World Literacy: Sustenance for the Mind

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World LiteracySustenance for the Mind

• Overview, Statistics and Programs to Improve
  Literacy in the World

2
The Basics

• According to UNESCO statistics, almost a billion
  people in the world were illiterate as we entered
  the year 2000.
• Industrialized countries are learning that low
  levels of literacy can be just as troubling and
  sometimes more difficult to deal with, than
  illiteracy in developing countries.

3
Statistics May Not Tell The Whole Story

• UNESCO relies on countries to report their own
  literacy rates.
• Countries report literacy rates based on national
  census data and self reporting by their people.
• As a result, data are misleading and most likely
  underestimate the nature and scope of literacy
  problems.

4
Do School Programs Help?

• Neither increases in primary schooling nor adult
  literacy programs have been very effective at
  reducing illiteracy rates.
• While more people are learning to read, gains are
  offset by the increase in population growth.

5
General Views of Literacy Rates Mask Large
Inequalities

• The literacy rate among girls and women is much
  higher.
• Marginalized, minority and indigenous groups also
  have much higher rates of illiteracy.
• Cultural issues have made universal primary
  schooling and increased adult literacy much
  harder to achieve than originally expected.

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What is Literacy?

• All of the Following Have Been Used to Define
  Literacy
• Being Able to Sign Ones Name
• Being able to read/write a simple sentence
  describing ones daily activities
• Being able to read and write (self-reported)
• Being able to pass a written test of reading
  comprehension at a level comparable to that
  achieved by an average student at grade 4
• Being able to engage in all of those activities
  in which literacy is required for effective
  functioning in his/her community

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Present View

• Generally, the present view of what constitutes
  literacy is that it is dynamic. This view
  assumes that literacy should be defined only
  within the country or culture, or over time.
• Some definitions include numeracy and problem
  solving.

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Measuring Literacy

• Direct Assessmentperformance on a test or on
  literacy tasks given by an examiner
• Indirect Assessmentestimating literacy from
  information that is known to be indirectly
  related to literacy, such as the number of years
  of schooling.

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Direct Assessment

• To illustrate the complexity of measuring
  literacy, complete the following 6 Tasks and ask
  yourself the questions that follow
• Note Assume that the instructions are given
  verbally and that each word is written on a
  separate card. If your native language is not
  English, assume these words are written or said
  in your own language.

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Task 1

• SAY EACH OF THESE WORDS
• book
• water
• vote
• five hundreds
• computer
• poison

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QUESTIONS

1. What aspect(s) or process(es) of literacy does
   the task (item) measure?
2. How well does the task measure that aspect or
   process of literacy?
3. How important is it to measure that aspect of
   literacy?
4. What administration or scoring issues are
   involved?

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Task 2

•      A. HERE ARE SOME PICTURES.  WRITE
• A WORD THAT DESCRIBES OR
• MATCHES EACH ONE
•            ____________        ____________
• _______________
  ______________
• B. HERE ARE SOME PICTURES.
• CIRCLE THE WORD THAT FITS THE
• PICTURE             
   
• book    bull    read             
•  
• beard    bird    bear
• NoteAssume that the instructions are given
  verbally, in addition to being written.

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QUESTIONS

1. What aspect(s) or process(es) of literacy does
   the task (item) measure?
2. How well does the task measure that aspect or
   process of literacy?
3. How important is it to measure that aspect of
   literacy?
4. What administration or scoring issues are
   involved?

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Task 3

•      Write a short sentence that describes what
  you      do when you get up in the morning.
        __________________________________________
  __
• ________________________________________
  ____      _______________________________________
  _____      _______________________________________
  _____
• ________________________________________
  ____
• NoteThis task can be given orally or in written
  form.

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QUESTIONS

• What aspect(s) or process(es) of literacy does
  the task (item) measure?
• How well does the task measure that aspect or
  process of literacy?
• How important is it to measure that aspect of
  literacy?
• What administration or scoring issues are
  involved?

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Task 4

• A woman goes to the market to buy flour. She
  needs to bake bread for 4 people. She has twenty
  dollars. Each package kilogram of flour costs 3
  dollars. How many packages kilograms can she
  buy?
• Answer She can buy ________ packages           
                                          
  kilograms
• NoteThis task can be given orally or in written
  form.

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QUESTIONS

1. What aspect(s) or process(es) of literacy does
   the task (item) measure?
2. How well does the task measure that aspect or
   process of literacy?
3. How important is it to measure that aspect of
   literacy?
4. What administration or scoring issues are
   involved?

