Literacy

File:World illiteracy 1970-2010.svg

File:Literacy-rate.svg

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The range of definitions of literacy used by NGOs, think tanks, and advocacy groups since the 1990s suggests that this shift in understanding from "discrete skill" to "social practice" is both ongoing and uneven. Some definitions remain fairly closely aligned with the traditional "ability to read and write" connotation, whereas others take a broader view:

• The 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (USA) included "quantitative literacy" (numeracy) in its treatment of literacy. It defined literacy as "the ability to use printed and written information to function in society, to achieve one's goals, and to develop one's knowledge and potential."{{Cite web |title=National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) |url=https://nces.ed.gov/naal/fr_definition.asp |website=nces.ed.gov}} It included three types of adult literacy: prose (e.g., a newspaper article), documents (e.g., a bus schedule), and quantitative literacy (e.g., the use of arithmetic operations in a product advertisement).{{Cite web |year=2005 |title=Measuring Literacy: Performance Levels for Adults (2005), National Academy of Sciences |url=https://www.nap.edu/download/11267}}{{Cite web |year=2021 |title=A Brief History of the Quantitative Literacy Movement, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching |url=https://www.carnegiefoundation.org/blog/a-brief-history-of-the-quantitative-literacy-movement/}}
• In 2015, the United Nations Statistics Division defined the youth literacy rate as "the percentage of the population aged 15–24 years who can both read and write with understanding a short simple statement on everyday life."{{Cite web |title=Millennium Goals Indicator 2015 |url=https://unstats.un.org/unsd/mdg/Metadata.aspx?IndicatorId=0&SeriesId=656 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816003157/https://unstats.un.org/unsd/mdg/Metadata.aspx?IndicatorId=0&SeriesId=656 |archive-date=16 August 2021 |access-date=2 March 2021}}
• In 2016, the European Literacy Policy Network defined literacy as "the ability to read and write [...] in all media (print or electronic), including digital literacy."{{Cite web |date=2016 |title=EUROPEAN DECLARATION OF THE RIGHT TO LITERACY, European Literacy Policy Network |url=http://www.eli-net.eu/fileadmin/ELINET/Redaktion/user_upload/European_Declaration_of_the_Right_to_Literacy2.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210815234944/http://www.eli-net.eu/fileadmin/ELINET/Redaktion/user_upload/European_Declaration_of_the_Right_to_Literacy2.pdf |archive-date=15 August 2021 |access-date=19 February 2021}}
• In 2018, UNESCO included "printed and written materials" and "varying contexts" in its definition of literacy, i.e., "the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts."{{Cite web |date=2018-10-18 |title=Defining literacy, UNESCO |url=http://gaml.uis.unesco.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/12/4.6.1_07_4.6-defining-literacy.pdf}}
• In 2019, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in its Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) adult skills surveys, included "written texts" in its definition of literacy, i.e., "the ability to understand, evaluate, use and engage with written texts in order to participate in society, achieve one's goals, and develop one's knowledge and potential."{{Cite web |year=2019 |title=Skills matter, PIAAC, OECD |url=http://www.oecd.org/skills/piaac/publications/Skills_Matter_Additonal_Results_from_the_Survey_of_Adult_Skills_ENG.pdf}}{{Cite book |title=Skills Matter: Additional Results from the Survey of Adult Skills, OECD Skills Studies, OECD |year=2019 |publisher=OECD |isbn=978-9-264-79900-4}} Also, it treats numeracy and problem solving using technology as separate considerations.{{Cite web |title=About The Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies |url=https://www.oecd.org/skills/piaac/}}
• In 2021, Education Scotland and the National Literacy Trust in the UK included oral communication skills (listening and speaking) under the umbrella of literacy.{{Cite web |title=Literacy and English |publisher=Scottish Government |url=https://education.gov.scot/Documents/literacy-english-pp.pdf |page=4}}{{Cite web |year=2021 |title=What is literacy |publisher=National literacy trust |url=https://literacytrust.org.uk/information/what-is-literacy/ |page=1}}
• As of 2021, the International Literacy Association uses "the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, compute, and communicate using visual, audible, and digital materials across disciplines and in any context."{{Cite web |date=2021-02-08 |title=Why literacy, International literacy association |url=https://www.literacyworldwide.org/about-us/why-literacy |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204012454/https://www.literacyworldwide.org/about-us/why-literacy |archive-date=4 February 2021 |access-date=19 February 2021}}{{Cite web |year=2021 |title=International literacy association |url=https://www.literacyworldwide.org/about-us/why-literacy |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204012454/https://www.literacyworldwide.org/about-us/why-literacy |archive-date=4 February 2021 |access-date=19 February 2021}}
• The expression "reading literacy" is used by the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), which has monitored international trends in reading achievement at the fourth grade level since 2001.{{Cite web |title=TIMSS and PIRLS International Study Center |url=https://timssandpirls.bc.edu/index.html |website=timssandpirls.bc.edu}}
• Other organizations might include numeracy skills and technology skills separately but alongside literacy skills;{{Cite web |year=2021 |title=Literacy and numeracy |publisher=Alberta Education |url=https://education.alberta.ca/literacy-and-numeracy/about-literacy-and-numeracy/}} still others emphasize the increasing involvement of computers and other digital technologies in communication that necessitates additional skills (e.g., interfacing with web browsers and word processing programs, organizing and altering the configuration of files, etc.).{{Cite book |last=Kress |first=Gunther R. |title=Literacy in the new media age |publisher=Routledge |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-415-25356-7 |location=New York}}
• Some researchers define literacy as "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use.{{Cite book |last=Street |first=Brian |title=Literacy and Development: Ethnographic Perspectives |publisher=Routledge |year=2001 |location=London |pages=11 |chapter=Introduction}}{{Cite book |last1=Rowsell |first1=Jennifer |title=The Routledge Handbook of Literacy Studies |last2=Pahl |first2=Kate |publisher=Routledge |year=2020 |isbn=978-0-367-50172-3}} In this view, humans in literate societies have sets of practices for producing and consuming writing, and they also have beliefs about these practices.{{Cite book |last=Calvet |first=Louis-Jean |title=Towards an Ecology of World Languages |publisher=Polity |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-745-62956-8}} Reading, in this view, is always reading something for some purpose; writing is always writing something for someone for some purpose.{{Cite book |last1=Lankshear |first1=Colin |title=A New Literacies Sampler |last2=Knobel |first2=Michelle |publisher=Peter Lang |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-820-49523-1 |location=New York |pages=2 |chapter=Sampling the 'New' in New Literacies}} Beliefs about reading and writing and their value for society and for the individual always influence the ways literacy is taught, learned, and practiced.{{Cite book |last=Lindquist |first=Julie |title=Keywords in Writing Studies |publisher=Utah State UP |year=2015 |location=Logan |pages=99–102 |chapter=Literacy}}

