In March 2006, Premier Wen Jiabao acknowledged that the situation in the Chinese countryside is desperate and claimed new resources would be devoted to healthcare and education. This announcement should have pleased architects of the Chinese "learning initiative" who are building learning cities and villages. The authors describe why…

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…

The EFA Global Monitoring Report of 2002 contains two interesting paragraphs. In this article the author aims to explore what lies between those two paragraphs, in order to put forward some ideas about the role and future of literacy and its relation to human rights. The author hopes to show the continuing importance of adult literacy work and the…

The libraries of India can play an important role in the education of neo-literates by awakening the interest of potential readers, providing specially developed materials, setting aside a special area staffed by trained, sympathetic personnel, and by fostering discussion groups to raise people's consciousness of their power to effect change. (AJ)

The following papers are included: "Seminar's Focus on Practice Puts Action on the Human Level" (Margaret Gayfer); "Literacy: What Do Definitions Tell Us?" (Carman Hunter); "The Practice of Literacy in the Netherlands" (Ella Bohnenn); "The Approach of Popular Literacy Groups in Quebec" (Louise Miller); "Perspectives and Lessons from the Adult…