ADULT AND YOUTH LITERACY: GLOBAL TRENDS IN GENDER PARITY

Literacy is a fundamental right and a springboard not only for achieving Education For All but also for eradicating poverty and broadening participation in society. Literacy is a vehicle to support the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and to empower the poor in particular. As a component of basic education and a foundation for lifelong learning, literacy is the key to enhancing human capabilities and achieving many other rights. It carries wide-ranging benefits not only for individuals but also for families, communities and societies. The UIS is responsible for monitoring international literacy targets associated with the MDGs and presents the most recent data by MDG region. Adult literacy and gender.

In 2008, 796 million adults worldwide (15 years and older) reported not being able to read and write and two-thirds of them (64%) were women (see Table 1). The global adult literacy rate was 83%, with a male literacy rate of 88% and a female literacy rate of 79%. More than half of those unable to read and write – 412 million – lived in Southern Asia. A further 176 million adults were in sub-Saharan Africa. Together, these two regions accounted for three-quarters (74%) of adults unable to read and write worldwide. Among MDG regions, adult literacy rates were lowest in Southern Asia (62%), sub- Saharan Africa (63%), Oceania (66%) and Northern Africa (67%) (see Figure 1). In Western Asia, the adult literacy rate was 85% and in the remaining regions, at least 9 out of 10 adults reported being able to read and write. In the developed regions and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), almost all adults were able to read and write. At the national level, the lowest literacy rates were observed in sub-Saharan Africa. Less than half of the adult population was literate in ten countries – Mali (adult literacy rate 26%), Burkina Faso and Niger (29%), Chad (33%), Ethiopia (36%), Guinea (38%), Sierra Leone (40%), Benin (41%), Senegal (42%) and Gambia (45%).

Gender disparity was greatest in Southern Asia, where 73% of all men but only 51% of women had the ability to read and write. The gender parity index (GPI) – the ratio of female to male literacy rates – was 0.70 in this region. Similar disparities existed in sub- Saharan Africa (GPI 0.75) and Northern Africa (GPI 0.76). Gender disparity in adult literacy was also observed in Western Asia (GPI 0.84) and Oceania (GPI 0.89). In contrast, Eastern Asia (GPI 0.94) and South-Eastern Asia (GPI 0.95) are close to gender parity in adult literacy while parity (defined as GPI values between 0.97 and 1.03) has been reached in the developed regions and in the CIS.

The adult literacy rate increased by about 8 percentage points globally over the past 20 years – an increase of 6% for men and 10% for women. Progress was strong in Northern Africa, where the rate increased by 20%, and in Eastern and Southern Asia, which saw an increase of 15%. In other regions, adult literacy rates increased since 1990 as follows: Western Asia 11%; sub-Saharan Africa 9%; South-Eastern Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean 7%; and Oceania 4%. In developed regions and CIS countries, the increase was negligible as they were already close to universal literacy.

Click here for full text in pdf: FactSheet2010_Lit_EN (or)

http://www.unesco.org/education/ild2010/FactSheet2010_Lit_EN.pdf

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics

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• FEMALE EDUCATION IN INDIA
• LITERACY SCHEMES IN INDIA
• EDUCATION IN RURAL AREAS
• LITERACY RATE ON THE RISE, 11 TH PLAN TARGETS 80% – K.K.Pant
• TO BE EDUCATED IS TO BE FREE – Savera
• THE IMPORTANCE OF BASIC EDUCATION – Amartya Sen
• LITERACY RATE AMONG MINORITIES
• MEASURES TAKEN TO PROMOTE EDUCATION AMONGST EDUCATIONALLY BACKWARD MINORITIES
• HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA: CHALLENGES FOR A SOCIETY IN TRANSITION