The concept of multiliteracies has gained currency, particularly in English Language Arts curricula, on the grounds that reading "is interactive and informative, and occurs in ever-increasingly technological settings where information is part of spatial, audio, and visual patterns (Rhodes & Robnolt, 2009)".{{Cite book |last=Cole |first=David R. |title=Multiple Literacies Theory: A Deleuzian Perspective |year=2009 |publisher=Sense |isbn=978-9-087-90909-3}}{{Cite journal |last=Boche |first=Benjamin |year=2014 |title=Multiliteracies in the Classroom: Emerging Conceptions of First-Year Teachers |journal=Journal of Language and Literacy Education |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=114–135}}{{Verify source|date=September 2023|reason=Which citation is the quote from and were they quoting Rhodes & Robnolt?}} Objections have been raised that this concept downplays the importance of reading instruction that focuses on "alphabetic representations".{{Cite book |last=Seidenberg |first=Mark |title=Language at the speed of sight |publisher=Basic |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-541-61715-5 |location=New York |page=279}} However, these are not mutually exclusive, as children can become proficient in word-reading while engaging with multiliteracies.{{Cite book |url=https://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/book/export/html/30871 |title=Right to Read inquiry report |year=2022 |publisher=Ontario Human Rights Commission |isbn=978-1-486-85827-9}}

Word reading is fundamental for multiple forms of communication. Beginning in the 1940s, the term literacy has often been used to mean having knowledge or skill in a particular field, such as:

