The study of the Functional Literacy Program in India encountered problems of opposition to evaluation, inappropriate respondents, and difficulties in contacting participants, which point to changes that should be made in the evaluation methods. (SK)

Discusses the National Literacy Mission (NLM) launched in 1988 in India. Notes the barriers to successful campaigns for literacy in India. Describes the reasons for the particularly successful campaign in the state of Kerala, including the fact that it was in every sense a people's campaign. (SR)

An ethnographic study examined illiterates and their understanding of literacy. The theoretical background of the study is based on the thesis of "contemporary orality": that India is a fundamentally oral culture that retains all the characteristics of primary orality (Walter Ong's term) through the use of speech as the dominant medium…

Literacy is power--the power to improve one's life and shape one's community. All people should know how to read and write, yet 771 million people (18 percent of the world's population) are illiterate. The programs described in this booklet address this challenge. They are samples of a few of the many hundreds of excellent programs around the…

Teacher effectiveness is one of the most important determinants of the success of adult literacy programmes. From the outset of the campaign movement, the National Literacy Mission (NLM) of the Government of India has emphasised the need for a training and support system for campaign personnel, who often have limited education and lack of…

It has long been orthodoxy among adult educators that those who teach adults need to take into account the existing knowledge, practices, perceptions and expectations of the learners. This is true at both central level where curricula and teaching-learning materials are developed and at local level where adult teacher/facilitator meets adult…

Author discusses the role played by Indian universities, and suggests a re-ordering of priorities and objectives. (SP)

Discusses some areas which require the immediate attention of research in adult education, including policymaking and program planning, teaching methods, training needs of staff, evaluation, attitudes, motivation, production of teaching material, administration and organization, adult literacy, and functional literacy. (TA)

A reading proficiency test administered to 200 adult learners in India resulted in an average score of only 38%. Gender, caste, income, and occupation were significant factors in the level of reading proficiency. (SK)

There is a marked shift of emphasis from the traditional 3-R's concept of literacy to the new 3-F's Program of functional literacy, food production, and family planning. These experiences evidently establish that "built-in" motivation (economic, social, cultural, or religious) is perhaps the only answer to any literacy training program.…

Voices concern for growing number of illiterate adults in world and quality and limitation of reading materials available to those who do acquire reading skills. (DS)

This issue contains those materials from a seminar on "Campaigning for Literacy" held at Udaipur, Rajasthan, India, on January 4-11, 1982, that concentrate on Asian experience. The "Udaipur Literacy Declaration," presented first, is followed by extracts from the opening addresses and a review of the report, "Campaigning…

Specific suggestions on improving adult literacy programs, based on the author's observations in India. (SP)