UNESCO has decided to make education a fundamental human right. Nonetheless, there are still more than 900 million illiterate people worldwide, and a far greater number than this has yet to achieve an adequate level of basic education. To draw attention to this serious matter, 1990 was designated International Literacy Year. A major programme was established with the goal of achieving education for all by the year 2000. Many countries have launched large-scale programmes to eradicate illiteracy or laid out plans to do so. These programmes must include post-literacy and continuing education...

The present bibliography has been prepared by the Unesco Institute for Education (UIE) for the Sixth European Conference of Directors of Educational Research Institutions (Bled, Yugoslavia, 9-12 October, 1990), and focuses on research in adult literacy and basic education. This bibliography is a general documentary introduction to literacy in industrialized countries. It is not a precise instrument for specialized research.

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Since the British initiatives of the early seventies in recognizing the problem and its magnitude, functional literacy among the adult population has now become a major policy concern for many industrial countries. Literacy, as clearly underlined in the conclusions of the World Conference on Education for All is a world issue concerning each and every country, in the North as well as in the South.

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In this monograph a picture will be given of the development of Adult Basic Education in the Netherlands. ABE is a relatively new provision in Dutch adult education. It is grounded in the experiences gained from four projects that developed aspects of education in the seventies and the early eighties for adults with little schooling. The ABE provision which is, so to speak, the crystallisation of these project experiences is intended as an instrument to improve the social participation of adults with little schooling. One could say that this is the yardstick by which to measure its...

Belgian associations and institutions began providing adult literacy courses approximately ten years ago. At that time, they were working in isolation due to a lack of response from governments and the public as a whole. As in other industrialised countries, illiteracy was generally thought to have been eliminated as a result of compulsory education and modern training methods.

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This is a book on evaluation, surely an important social concern today. Evaluation has become important for reasons both professional and political. Professional planners and managers want evaluation to ensure better implementation and, thereby, greater effectiveness of their programs. Politicians demand evaluations to promote greater accountability all round. Evaluations of literacy projects, programs and campaigns are being required for the same set of reasons.

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There has been an increasing concern the world over for the improvement of the quality of life of the people and for the achievement of a better life for both individuals and their collectives through education. As a corollary to this concern, various measures have been taken in many countries to implement policies for the democratization of educational opportunities and the recognition of education as a basic human right.

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As its title indicates, the project of the Unesco Institute for Education on the development of learning strategies for the post-literacy and continuing education of neo-literates is conceived in the broad perspective of lifelong education.

Download: Learning Strategies for Post-literacy and Continuing Education: A Cross- national Perspective (2nd ed.) (PDF 10,4 MB)

This bibliography presents and analyses selected books, articles and sample learning materials on functional illiteracy in industrialized countries from the holdings of the library of the Unesco Institute for Education. Some of the publications mentioned could be acquired thanks to the bibliographical references supplied by the International Bureau of Education and Unesco Headquarters on the occasion of the "Workshop of Specialists in Europe on Prevention of Functional Illiteracy and Integration of Youth into the World of Work" (December 1986).

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This study is a contribution to the project of the Unesco Institute for Education in Hamburg in co-operation with the German Commision for Unesco, Bonn. The project aims at developmenting educational strategies for the post-literacy training and continuing education programmes.

Download: Learning strategies for post-literacy and continuing education in Algeria, Egypt and Kuwait (PDF 6,56 MB)