• {{annotated link|Computer literacy}}{{Cite web |title=Definition of computer literacy |url=https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/computer-literacy |website=PCMAG}}{{Cite web |title=COMPUTER-LITERACY |url=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/computer-literacy}}
• {{annotated link|Scientific literacy}}
• {{annotated link|Statistical literacy}}{{Cite web |title=ISLP |url=http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/islp/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081227065148/http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/islp/ |archive-date=27 December 2008 |access-date=19 December 2008 |website=www.stat.auckland.ac.nz}}
• {{annotated link|Critical literacy}}{{Cite book |last=Selber |first=Stuart |title=Multiliteracies for a Digital Age |publisher=Southern Illinois University Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-809-32551-1 |location=Carbondale}}
• Disaster literacy – Proposed model for the ability to understand and use life-saving information, including the ability to respond and recover from disasters effectively{{Cite journal |last1=Brown |first1=Lisa M. |last2=Haun |first2=Jolie N. |last3=Peterson |first3=Lindsay |date=2014 |title=A Proposed Disaster Literacy Model |journal=Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=267–275 |doi=10.1017/dmp.2014.43 |issn=1935-7893 |pmid=24992944 |s2cid=24971741}}{{Cite journal |date=2014-06-08 |title=A proposed disaster literacy model |pmid=24992944 |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24992944/ |last1=Brown |first1=L. M. |last2=Haun |first2=J. N. |last3=Peterson |first3=L. |journal=Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=267–275 |doi=10.1017/dmp.2014.43 }}
• {{annotated link|Ecological literacy}}{{Cite book |title=Ecological Literacy: Education and the Transition to a Postmodern World |year=1991 |publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=978-0-791-40874-2}}
• {{annotated link|Financial literacy}}
• {{annotated link|Health literacy}}{{Cite web |date=2021-01-28 |title=What Is Health Literacy, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention |work=Centers for Disease Control and Prevention |url=https://www.cdc.gov/healthliteracy/learn/index.html}}{{Cite book |last1=Zarcadoolas |first1=C. |title=Advancing health literacy: A framework for understanding and action |last2=Pleasant |first2=A. |last3=Greer |first3=D. |publisher=Jossey-Bass |year=2006 |location=San Francisco, CA}}{{Cite book |title=Addressing Difficulties in Literacy Development: Responses at Family School Pupil and Teacher Levels |publisher=Routledge |year=2002 |isbn=978-1-315-01571-2 |editor-last=Reid |editor-first=Gavin |editor-last2=Soler |editor-first2=Janet |editor-last3=Wearmouth |editor-first3=Janice |editor-link3=Janice Wearmouth}}
• Linguistic literacy – Ability to read, write, understand, and speak any type of language{{Cite journal |last1=Ravid |first1=Dorit |author-link=Dorit Ravid |last2=Tolchinsky |first2=Liliana |year=2002 |title=Developing Linguistic Literacy: a Comprehensive Model |journal=Journal of Child Language |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=417–447 |doi=10.1017/S0305000902005111 |pmid=12109379 |s2cid=9831188}}
• {{annotated link|Media literacy}}{{Cite web |title=National Association for Media Literacy Education |url=https://namle.net/ |website=namle.net}}
• {{annotated link|Political literacy}}
• {{annotated link|Social literacy}}{{Cite web |date=December 2019 |title=9 Ways to Teach Social Skills in Your Classroom, Reading Rockets |url=https://www.readingrockets.org/article/9-ways-teach-social-skills-your-classroom}}
• Mathematical literacy, also called {{annotated link|numeracy}}
• {{annotated link|Visual literacy}}, e.g., body language, pictures, maps, and video
• Musical literacy – Refers to culturally determined systems of knowledge in music and to musical abilities.p. 3. Csíkos, Csaba, and Gabriella Dohány. "Connections between music literacy and music-related background variables: An empirical investigation." Visions of Research in Music Education 28, no. 1 (2016): 2.

Classicist Eric Havelock developed a continuum for a culture's literacy, from pre-literate, through craft-literate, recitation-literate and script-literate to type-iterate.{{cite journal |last1=Harvey |first1=John |title=Orality and Its Implications for Biblical Studies: Recapturing an Ancient Paradigm |journal=Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society |date=2002 |url=https://etsjets.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/files_JETS-PDFs_45_45-1_45-1-PP099-109_JETS.pdf |access-date=9 March 2025}}

{{main|Functional illiteracy}}

Functional illiteracy{{efn|The condition of not being able to read or write well enough to do things that are needed for living and working in society - Cambridge Dictionary{{refn|{{Cite web |date=2021-03-10 |title=Cambridge Dictionary |url=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/functional-illiterate}}}}}} relates to adults and has been defined in different ways:

• Inability to use reading, writing, and calculation skills for their own and their community's development.{{Cite journal |last1=Vágvölgyi |first1=Réka |last2=Coldea |first2=Andra |last3=Dresler |first3=Thomas |last4=Schrader |first4=Josef |last5=Nuerk |first5=Hans-Christoph |date=2016-11-10 |title=A Review about Functional Illiteracy: Definition, Cognitive, Linguistic, and Numerical Aspects |journal=Frontiers in Psychology |volume=7 |pages=111–119 |doi=10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01617 |pmc=5102880 |pmid=27891100 |doi-access=free}}
• Inability to read well enough to manage daily living and employment tasks that require reading skills beyond a basic level.{{Cite book |last=Schlechty |first=Phillip C. |url=http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/wiley031/00009570.pdf |title=Shaking Up the Schoolhouse: How to Support and Sustain Educational Innovation |chapter=Introduction |date=2004-04-27 |publisher=Catdir.loc.gov |isbn=978-0-787-97213-4 |access-date=19 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721044638/http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/wiley031/00009570.pdf |archive-date=21 July 2011}}
• Inability to understand complex texts despite adequate schooling, language skills, elementary reading skills, age, and IQ.{{Cite journal |last1=Bulajić |first1=Aleksandar |last2=Despotović |first2=Miomir |last3=Lachmann |first3=Thomas |date=May 2019 |title=Understanding functional illiteracy from a policy, adult education, and cognition point of view: Towards a joint referent framework |journal=Zeitschrift für Neuropsychologie |volume=30 |issue=2 |page=117 |doi=10.1024/1016-264X/a000255 |s2cid=191662777 |doi-access=free }}

