Adult Literacy
A Review of International Experience
Mae Chu Chang
The World Bank
21 June 2011, Jakarta
Outline
 The Current Situation and History of
Adult Literacy
 How Effective are Literacy Programs?
 Why are Literacy Outcomes still Modest?
 Issues, Recommendations and Lessons
Learned
2
The Current Situation and
History of Adult Literacy
3
Who is illiterate?
 Over 793 million adults (15+)
worldwide.
 Over 500 million of these are women.
 Nearly 70 percent are in E-9
countries.
 Most are unschooled, some illiterate
because of early drop-out or poor
schooling.
4
Source: UIS Literacy database as in June 2011
History of Adult Literacy
Government spending on adult
literacy programmes is low
AL Spending as % of Total Education Budget
Adult Literacy Spending as % of Total Education
Budget
0.727
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.0002
0.0037
0.0082
0.1
0
Pakistan
2009/10
Indonesia 2009
India 2008
Source: CONFINTEA VI report, Education Sector Plan, MoF Budget.
Brazil 2008
A tiny fraction of Gross National Income is
devoted to adult education and literacy
Country
Senegal
Pakistan
India
South Africa
Brazil
Indonesia
Colombia
Thailand
Year
2008
2009/10
2008
2009
2008
2009
2008
2007
Public spending on
adult literacy as % of
GNI (estimate)
0.04
0.01
0.001
0.12
0.04
0.01
0.01
0.001
Adult Literacy: Important…
but disappointing history
 Analysis of 32 World Bank and non-World Bank
Literacy projects…
 Reveals that progress in last few decades has
been uneven and inadequate.
 In these, 50 percent participants dropped out,
of the remaining, 50 percent dropped back into
illiteracy.
 Overall, lots of government-led, top-down,
brief courses without follow up… Efficiency
rates = 12.5%
7
History of Adult Literacy
New Strategies in 1990s
based on past experience
Focus on Demand
Limit Government
Role to standardsetting
Better textbooks
Emphasize
NGOs/Community
for better
outreach
Instruction in
local language
8
History of Adult Literacy
How Effective are Literacy
Programs?
9
Outcomes of the 90s projects
• Efficacy and efficiency were modest…
Efficient?
• …and sustainability was not evaluable.
Sustainable?
Issues
• Less than adequate Monitoring Systems
• No attention paid to instructional effectiveness
10
Effectiveness
Findings from the 90s projects:
Unreliable/Incomplete Data
Not enough standardized information available
globally. (E.g – Primary Education)
Unclear information on how many people entered
programs and emerged literate.
Large variance in test pass rates (5% - 88%).
Relapse into illiteracy seems significant
11
Effectiveness
Findings from the 90s projects:
Drop out/Graduation rates
High enrollment when programs open.
Relatively low/irregular attendance and
disappointing completion rates.
Demand exists but content may not meet
needs of students (among other factors).
12
Effectiveness
Findings from the 90s projects:
Reading Achievement + Social
Benefits
Indonesia: Approx. 30% more people could
read after completing the program.
Kenya: 51% of sampled graduates could read
and understand simple sentences.
Mexico: 29% of graduates reported they had
learned to read successfully.
Increased willingness to send own children to
school.
13
Effectiveness
Findings from the 90s projects:
Cost of Adult Literacy Programs
Limited returns on investment
Costs: Per ‘completor’ ($11 - $74) Per
successful learner ($37 - $175)
Teacher pay – should be competitive for
sustainable programs.
14
Effectiveness
Why are literacy outcomes
still modest?
Some insights from research on
cognitive neuroscience
15
Literacy participants are usually poor and female
who face significant social and family problems
But children become literate under similar
circumstances. What else may account for the
outcomes?
 The neuro-cognitive basis of reading
 The importance of reading speed
 Instructional time use
16
Research
How does reading and comprehension work?
