring and evaluation to track progress & report results

- Ambivalence about carrying out multilingual approaches with fear of division or conflict in situations of linguistic diversity

- Lack of proposed strategies in adult literacy (Example: Mexico & indigenous populations)

- Changes in daily life

- Lack of supply for learning opportunities and opportunities to use, improve and retain literacy skills

Opportunities for Growth & Change:

spauloski — 2015-10-21 02:07:46 UTC

- Advancement of "thinking" about literacy

- UNESCO created Literacy Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE) when it became apparent that existing efforts were insufficient
- Encourage governments, NGOs, and private sectors to advance efforts
- Belem Framework for Action

- Interest by regional organizations and governments in launching literacy campaigns

- Multilingual recognition

- More contribution to use of mother tongue

- Ensuring strong literate environment

- Contribution to acquisition and retention of skills

The limited progress in women's adult literacy rates may therefore have been the consequence of younger, better educated women replacing older, less educated ones.

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