Functional illiteracy is distinguished from primary illiteracy (i.e., the inability to read and write a short, simple statement concerning one's own everyday life) and learning difficulties (e.g., dyslexia).{{Cite journal |last1=Réka |first1=Vágvölgyi |last2=Bergström |first2=Aleksandar |last3=Bulajić |first3=Maria Klatte |last4=Falk |first4=Huettig |date=May 2019 |title=Understanding functional illiteracy from a policy, adult education, and cognition point of view: Towards a joint referent framework |journal=Zeitschrift für Neuropsychologie |volume=30 |issue=2 |pages=109–122 |doi=10.1024/1016-264X/a000255 |s2cid=191662777|doi-access=free}} These categories have been contested—as has the concept of "illiteracy" itself—for being predicated on narrow assumptions, primarily derived from school-based contexts, about what counts as reading and writing (e.g., comprehending and following instructions).{{Cite book |last=Brodkey |first=Linda |title=Writing Permitted in Designated Areas Only |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-816-62806-3 |location=Minneapolis |pages=3–7 |chapter=Literacy as a Discursive Practice}}

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{{See also|History of writing|History of education}}

Script is thought to have developed independently at least five times in human history: in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus civilization, lowland Mesoamerica, and China.{{Cite book |last=Chrisomalis |first=Stephen |title=The Cambridge Handbook of Literacy |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2009 |editor-last=Olsen |editor-first=D. |pages=59–74 |chapter=The Origins and Coevolution of Literacy and Numeracy |editor-last2=Torrance |editor-first2=N.}}{{Cite web |title=Writing Systems |url=http://hkotek.com/teaching/intro2015/week5-writing-systems.pdf |access-date=5 August 2018}}

File:Bill of sale Louvre AO3765.jpg, Sumerian tablet, {{circa|2600 BCE}}]]

Between 3500 BCE and 3000 BCE, in southern Mesopotamia, the ancient Sumerians invented writing.{{Cite book |last=Harari |first=Yuval Noah |title=Sapiens |year=2014 |publisher=Penguin Random House |isbn=978-0-771-03851-8 |page=137}} During this era, literacy was "a largely functional matter, propelled by the need to manage the new quantities of information and the new type of governance created by trade and large scale production".{{Cite book |last=Easton |first=P. |title=Sustaining Literacy in Africa: Developing a Literate Environment |publisher=UNESCO Press |location=Paris |pages=46–56 |chapter=History and spread of literacy}} Early writing systems first emerged as a recording system in which people used tokens with impressed markings to manage trade and agricultural production.{{Cite journal |last=Schmandt-Besserat |first=D. |year=1978 |title=The earliest precursor of writing |journal=Scientific American |volume=238 |issue=6 |pages=38–47 |bibcode=1978SciAm.238f..50S |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0678-50 |s2cid=121339828}} The token system served as a precursor to early cuneiform writing once people began recording information on clay tablets. Proto-Cuneiform texts exhibit not only numerical signs but also ideograms depicting objects being counted. Though the traditional view had been that cuneiform literacy was restricted to a class of scribes, assyriologists including Claus Wilcke and Dominique Charpin have argued that functional literacy was somewhat widespread by the Old Babylonian period.{{Cite book |last=Charpin |first=Dominique |title=Writing, Law, and Kingship in Old Babylonian Mesopotamia |date=2010-11-15 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-10159-0 |pages=7–24}}{{Cite book |last=Veldhuis |first=Niek |url=https://melc.berkeley.edu/Web_Veldhuis/articles/Veldhuis_OHCC.pdf |title=The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture |chapter=Levels of Literacy |year=2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-191-74359-7 |pages=68–73 |access-date=17 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211217084942/https://melc.berkeley.edu/Web_Veldhuis/articles/Veldhuis_OHCC.pdf |archive-date=17 December 2021 |url-status=dead}} Nonetheless, professional scribes became central to law, finances, accounting, government, administration, medicine, magic, divination, literature, and prayers.{{Cite book |title=The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2011 |editor-last=Radner |editor-first=K. |editor-last2=Robson |editor-first2=E.}}

Egyptian hieroglyphs emerged between 3300 BCE and 3100 BCE; the iconography emphasized power among royals and other elites. The Egyptian hieroglyphic writing system was the first notation system to have phonetic values; these symbols are called phonograms.{{Cite web |title=The Evolution of Writing |first=Denise|last=Schmandt-Besserat |url=https://sites.utexas.edu/dsb/tokens/the-evolution-of-writing/ |access-date=2023-12-21}}

Writing in lowland Mesoamerica was first used by the Olmec and Zapotec civilizations in 900–400 BCE. These civilizations used glyphic writing and bar-and-dot numerical notation systems for purposes related to royal iconography and calendar systems.{{Cite journal |last1=Pohl |first1=Mary E. D. |last2=Pope |first2=Kevin O. |last3=von Nagy |first3=Christopher |date=2002-12-06 |title=Olmec Origins of Mesoamerican Writing |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1078474 |journal=Science |volume=298 |issue=5600 |pages=1984–1987 |doi=10.1126/science.1078474 |pmid=12471256 |bibcode=2002Sci...298.1984P |s2cid=19494498 |issn=0036-8075|url-access=subscription}}