Complex Biology
To decipher and understand a message we need:
 The brain pathways controlling fluency
to function
 Enough language knowledge to match
letters and sounds
 A sense of where words start and end
(phonological awareness)
 A good enough short-term memory to
keep the message that has been read
17
Research
How Do We Remember?
Short-term
(working memory)
What is in your mind right
now
Entryway
12 seconds at most
About 7 items,
4 pictures
Long-term memory
All you have
stored, Infinite
capacity
18
Research
What are the implications for
Literacy?
To understand a sentence we must
read it within the 12 seconds deadline
of our working (short-term) memory.
Read too slowly and you forget by the
end of the sentence what you read in
the beginning.
19
Research
How are you managing to read this,
with only a 12 second short term
memory?
 Your brain creates larger chunks
(words or phrases instead of
individual letters) that pass as one
through the working memory
 Initially, learners process small
syllables, then words.
 With practice comes automaticity
20
Research
Practice in Youth configured
your brain for Automaticity
 Can you read this?
 Why?
21
Research
A learner may see just jumbles
of letters, some incorrectly…
The group commiteewill
work hardtodevelop ne
w products and sell the
m tothemarket at good
priceswith credit from t
he savingsbank
22
Research
Letter-by-letter readers
fill the working memory with
letters.
They run out of
working memory!
To be literate: it is necessary to
work within the limits of the
working memory.
23
Research
Adults learning to read seem to have
difficulty attaining automaticity
 The brain “cuts off” unneeded circuits at
various times until maturity

“critical” periods for acquiring some skills
 During adolescence we may lose the
ability to recognize new letters within
milliseconds
 We may all become dyslexic as adults in
terms of learning new languages!
 Issue not well researched
Research
So, what are the requirements
for Functional Literacy?
 To read an average sentence in an
‘average’ language roughly..
 7 items in 12 seconds…
 Students must read at least a word per
1-1.5 second
 45-60 words per minute
 with 95% accuracy
 Minimal criterion to reach in literacy
classes
25
Research
What we need to be fully literate:
Automaticity! Fluency!
A miracle state
A special brain pathway gets activated:
 The brain identifies entire words rather than
single letters
 Each word or phrase becomes an item
 Letters are recognized within milliseconds
 Speed easily rises to 200+ words per minute
 People can’t help but read
 Pay attention to message rather than the
print
 Automatized reading is not normally forgotten
26
Research
Adult Literacy Instruction
should focus on:
 Increasing speed and accuracy,
objectives that are usually not
central in literacy courses.
 Literacy tests should be timed.
27
How is instructional time in
literacy classes used?
Class cancellations
 Teacher absenteeism
 Late arrivals, early departures
 Student absenteeism
 Dropout and re-enrollment
 Limited engagement in reading
practice in class
 How much time do learners really spend
reading?
28
Research
A lot of time is wasted… students
don’t spend enough time reading
Class time as allocated by a government or NGO program (e.g. 900 hours
or 9 months).
Time remaining after class cancellations (teacher absence,
weather, extra holidays)
Time remaining after delayed teacher arrivals.
Time remaining after student
absenteeism.
Class time devoted to any
learning task (e.g. listening
to others read).
Time students
engaged in reading
29
Research
Issues, Recommendations and
Lessons Learned
Instruction and Information Processing
The Forgotten Variables
 Peculiarity of human memory may be at the
root of limited performance of literacy
programs.
 More attention required for instructional
variables, quality and effectiveness issues.
 More scientific research is required. And
Governments and Development agencies need
to work with researchers.
 Adult literacy experts worldwide typically lack
training in cognitive science.
31
Issues
Better targeting for improved
outcomes
Different classes for
different levels of
readers
Emphasize individual
needs
Low quality primary education implies need for
more targeted approach.
32
Lessons Learned
Achievement
undermined by
dropout and poor
instruction.
Stand-alone
projects more likely
to work.
Attention to
scientific research is
necessary.
33
Lessons Learned
Long term financial
commitment is
required for
success.
Better Monitoring
and evaluation.
Government
training, NGO
supervision and
Community
Participation
34