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4.6.1 07 4.6-Defining-Literacy
4.6.1 07 4.6-Defining-Literacy
4.6.1 07 4.6-Defining-Literacy
INSTITUTE
FOR
STATISTICS
United Nations
Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization
Defining literacy: UNESCO
World Bank: Skills Cognitive skills are defined as the “ability 1. It assess the skills
Towards Employability to understand complex ideas, to adapt (cognitive, technical, and
and Productivity (STEP) effectively to the environment, to learn non-cognitive) of adults
from experience, to engage in various in urban areas.
forms of reasoning, to overcome 2. The scales of the test are
obstacles by taking thought” the same as those used
in the PIAAC.
Four criteria are used to describe assessment/survey on
literacy
Definition invokes continuum
Assessment covers full range of skills
Statistical methods confirm psychometric stability
Statistical methods support comparison
Features
Statistical
by criteria Statistical
Definition Assessment methods
methods
Projection invokes covers full confirm
support
Model Data continuum range of skill psychometr
comparison
Source ic stability
PIAAC Y Y Y Y 38 countries
11 countries
IALS and ALL Y Y Y Y conducted ALL
Urban areas in
STEP Y Y Y Y 15 countries
LAMP Y Y Y Y 4 countries
RAMAA Y N N N 12 countries
National: Direct Assessment on Literacy
Statistical Statistical
Assessme
Definition methods methods
nt covers
Country Assessment invokes confirm support Adaptive
full range
continuum psychomet compariso
of skill
ric stability n
programmes
household
survey
Barbados and
Can read part of the sentence Literacy test N N N N
Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey other 15 countries
(MICS) Self Algeria and other
Can read and write N N N N
declaration 3 countries
Demographic and Health Able to read parts of or a Self Benin and other
N N N N
Surveys (DHS) whole sentence* declaration 20 countries
Can read and write a simple
Colombia and
text in ...(given languages) or Literacy test N N N N
other 25 countries
Labour Force Survey any languages
Ability to read and write in any Self-
N N N N
National census or survey (selected examples)
language declaration
Can read, understand and Literacy
Population Census write a short story regarding test, or self- N N N N Azerbaijan 2009
one's routine life declaration
Ability to write a personal letter Self-
Living Standard Measurement Survey N N N N Albania 2012
or read a newspaper. declaration
Can read and write Self-
Continuous Household Survey N N N N Uruguay 2015
declaration
Can read and write in any Self-
Core Welfare Indicators Questionnaire N N N N Liberia 2010
language declaration
Can read and write a simple
Functional Literacy, Education and Self
message in any language or N N N N Philippines 2013
Mass Media Survey declaration
dialect
The literate are those who
Self-
General House Survey have no difficulty or some N N N N South Africa 2015
declaration
difficulty in reading and writing
Can read and write one of the
Self-
National Socio-Economic Survey following languages: Latin, N N N N Indonesia 2016
declaration
Arabic, or other alphabet
Self-
The Reading of Population Survey Can read and write N N N N Thailand 2015
declaration
Notes: 1. *For some countries that conducted DHS, respodents were further asked if they "never", "almost never", or "sometimes" have
difficulty understanding what they read and if they "never", "almost never", or "sometimes" have difficulty writing. 2. Countries that use
educational attainment to estimate the literacy rate are not included in this table.
International: Indirect assessment on the literacy rate:
Projection by the UIS
UIS Global Age-Specific Literacy Projections (GALP)
Regression analysis is applied to age-disaggregated literacy data, in combination
with demographic data by the UN Population Division (UN Population Division,
2011), to determine the likely evolution of literacy rates based on past trends.
Features Statistical
by criteria Assessment Statistical
Definition methods
covers full methods
Projection invokes confirm Countries
Model Data range of support
continuum psychomet
Source skill comparison
ric stability
GALP using national Argentina 2014
population census N N N N and other 23
or survey countries
Congo 2011 and
GALP using DHS data N N N N other 14
countries
Angola 2014
GALP using MICS
N N N N and other 13
data
countries
Data to transform lives