The earliest written notations in China date back to the Shang dynasty in 1200 BCE. These systematic notations, inscribed on bones, recorded sacrifices made, tributes received, and animals hunted, which were activities of the elite. These oracle-bone inscriptions were the early ancestors of modern Chinese script and contained logosyllabic script and numerals. By the time of the consolidation of the Chinese Empire during the Qin and Han dynasties ({{circa|200 BCE|lk=no}}), written documents were central to the formation and policing of a hierarchical bureaucratic governance structure reinforced through law. Within this legal order, written records kept track of and controlled citizen movements, created records of misdeeds, and documented the actions and judgments of government officials.{{Cite book |last1=Barbieri-Low |first1=A. |title=Law, state, and society in early Imperial China: Study and translation of the legal texts from Zhangjiashan Tomb no. 247. |last2=Yates |first2=R. |publisher=Brill |year=2015 |location=Leiden}}

Indus script is largely pictorial and has not yet been deciphered; as such, it is unknown whether it includes abstract signs. It is thought that they wrote from right to left and that the script is logographic. Because it has not been deciphered, linguists disagree on whether it is a complete and independent writing system; however, it is generally thought to be an independent writing system that emerged in the Harappa culture.{{Cite journal |last1=Farmer |first1=Steve |last2=Sproat |first2=Richard |last3=Witzel |first3=Michael |year=2004 |title=The Collapse of the Indus-Script Thesis: The Myth of a Literate Harappan Civilization |url=https://hasp.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/ejvs/article/view/620 |journal=Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=19–57 |doi=10.11588/ejvs.2004.2.620 |s2cid=16097805 |issn=1084-7561}}

Existing evidence suggests that most early acts of literacy were, in some areas (such as Egypt), closely tied to power and chiefly used for management practices, and probably less than 1% of the population was literate, as it was confined to a very small group.{{cn|date=May 2024}} Scholarship by others, such as Dominique Charpin and a project from the European Union, however, suggest that this was not the case in all ancient societies: both Charpin and the EU's emerging scholarship suggest that writing and literacy were far more widespread in Mesopotamia than scholars previously thought.{{Citation |title=Reading and Writing in Mesopotamia |url=https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226101590.003.0002 |work=Writing, Law, and Kingship in Old Babylonian Mesopotamia |year=2010 |pages=7–24 |access-date=2023-12-21 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |doi=10.7208/chicago/9780226101590.003.0002 |isbn=978-0-226-10158-3|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |title=Literacy in the Old Babylonian City of Nippur |url=https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/841928 |access-date=2023-12-21 |website=CORDIS |publisher=European Commission |doi=10.3030/841928|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |title=Review of: Writing, Law, and Kingship in Old Babylonian Mesopotamia (translated by Jane Marie Todd) |url=https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2011/2011.06.55/ |journal=Bryn Mawr Classical Review |issn=1055-7660}}

According to social anthropologist Jack Goody, there are two interpretations regarding the origin of the alphabet. Many classical scholars, such as historian Ignace Gelb, credit the Ancient Greeks for creating the first alphabetic system ({{circa|lk=no|750 BCE}}) that used distinctive signs for consonants and vowels. Goody contests:

{{blockquote|The importance of Greek culture of the subsequent history of Western Europe has led to an over-emphasis, by classicists and others, on the addition of specific vowel signs to the set of consonantal ones that had been developed earlier in Western Asia.{{Cite book |last=Goody |first=Jack |title=The interface between the written and the oral |year=1999 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-33268-2 |edition=Repr. |pages=40–51}}}}

Many scholars argue that the ancient Semitic-speaking peoples of northern Canaan invented the consonantal alphabet as early as 1500 BCE. Much of this theory's development is credited to English archeologist Flinders Petrie, who, in 1905, came across a series of Canaanite inscriptions in the turquoise mines of Serabit el-Khadem. Ten years later, English Egyptologist Alan Gardiner reasoned that these letters contain an alphabet as well as references to the Canaanite goddess Asherah. In 1948, William F. Albright deciphered the text using new evidence, including a series of inscriptions from Ugarit. Discovered in 1929 by French archaeologist Claude F. A. Schaeffer, some of these inscriptions were mythological texts (written in an early Canaanite dialect) that consisted of a 30-letter cuneiform consonantal alphabet.{{Cite web |title=Ras Shamra Tablet Inventory |url=https://voices.uchicago.edu/rsti/iug/introduction/ |access-date=2023-12-22 |website=voices.uchicago.edu}}

Another significant discovery was made in 1953 when three arrowheads were uncovered, each containing identical Canaanite inscriptions from 12th century BCE. According to Frank Moore Cross, these inscriptions consisted of alphabetic signs that originated during the transitional development from pictographic script to a linear alphabet. Moreover, he asserts, "These inscriptions also provided clues to extend the decipherment of earlier and later alphabetic texts".{{Cite journal |last=Cross |first=Frank Moore |title=Newly Found Inscriptions in Old Canaanite and Early Phoenician Scripts |journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research |year=1980 |volume=238 |issue=Spring, 1980 |pages=1–20 |doi=10.2307/1356511 |jstor=1356511 |s2cid=222343641}}

The Canaanite script's consonantal system inspired alphabetical developments in later systems. During the Late Bronze Age, successor alphabets appeared throughout the Mediterranean region and were used in Phoenician, Hebrew, and Aramaic.