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Task 5Here is some text from a newspaper
article. Underline (mark) the sentence that tells
what Ms. Chanin ate during the swim.SWIMMER
COMPLETES MANHATTAN MARATHONThe Associated Press

• NEW YORK University of Maryland senior Stacy
  Chanin on Wednesday became the first person to
  swim three 28-mile laps around Manhattan. Chanin,
  23, of Virginia, climbed out of the East River at
  96th Street at 930 p.m. She began the swim at
  noon on Tuesday. A

• Spokesman for the swimmer, Roy Brunett, said
  Chanin had kept her strength with banana and
  honey sandwiches, hot chocolate, lots of water
  and granola bars. Chanin had twice circled
  Manhattan before and trained for the new feat by
  swimming about 28.4 miles a week. (text
  truncated)

Note This task was used in the 1993 National
Adult Literacy Survey in the United States. It
appeared in the NALS report to illustrate a
low-level Prose Literacy item. The original
text looked the same as it looked in the
newspaper, but it was longer text here was cut
to save space.
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QUESTIONS

1. What aspect(s) or process(es) of literacy does
   the task (item) measure?
2. How well does the task measure that aspect or
   process of literacy?
3. How important is it to measure that aspect of
   literacy?
4. What administration or scoring issues are
   involved?

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• Each task enables us to learn something about a
  different aspect of literacy. However, no single
  task covers all aspects of literacy.
• Ideally, we want to measure how well each citizen
  in a country performs on a reliable and valid
  test of literacy. Since this is not feasible,
  many countries use indirect measures, which are
  far less valid but have some logistical
  advantages.

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Indirect Assessment

• Self-Report Measures
• Self report measures are based on information
  collected when citizens answer simple questions
  about their skills as part of a survey or a
  census. Here are some examples

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• 1. Can you sign your name? (yes no dont
  know)
• 2. Can you read/write? (yes no dont know)
• 3. How well do you read? (very well quite
  well poorly not at all)
• 4. On a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being poor and 5
  being excellent, how would you rate your reading
  and writing skills in specify language?
• 5. All things considered, are you satisfied or
  dissatisfied with your reading and writing skills
  in specify language? (yes no dont know)
• 6. Are your reading skills adequate for your
  job? (yes no dont know)
• 7. How many years did you study in school?

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Critique of Self-Reporting

• Self-reporting seems useful but there are serious
  limitations
• Definitions are unclear.
• Averaging is difficult. Respondents are asked to
  summarize abilities over many situations because
  functional abilities may vary between situations.
• People overestimate. People tend to report higher
  levels of literacy than their actual performance
  on tests. Sometimes this is because they believe
  their skills are adequate for the situation so
  they must be literate.

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Basic Statistics

• As an introductory exercise regarding literacy
  statistics, you will be presented with a quiz
  consisting of five questions. Try to answer each
  question.
• On the Answer Slide, you may learn something new
  about literacy around the world, or about
  literacy statistics.

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• 1) Which of the following world regions in 1995
  had the largest estimated number of adult
  illiterates (adults as defined by the United
  Nations, are individuals 15 years and over)?
• ___ Sub-Saharan Africa
• ___ Arab States/North Africa
• ___ Latin America/Caribbean
• ___ Eastern Asia/Pacific
• ___ Southern Western Asia
• ___ More Developed Regions
• ___ Countries in Transition

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• In 1995 Southern Western Asia had an estimated
  397 million adult illiterates (44.5 of the
  worlds 872 million adult illiterates).
• Sub-Saharan Africa 135 million (126 million in
  2000)
• Arab States/North Africa 65 million (67 million
  in 2000)
• Latin America/Caribbean 41 million (39 million
  in 2000)
• Eastern Asia/Pacific 208 million (185 million
  in 2000)
• Southern/Western Asia 397 million (412 million
  in 2000)
• More Developed Regions and Countries in
  Transition 18 million (15 million in 2000)

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• 2) Which of the countries below in 1995 had the
  largest estimated illiteracy rate (i.e., the
  largest percentage of adult illiterates)?
• ___ Nigeria
• ___ Brazil
• ___ Egypt
• ___ India
• ___ Sierra Leone
• ___ Pakistan
• ___ China

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• In 1995, Sierra Leone had an estimated adult
  illiteracy rate of 68.6. Here are the adult
  illiteracy rates for each country in 1995
• Nigeria 43.6 (36.0 in 2000)
• Brazil 15.3 (13.1 in 2000)
• Egypt 48.9 (44.7 in 2000)
• India 46.7 (42.8 in 2000)
• Sierra Leone 68.6 (2000 data not available)
• Pakistan 60.7 (56.8 in 2000)
• China 18.1 (14.8 in 2000)

