people and planet

15
Participation in adult literacy programmes................................................................ 277
Literacy rates.............................................................................................................................278
Literacy and numeracy proficiency levels..................................................................280
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................285
In the words of the 2006 Education for All Global
Monitoring Report (GMR), understanding of literacy
has expanded from ‘a simple process of acquiring
basic cognitive skills, to using these skills in ways that
contribute to socio-economic development, to developing
the capacity for social awareness and critical reflection as
a basis for personal and social change’ (UNESCO, 2005b).
Accordingly, that GMR presented four discrete concepts
of literacy, which can be summarized as:
■■
A set of cognitive skills (reading and writing) that are
independent of context.
■■
A set of skills that are determined by the context
in which they are applied, practised and situated;
this is underpinned by the widely used definition
of functional literacy referring to a person ‘who
can engage in all those activities in which literacy is
required for effective functioning of his group and
community and also for enabling him to continue to
use reading, writing and calculation for his own and
the community’s development’ (UNESCO, 1978).
■■
An active and broad-based learning process, rather
than a product of a more limited and focused
educational intervention, referring to its potential to
transform not only individuals but also societies.
■■
The texts people produce and consume, which vary
in terms of language complexity and their explicit or
hidden content.
Target 4.6 maintains the international focus on adult
literacy that was part of the fourth Education for All
goal. While that goal for
The global indicator on
2000–2015 was halving
the adult illiteracy rate,
literacy and numeracy
the corresponding
is expressed in terms target for 2015–2030
of skills proficiency
has been left vague.
Member states agreed
that universal adult
literacy would be unattainable over the next 15 years,
but not what level should be reached. Universal youth
literacy, which was not included previously, has been
added to the target.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and agenda
bring two important innovations. First, the global
indicator on literacy and numeracy is formulated
explicitly in terms of skills proficiency. This decision
considerably improves on the weak target formulation,
which views literacy as something to be ‘achieved’. The
indicator comes closer to the view of literacy as not just
a set of skills but also their application. And it tacitly
recognizes recent advances in direct assessments that
show literacy is not a skill people either do or do not
possess. Rather, different levels and types of literacy
empower adults to achieve different functions in
life. Because of the constraints of global monitoring
requirements, not all approaches to the concept of
literacy are captured. However, the SDG agenda’s
treatment of literacy represents a considerable advance.
Second, the target specifies numeracy as a skill to be
acquired. Some definitions of literacy have always
encompassed numeracy, whether under ‘functional literacy’,
as above, or under ‘operational literacy’, i.e. the ability
‘to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate
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CHAPTER 15 | TARGET 4.6 – LITERACY AND NUMERACY