According to Goody, these cuneiform scripts may have influenced the development of the Greek alphabet several centuries later. Historically, the Greeks contended that their writing system was modeled after the Phoenicians. However, many Semitic scholars now believe that Ancient Greek is more consistent with an early form of Canaanite that was used {{circa|lk=no|1100 BCE}}. While the earliest Greek inscriptions are dated circa 8th century BCE, epigraphical comparisons to Proto-Canaanite suggest that the Greeks may have adopted the consonantal alphabet as early as 1100 BCE and later "added in five characters to represent vowels".

Phoenician, which is considered to contain the first linear alphabet, rapidly spread to Mediterranean port cities in northern Canaan. Some archeologists believe that Phoenician influenced the Hebrew and Aramaic alphabets, as these languages evolved during the same time period, share similar features, and are commonly categorized into the same language group.{{Cite journal |last=McCarter |first=P. Kyle |date=September 1974 |title=The Early Diffusion of the Alphabet |journal=The Biblical Archaeologist |volume=37 |issue=3 |pages=54–68 |doi=10.2307/3210965 |jstor=3210965 |s2cid=126182369 |issn=0006-0895}}

When the Israelites migrated to Canaan between 1200 and 1000 BCE, they adopted a variation of the Canaanite alphabet. Baruch ben Neriah, Jeremiah's scribe, used this alphabet to create the later scripts of the Old Testament. The early Hebrew alphabet was prominent in the Mediterranean region until Neo-Babylonian rulers exiled the Jews to Babylon in the 6th century BCE. It was then that the new script (Square Hebrew) emerged, and the older one rapidly died out.

The Aramaic alphabet also emerged sometime between 1200 and 1000 BCE. Although early examples are scarce, archeologists have uncovered a wide range of later Aramaic texts, written as early as the seventh century BCE. In the Near East, it was common to record events on clay using the cuneiform script; however, writing Aramaic on leather parchments became common during the Neo-Assyrian empire. With the rise of the Persians in the 5th century BCE, Achaemenid rulers adopted Aramaic as the "diplomatic language".

Darius the Great standardized Aramaic, which became the Imperial Aramaic script. This Imperial Aramaic alphabet rapidly spread: west, to the Kingdom of Nabataea, then to the Sinai and Arabian peninsulas, eventually making its way to Africa; and east, where it later influenced the development of the Brahmi script in India. Over the next few centuries, Imperial Aramaic script in Persia evolved into Pahlavi, "as well as for a range of alphabets used by early Turkish and Mongol tribes in Siberia, Mongolia and Turkestan". During this period, literacy spread among the merchant classes, and 15-20% of the total population may have been literate.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

The Aramaic language declined with the spread of Islam, which was accompanied by the spread of Arabic.{{Cite web |date=2013-09-06 |title=The growth and decline of the Aramaic language |url=https://apnews.com/article/3ea7983eb9ad49f089fbccc27d8a1206 |access-date=2023-12-22 |website=AP News}}

Until recently, it was thought that the majority of people were illiterate in the classical world,{{efn|See for example: Harris, 1991.{{refn|{{Cite book |last=Harris |first=William V. |title=Ancient literacy |year=1991 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-03381-8 |location=Cambridge, MA}}}}}} though recent work challenges this perception.{{undue|date=May 2024}}{{Cite journal |last=Wright |first=Brian J. |year=2015 |title=Ancient Literacy in New Testament Research: Incorporating a Few More Lines of Enquiry |url=https://www.academia.edu/13211795 |journal=Trinity Journal |volume=36 |pages=161–189}}{{Cite book |title=Literacy in Ancient Everyday Life |publisher=De Gruyter |year=2018 |isbn=978-3-110-59188-0 |editor-last=Kolb |editor-first=Anne |location=Boston}} Anthony DiRenzo asserts that Roman society was "a civilization based on the book and the register" and that "no one, either free or slave, could afford to be illiterate".{{Cite journal |last=Di Renzo |first=Anthony |year=2000 |title=His master's voice: Tiro and the rise of the roman secretarial class |url=http://faculty.ithaca.edu/direnzo/docs/scholarship/mastersvoice.pdf |journal=Journal of Technical Writing and Communication |volume=30 |issue=2 |pages=155–168 |doi=10.2190/b4yd-5fp7-1w8d-v3uc |s2cid=153369618}} Similarly, Dupont points out, "The written word was all around them, in both public and private life: laws, calendars, regulations at shrines, and funeral epitaphs were engraved in stone or bronze. The Republic amassed huge archives of reports on every aspect of public life."{{Cite book |last1=Dupont |first1=Florence |title=Daily life in ancient Rome |last2=Dupont |first2=Florence |year=1997 |publisher=Blackwell |isbn=978-0-631-19395-1 |edition=Repr. |location=Oxford |pages=223}} The imperial civilian administration produced masses of documentation used in judicial, fiscal, and administrative matters, as did the municipalities. The army kept extensive records relating to supply and duty rosters and submitted reports. Merchants, shippers, and landowners (and their personal staffs), especially of the larger enterprises, must have been literate.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

