Points out that literacy is often a volatile issue in developing countries, where it is often seen as a key to liberation. Introduces a model for identifying and categorizing the goals and philosophies of literacy projects, programs, and campaigns of the world. (ARH)

As many as 70 million Americans are functionally or marginally illiterate. Among the consequences: disproportionate numbers of illiterates are unemployed, 50 percent of inmates are illiterate, and illiterate parents are more likely to raise illiterate children. (SK)

Adults who cannot read are receiving help through a special program operated in New York State. This program is conducted on a volunteer basis; that is, only those who want to improve the level of their literacy are accepted as participants. (CK)

Strategies (chiefly compulsory schooling and literacy campaigns) for combatting illiteracy are compared, and differences between functional and traditional literacy are discussed. (LY)

When children are taught to read, they are forced to erase all the concepts that they have developed up to that stage because the schools of today are unfortunately only interested in teaching their pupils to recognize printed words. (CK)

Once upon a time, Americans identified illiteracy among high school graduates as a national crisis. The solution, almost everyone agreed, was to teach every child to read by the end of third grade. If students could read well by then, the reasoning went, they would read even better in all the grades that followed. However, the 2005 results of the…

Within Ethiopia's overall development strategy, the Integrated Women's Empowerment Programme (IWEP) aims to develop, test and implement a comprehensive nationwide approach to empower women and their households in selected areas of all regions/national states of Ethiopia. The programme provides functional literacy education and livelihood skills…

The problem of functional illiteracy emerged in world science in the second half of the twentieth century, when it became obvious that in and of itself, the number of years a person spends in schooling does not guarantee a high level of professional and personal literacy. The problem was not manifested in the same way in the different national…

An important area in the learning and development of individuals with disabilities is the acquisition of independent, age-appropriate leisure skills. Three adults with autism and mental retardation were taught to access specific Internet sites using backward chaining and most-to-least intrusive prompting. The number of independent steps completed…

Definitions of literacy that focus solely on reading words provide too narrow a framework for many students with severe disabilities. Obtaining information from the environment may be accomplished in a variety of modes, such as visual literacy, which is the ability to discern meaning conveyed through images. A component of visual literacy is…

Functional literacy is defined as that educational level comparable to the eight years of schooling required of children in the Yugoslavian elementary system.'' Census results show that 19.7 percent of the population of age ten or over is illiterate. This paper considers research findings on the conceptualization and organization of elementary…

Argues that there is no convincing proof from empirical evidence that standards of literacy in Western Australia are worse than they were 25 to 65 years ago. Denounces empirical measures of standards of literacy as profoundly unreliable. (AEA)

This paper focuses on successes and failures in the history of technology. It attempts to assess the wisdom of possible future courses of action with regard to technology in e-learning and education.