Education For All Global Monitoring Report 2006: Literacy for Life

This document from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the fourth edition of the Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report, focuses on literacy. The report measures the world's progress towards achieving the six EFA goals, especially universal literacy. It stresses, according to the Executive Summary, "the urgency of devoting increased policy attention and resources to literacy, emphasising the profound benefits it confers on individuals, communities, and nations".

The report is divided into ten chapters:

• "Literacy: the core of Education for All - explores some of the reasons for the neglect of literacy, and notes signs of renewed attention. It traces the changing notions of literacy from a narrowly defined concept to one embracing a holistic view of educational development
  
• EFA progress: where do we stand? - assesses progress towards the six EFA goals, using the most recent global education data, for the 2002/3 school year
  
• Country efforts: increasing momentum - examines selected elements from a sampling of national EFA plans, considers public financing and household costs and continues the 2005 Report's attention to teachers, focusing particularly on projected needs
  
• International commitments: time to act - reviews recent performance in aid to education and examines how international assistance for EFA can be better coordinated
  
• Why literacy matters - explores the case for literacy, especially for youth and adults; summarises the foundations of the right to literacy through a review of international agreements; and, reviews the broader benefits that result from literacy
  
• Understandings of literacy - traces the evolution of these different understandings of being (and becoming) "literate" and shows how variants of these ideas have been integrated into policy discourse
  
• Mapping the global literacy challenge - highlights major trends and patterns of adult and youth literacy in different regions, nations and locales
  
• The making of literate societies - reviews the history of various countries’ transitions to widespread literacy, examining the factors that have accelerated this process and those that have hindered it; and, examines the broader social context of literacy
  
• Good policy, good practice - suggests policy priorities and good practices for countries and for the international community
  
• Setting priorities for action - suggests some high-priority areas for national and international action."

The report finds that progress has been made: "Today, more than 80% of the global population over age 15 is reported to possess at least minimal reading and writing skills. This reflects an unprecedented social transformation since the mid-nineteenth century, when only about 10% of the world’s adults could read or write ...” but the pace is insufficient for the goals to be met in the remaining ten years to 2015. As stated here, "[t]here is emerging awareness of the broader social context in which literacy is encouraged, acquired, developed and sustained: literacy is no longer exclusively understood as an individual phenomenon, but is seen also as a contextual and societal one....The Report advocates a three-pronged strategy comprising

   (a) quality schooling for all children,

   (b) the scaling up of literacy programmes for youth and adults, and

   (c) the development of environments conducive to the meaningful use of literacy."

The report suggests that:

• Ministries of education take primary responsibility for policy, education sector integration, coordination of publicly financed programmes and partnerships, and regulation, accreditation, and guidance of local ownership and implementation of programmes.
  
• Learners’ knowledge and wishes should inform adult learning programmes and be their starting point, with careful attention to mother tongue and multilingualism.
  
• Training of literacy educators should be a focus, with attention to the fact that training is often in a national or official language while their work is carried out in local ones. Where information and communication technology (ICT) is available, it may be immediately useful in professional development.

To meet the challenges of achieving EFA and to consolidate the progress that has already been made, the report recommends attention to the following nine areas:

1. "Sustain attention on achieving good-quality, universal primary education and lower secondary education - abolishing fees, reaching the most disadvantaged, training teachers and implementing low-cost school health and nutrition measures.
2. Recommit to the gender goal.
   
3. Further increase efficient public spending on education.
   
4. Move youth and adult literacy up on the national and international agendas.
   
5. Focus on literate societies, not just on literate individuals.
   
6. Clearly define government responsibility for youth and adult literacy programmes.
   
7. Double the aid allocated to basic education to reach US$7 billion.
   
8. Focus aid on the countries with the greatest educational needs.
   
9. Complement the flow of funds with analytical and knowledge support."

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