In the late fourth century, the Desert Father Pachomius would expect the literacy of a candidate for admission to his monasteries:{{efn|Pachomius, Rule 139.}}

They shall give him twenty Psalms or two of the Apostles' epistles or some other part of Scripture. And if he is illiterate he shall go at the first, third and sixth hours to someone who can teach and has been appointed for him. He shall stand before him and learn very studiously and with all gratitude. The fundamentals of a syllable, the verbs and nouns shall all be written for him and even if he does not want to he shall be compelled to read.

During the 4th and 5th centuries, the Church made efforts to ensure a better clergy, especially the bishops, who were expected to have a classical education—the hallmark of a socially acceptable person in higher society.{{Citation needed|date=June 2020}} Even after the remnants of the Western Roman Empire fell in the 470s, literacy continued to be a distinguishing mark of the elite, as communication skills were still important in political and church life (bishops were largely drawn from the senatorial class) in a new cultural synthesis that made "Christianity the Roman religion".{{Cite book |last=Elsner |first=Jaś |title=Imperial Rome and Christian triumph: the art of the Roman Empire AD 100-450 |year=1998 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-192-84201-5 |pages=141}} However, these skills were less needed in the absence of a large imperial administrative apparatus whose middle and top echelons were dominated by the elite.{{efn|This connection is pursued in Alan K. Bowman and Greg Woolf, eds., Literacy and Power in the Ancient World, (Cambridge) 1994.}} Even so, in pre-modern times, it is unlikely that literacy was found in more than about 30–40% of the population. During the Dark Ages, the highest percentage of literacy was found among the clergy and monks, as they made up much of the staff needed to administer the states of western Europe.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

An abundance of graffiti written in the Nabataean script dating back to the beginning of the first millennium CE has been taken to imply a relatively high degree of literacy among the general population in the ancient Arabic-speaking world.{{Cite journal |last=Macdonald |first=M. C. A. |date=2010 |title=Ancient Arabia and the written word |journal=Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies |volume=40 |pages=8–9 |jstor=41224041}}

The rates and forms of literacy in the European Medieval period vary and are controversial: historian Elaine Treharne writes of "a complex era of strategic literacy, generic fluidity, and linguistic competencies beyond our own experiences.""However, the medieval period in its entirety yields far more when seen holistically, like the manuscripts and texts themselves, without our false categorizations of secular versus religious, French versus English, educated versus uneducated, written versus oral, central versus marginal. Our own hierarchies are in urgent need of reassessment if we are to understand a complex era of strategic literacy, generic fluidity, and linguistic competencies beyond our own experiences." {{cite journal |last1=Treharne |first1=Elaine |title=The vernaculars of medieval England, 1170-1350 |journal=The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Culture |date=24 March 2011 |pages=217–236 |doi=10.1017/CCOL9780521856898.011|isbn=978-0-521-85689-8 }} Historian Malcolm Parkes contrasts the different expertise of the professionally literate class, cultivated readers, and pragmatic readers."At least by the twelfth century, a more complex hierarchy of literacies arose. Thus, the literacy of the professionally literate class sits at the pinnacle of a triangle, under which are the literacy of the "cultivated reader" or aristocratic non-professional and the still more limited literacy of the "pragmatic reader" who reads and writes in the course of conducting his trade." {{cite book |title=The Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature in Britain |date=17 July 2017 |doi=10.1002/9781118396957.wbemlb561}} Historian Mark Hailwood suggests another two type of near-literacy in Early Modern England, of "abcederian literates" who could spell out words to read, and of people who knew the letters though not words, were particularly common in Southern English rural areas: 50% of husbandmen could either sign their name or provide an initial.{{cite journal |last1=Hailwood |first1=Mark |title=Rethinking Literacy in Rural England, 1550–1700 |journal=Past & Present |date=24 July 2023 |issue=260 |pages=38–70 |doi=10.1093/pastj/gtac019}}

Post-Antiquity illiteracy was made worse by the lack of a suitable writing medium, as when the Western Roman Empire collapsed, the import of papyrus to Europe ceased. Since papyrus perishes easily and does not last well in the wetter European climate, parchment was used, which was expensive and accessible only by the church and the wealthy. Paper was introduced into Europe via Spain in the 11th century and spread north slowly over the next four centuries. Literacy saw a resurgence as a result, and by the 15th century, paper was widespread.{{Cite encyclopedia |title=History of publishing → Medieval, Manuscripts, Scriptoria |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/publishing/The-medieval-book |access-date=2023-12-22}}

Estimates of literacy rates vary by time, class, location, sex and reliability: "Unfortunately, there is no statistical information that allows generalizations to be made in terms of numerical proportions or percentages, either for rates of literacy among the medieval population or for annual book production."

