Beyond 3Rs to learning within political action to functional literacy to life skills, the discourse on adult literacy has primarily been defined by civil society organizations. This article presents thoughts on adult literacy programs coming from educators and advocates and the underlying dilemmas of autonomy and collaboration with government for…

A review of recent UNESCO statistics on world illiteracy, current strategies in literacy work, the author's ideas on eclectic integrated strategy versus a single policy for functional literacy, and suggestions for possible Commonwealth action are covered in this paper which was presented to a Commonwealth adult education seminar. (EA)

Functional literacy has been emphasized over traditional literacy in recent decades. Although functional literacy is desirable if it is organized with success and effectiveness, it rarely is implemented this way. More attention to traditional literacy is thus warranted. (SK)

The UNESCO publication "Final Global Evaluation Report of the Experimental World Literacy Programme (EWLP): Lessons Learned from 11 Projects" is examined. The concept of functionality (emphasising economic development over political, cultural, and social development) was found to be unsuccessful. (LH)