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• 3) For the same seven countries as in number 2,
  which country in 1995 had the largest estimated
  number of adults who were illiterate?
• ___ Nigeria
• ___ Brazil
• ___ Egypt
• ___ India
• ___ Sierra Leone
• ___ Pakistan
• ___ China

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• In 1995, India had an estimated 280.1 million
  adult illiterates. Even though Sierra Leone had
  the highest illiteracy rate, it has the lowest
  actual number of illiterate adults. China and
  India both had numbers of adult illiterates in
  the hundreds of millions, yet Chinas rate was
  much lower than Indias. This is because China
  has a larger population.
• Nigeria 12.1 million (22.5 million in 2000)
• Brazil 18.3 million (15.8 million in 2000)
• Egypt 18.95 million (19.6 million)
• India 280.1 million (286.9 million in 2000)
• Sierra Leone 1.7 million (2000 data not
  available)
• Pakistan 48.7 million (46.7 million in 2000)
• China 166.2 million (141.9 million in 2000)

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• Between 1970 and 2000, is/will the literacy
  situation around the work get/ting better, worse
  or not changing?
• ___ Better
• ___ Worse
• ___ Not Changing

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• Bettersort of. The worlds illiteracy rate is
  dropping, from 36.6 in 1970 to 20.3 in 2000.
  However, the number of illiterate adults has
  increased from 847 million in 1970 to 862.0
  million in 2000. Because the words population is
  growing rapidly, the number of illiterate adults
  makes up a smaller percentage of the overall
  population. Thus, it is important to look at
  several different statistics to get the full
  picture of literacy situations around the world.

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• What measure of literacy is being used by the
  United Nations when reporting the number (or
  rate) of illiterate adults in different countries
  around the world?
• ___ Name signing (you can sign your name).
• ___ Test score (you can answer 25 of
• questions correctly on a written test of
• basic reading comprehension.
• ___ Years of schooling (you have had 4 or
• more years of formal schooling.

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• Years of schooling is the literacy measure (or
  definition) in actual use. Statistics about
  illiteracy reported by all nations are based on
  this simple measure. Though it is cheap and the
  data is easy to obtain, it is problematic. One of
  the limitations is that it categorizes all people
  as either literate or illiterate and ignores
  the fact that literacy is a continuum of complex
  abilities that must be evaluated in specific
  cultural or functional contexts to be accurate.

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Summary Comments

• Many issues are involved in understanding the
  complexity of the literacy situation facing
  nations and people. Some of the issues
  illustrated include
• Any single statistic gives only a partial
  understanding of the literacy situation of a
  specific nation.
• Measures of literacy used in official
  publications have limitations and may
  underestimate the extent of illiteracy in many
  countries.
• Consider the date of the data. UN and World Bank
  data are updated only every few years and some
  data will change between reports.
• Reported statistics are aggregated and may not
  fully reflect literacy levels of important
  subgroups (e.g., different language groups) in a
  nation.

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Illiteracy Ratesfor the US and Europe

• In North America, the Illiteracy rate in 2000 was
  6.9, or 42 million people.
• In Europe, the illiteracy rate in 2000 was 2.2
  or 13 million people.

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Impact of Illiteracy

• Economicliteracy improves with education and
  education results in higher income and job
  productivity.
• SocialIn industrialized countries, literacy
  results in lower rates of incarceration or
  recidivism in prisons, welfare dependency and
  social disintegration. In developing countries,
  it can result in lower fertility rates, lower
  infant mortality rates and higher nutrition.
  Reduction in gender disparities and racial/ethnic
  disparities can also be shown.

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• PoliticalThere is a long tradition of utilizing
  literacy programs in general, and literacy
  campaigns in particular, as a way to achieve
  political goals. These may include a greater
  sense of national unity or focusing on literacy
  as a way to reach out to disenfranchised people.
  The investment often results in reduced social
  welfare costs and greater economic productivity.

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• Perhaps the best reason to promote literacy can
  be summed up by a quote from Cesar Chavez
• What is at stake is Human Dignity.

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Sources

• UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Estimates and
  Projections of Adult Illiteracy for Population
  Aged 15 Years and Above, by Country and by Gender
  1970-2015
• International Literacy Explorer, located at
  www.literacyonline.org