International Literacy Explorer

Literacy and International Development

Much has been learned about literacy in the 50 years since the United Nations declared it to be a basic human right along with the right to adequate food, health care, and housing. One might think that food, health care, and housing are more pressing needs than literacy education, but literacy is now seen as a major tool to help address these other needs. We are finding that in addition to being important sustenance for the mind, literacy satisfies other needs in some very specific ways. For example, see the Seti Project in Nepal.

Most agree that literacy is a major problem in today's world. Indeed, it is near the top of the policy agenda of most countries in the world - including both industrialized and developing countries. According to UNESCO statistics, almost a billion illiterates remain as we approach the year 2000, and the prognosis for a major reduction in many countries is not very optimistic. Furthermore, the relatively low rates of illiteracy in industrialized countries are misleading, as countries like the United States begin to realize that low levels of literacy can be just as troubling, and sometimes more difficult to deal with, than illiteracy in some developing countries.

A wide variety of projects have been set up around the world to promote literacy in very unique and interesting ways. One of the consistent challenges these projects face is learner motivation. Learners often have trouble seeing how literacy will enhance their lives or how much effort it will take to become literate. To see how first language literacy inspires learners, see the Haitian Multi-Service Center in Boston.

After World War II, educational development efforts focused on expanding formal schooling. It was assumed that higher school attendance would help to end the "scourge" of illiteracy. But research and experience have shown that schooling does not necessarily produce literacy or the kinds of literacy that students need. Therefore formal schooling programs might not be the best way of investing scarce literacy resources. There may be more effective means of teaching literacy skills in some areas that are more tailored to the needs of the community. See the Tok Ples Project for some insight into nonformal schooling.

Low literacy levels (by whatever definitions or measurements) are endemic across the globe, the relative costs and benefits of literacy programs are as yet poorly understood, and innovative approaches to literacy improvement have common elements that can be addressed through a better understanding of the nature of literacy and literacy education programs.

Literacy is of central importance to development. Increasingly, it is correlated with higher income and job productivity. The social consequences of low levels of literacy in some cultures can include higher prison incarceration rates, welfare dependency, and higher fertility.

Understanding the Rationales for Literacy and Basic Education Work

Economic rationale. From the poorest village in Bangladesh to the elegant boulevards of Paris, one can hear the refrain of the economic rationale for literacy development. Few countries are oblivious to the perception that a literate and skilled populace can have an important impact on the social and economic life of nations. Numerous claims have been put forward that a given minimum rate of literacy is a prerequisite for economic growth in developing countries, and we can read headlines in North American newspapers today which proclaim that, in the context of global competition, low adult literacy will be the economic ruination of previously well-off countries such as Canada and the United States.

From the advent of the Experimental World Literacy Programme in the 1960s, claims have been made as to the positive impact on economic productivity of literacy and basic education. Most of the empirical research on this topic comes from a handful of studies that relate number of years of schooling (mostly primary schooling) with income or job productivity. For example, in the agricultural sector, studies have been undertaken which support the notion that an additional year of primary schooling can directly affect wages and farm output; such analyses are among the many which suggest that additional years of schooling lead to economic returns that are greater than the cost of the education itself.

Social rationale. Even if literacy has only limited direct economic consequences, it may have social consequences which become important objectives for development planners. For example, especially in developing countries, the gender disparity is quite marked, while literacy variation in industrialized countries, tends to be more visible by ethnic or minority group status. In such cases, the social consequences of low literacy in industrialized countries can include lowered rates of incarceration in prisons, welfare dependency, and social disintegration, while in developing countries, there is a wide variety of demonstrated empirical relationships between literacy and lower fertility, lower infant mortality, higher nutrition, and so forth. Nonetheless, we still know relatively little about causality in these relationships, and even less about the role that literacy might play in reducing health risks and lowering fertility.

Political rationale. There is a long tradition of utilizing literacy programs in general, and literacy campaigns in particular, as a way to achieve political goals. In the 1500s, Sweden engaged in one of the earliest known national literacy campaigns in order to spread the state religion through Bible study. The apparent goal was not only religious salvation but also national solidarity. This latter aspect of campaigns remains a potent source of government support of literacy work in many countries. Perhaps most visible are the literacy efforts in the former USSR, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Ethiopia; yet, the political appeal of literacy as a policy goal is also apparent in today's resurgence of literacy work in North America and Europe as well as in parts of Asia and Africa. This type of political appeal stems from government's need to show that they are doing something good for the most disenfranchised communities of the country, while often justifying the investment in terms of lower social welfare costs, as well as greater economic productivity.

Using Literacy Statistics

In order to provide worldwide statistical comparisons, UNESCO (the UN agency charged with gathering educational statistics) has relied to date almost entirely on data provided by its member countries. These countries, in turn, typically depend on national census information, which most often determines literacy ability by the proxy variable of self-stated years of primary schooling or through self-assessment questionnaires. Many specialists would agree that such measures are likely to be unreliable indicators of literacy ability. Nonetheless, up to the present, systematic national or regional surveys which measure literacy skills have only just begun in few industrialized countries while little progress at all has been forthcoming in developing countries.

According to recent UNESCO statistics, world literacy rates have been dropping over last two decades due to increases in primary school enrollments. Yet these data also indicate that the actual numbers of illiterates have remained generally constant so far due to population growth. If one assumes an optimistic picture of literacy trends over the coming decades, programs for achieving universal primary schooling and adult literacy will lead to a drop toward zero in illiteracy rates by the year 2025. These optimistic views seem to be shared by relatively few specialists in the field, but are occasionally put forward by policy makers when they wish to try to present the best face possible on literacy work. A more realistic view indicates the following: (1) data on world literacy rates are misleading, and underestimate the nature and scope of literacy problems; and (2) neither increases in primary schooling nor adult literacy programs have been very effective at reducing illiteracy, at least due to simple population growth.

Also, such general views of literacy rates mask large inequities, with higher illiteracy in rural communities, among girls and women, and perhaps most importantly for the future, among marginalized, minority and indigenous groups. Based on this view, in most developing (and many industrialized) countries there are severe educational inefficiencies. This implies that universal primary schooling and increased adult literacy are much harder to achieve than previously believed.

Go to the Explorer's Statistics section for further discussion of literacy and basic education statistics as well as country and UNESCO region statistics comparisons.