G LO B A L E D U C AT I O N M O N I TO R I N G R E P O R T 2 0 1 6
SUMMARY
New analysis for the GEM Report used a question once regularly included in Demographic and Health Surveys; it
showed that between 2004 and 2011 only 6% of adults aged 15 to 49 had ever participated in a literacy programme in
29 low and middle income countries. The majority of illiterate adults were female and poor, yet more men and richer
adults had participated.
LITERACY RATES
Although the SDG agenda rightly shifts attention to measures of proficiency in literacy skills, the needed
measurement tools are not widely available, so reporting on youth and adult literacy based on traditional literacy
rates continues. Over 2005–2014, some 758 million or 15% of adults globally lacked functional literacy skills; 63% of
whom are women.
LITERACY AND NUMERACY PROFICIENCY
Information on adult literacy and numeracy proficiency levels, which are directly assessed, is available for many
high income countries. Among participants in the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult
Competencies (PIAAC), 15% failed to reach a basic literacy proficiency standard, which involved drawing low-level
inferences from texts; the rates ranged from less than 5% in Japan to almost 28% in Italy.
International collaboration is needed to facilitate comparative literacy and numeracy assessments. To provide useful
monitoring data by 2030, a successful approach has to balance countries’ ability to proceed on their own against the
need for assessments to meet global standards.
F I GURE 1 2 :
Assessing literacy on a continuous scale more accurately reflects adult skills
Adult population by literacy proficiency level, 2011–2014
100
80
%
60
40
Finland
Japan
Slovakia
Netherlands
Czech Rep.
Norway
New Zealand
Korea
Australia
Estonia
Austria
*Belgium
Sweden
Lithuania
Canada
STEP
Denmark
Ireland
*United Kingdom
Germany
France
Poland
United States
Slovenia
Singapore
Spain
Greece
Italy
Israel
Chile
Turkey
Ukraine, urban
Georgia, urban
Armenia, urban
Viet Nam, urban
Colombia, urban
Kenya, urban
Bolivia, urban
0
Ghana, urban
20
PIAAC
Below level 1
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3 and above
Note: For countries with an asterisk (*), the PIAAC data refer to individual regions only: England and Northern Ireland for the United Kingdom, and
Flanders for Belgium.
Sources: OECD (2013; 2016) and GEM Report team analysis using World Bank STEP data.
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