The concept of functional literacy might be considered to have its ceremonial initiation at the World Conference of Ministers of Education on the Eradication of Illiteracy in Tehran, Iran, in 1965. At that conference important implications emerged for program development, methodology of teaching, and program content. An effort is made in this…

A functional literacy program is not only an instructional problem but it must involve a social change strategy as well. The methodological problem lies in the integration of literacy with vocational knowledge, of the verbal with the teaching of manual skills, and of the core content with supporting program content. (EB)

The organization and mobilization for literacy work consist of two overlapping parts: organizational design and institution building. Organizational design, which covers both the technical and the social system, can be seen to include the following processes: analysis of the institution; invention of roles; invention of rules relating the roles…

Human survival means more than purely physical survival. Human beings, because of language, also have a cultural nature that must survive. In today's world, all speak, but more than one-fourth of the world's people--and more than half in developing nations--do not have the uniquely human capacity of reading and writing. The diffusion of literacy…

The paper discusses the ideological cultural, economic, linguistic, and motivational background of the functional literacy concept. Brief indications of the professional issues and problems in putting theory into practice included: requirements in planning a functional literacy project, administrative and organizational problems, resources…

In Malawi, adult literacy deserves immediate attention in order to promote health, family planning, and productivity. While policy commitment for adult literacy promotion has not been lacking, intensified action has been. In 1979 the government accepted the Unesco Mission Report to undertake a functional literacy program on the successful…

The document was prepared as part of a UNESCO contract to train 16 counterpart officials of UNESCO-sponsored literacy projects. Functional literacy was studied in three parts, all dealing with the total planning process. First was project planning. Literacy projects must consider national educational plans and be related to relevant economic…

Mass literacy, largely the product of the nineteenth century European industrial revolution, may be considered in three facets. First, its sociology: human relationships are different when individuals can refer to permanent, written records than when they rely on a person-to-person transferral of information. Literacy also makes possible more…

After Botswana became independent of British rule in 1966, a series of five-year plans for economic development were written and put into action. Education was always seen by development planners as essential for development; by 1977, the government was promoting education for human resource development. Every child in the country was to be given…

The manual is intended for training workshops on program and curriculum development for the post-literacy stages, since many countries successful in literacy work find that even greater challenges await them as erstwhile illiterates emerge from literacy classes as new literates. The emphasis is on programs and curricula to help new literates…

This book, which is intended as a practical guide to functional literacy at the grassroots level, addresses a range of issues encountered by literacy workers when mobilizing, planning, teaching, supervising, and evaluating adult literacy programs. The following topics are discussed: adult literacy, literacy teachers, and literacy work; the many…