However, here are some indicative estimates. Rates are often extrapolated from the number of people who can sign their name on official documents. First, rough estimates by economic historian Robert Allen, based on the urban/rural split of the population:{{cite journal |last1=Allen |first1=Robert C. |title=Progress and Poverty in Early Modern Europe |journal=The Economic History Review |date=2003 |volume=56 |issue=3 |pages=403–443 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-0289.2003.00257.x |jstor=3698570 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3698570 |issn=0013-0117}}

However:

• In the late 1200s, there were 1,500 notaries in Milan, over 1% of the population, for drawing up contracts.{{cite book |last1=Britnell |first1=Richard |chapter=Bureaucracy and Literacy |title=A Companion to the Medieval World |date=26 March 2009 |pages=413–434 |doi=10.1002/9781444324198.ch20|isbn=978-1-4051-0922-2 }}{{rp|421}}
• "By 1300, 'everyone knew someone who could read', and there were books in every church and every village."{{cite book |last1=Clanchy |first1=Michael |chapter=Parchment and Paper: Manuscript Culture 1100–1500 |title=A Companion to the History of the Book |date=16 September 2019 |pages=219–233 |doi=10.1002/9781119018193.ch15}}
• By 1500, in England, "probably more than half the population could read, though not necessarily also write." Thomas More in 1533 claimed that up to 60% of the population could read English, a figure supported by some studies of London but not by others. One study estimates that in the city of York in 1500, about 25% of upper and middle class people were literate.{{cite journal |last1=Moran |first1=J. Hoeppner |title=Literacy and Education In Northern England, 1350-1550: A Methodological Inquiry |journal=Northern History |date=June 1981 |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=1–23 |doi=10.1179/nhi.1981.17.1.1}} This contrasts with Stevens' estimates of male literacy of 10% by the start of the century (with almost no female literacy)), 20% by the end, and 45% by the end of the 1600s.{{cite journal |last1=Stephens |first1=W. B. |title=Literacy in England, Scotland, and Wales, 1500-1900 |journal=History of Education Quarterly |date=1990 |volume=30 |issue=4 |pages=545–571 |doi=10.2307/368946 |jstor=368946 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/368946 |issn=0018-2680|url-access=subscription }}
• In Venice in 1587, 33% of men were estimated as literate.

Inspired by the Enlightenment, Sweden implemented programs in 1723 aimed at making the population fully literate.{{Cite book|last=Vincent |first=David |editor-first1=John L. |editor-first2=Eileen H. |editor-last1=Rury |editor-last2=Tamura |title=The Oxford Handbook of the History of Education |year=2019 |chapter=The Modern History of Literacy |chapter-url=https://oro.open.ac.uk/69072/3/69072.pdf |access-date=December 21, 2023 |at=7 |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199340033.013.30 |isbn=978-0-199-34003-3 }} Other countries implemented similar measures at this time. These included Denmark in 1739, Poland in 1783, and France in 1794/5.

Literacy was well established in early 18th century England, when books geared towards children became far more common. Near the end of the century, as many as 50 were printed every year in major cities around England.{{Cite web |title=The origins of children's literature |url=https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-origins-of-childrens-literature |access-date=2022-04-22 |website=British Library |archive-date=1 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200301053319/https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-origins-of-childrens-literature |url-status=dead }}

In Edo-period Japan, literacy in the three major cities has been estimated at 70% for men, 40% for females, but 1% in the country areas.{{cite journal |last1=Tsujimoto |first1=Masashi |title=Maturing of a Literate Society--Literacy and Education in the Edo Peried (17th-19th century) |journal=Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry |date=2000 |url=http://scholars.lib.ntu.edu.tw/handle/123456789/290366}}

{{Further|Industrial Revolution}}

In the 19th century, reading would become even more common in the United Kingdom. Public notes, broadsides, handbills, catchpennies and printed songs would have been usual street literature before newspapers became common. Other forms of popular reading material included advertising for events, theaters, and goods for sale.{{Cite web |title=Street literature |url=https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/street-literature |access-date=2022-04-22 |website=British Library}} In the late 19th century, gas and electric lighting were becoming more common in private homes, replacing candlelight and oil lamps, enabling reading after dark and increasing the appeal of literacy.

In his 1836/1837 Pickwick Papers Charles Dickens's said that:

{{blockquote|even the common people, both in town and country, are equally intense in their admiration. Frequently, have we seen the butcher-boy, with his tray on his shoulder, reading with the greatest avidity the last "Pickwick"; the footman (whose fopperies are so inimitably laid bare), the maidservant, the chimney sweep, all classes, in fact, read "Boz".{{Cite web |title=Victorian readers |url=https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/victorian-readers |access-date=2022-04-22 |website=British Library |archive-date=19 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220219045156/https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/victorian-readers |url-status=dead }}}}

From the mid-19th century onward, the Second Industrial Revolution saw technological improvements in paper production. The new distribution networks, enabled by improved roads and rail, resulted in an increased capacity to supply printed material. Social and educational changes increased the demand for reading matter, as rising literacy rates, particularly among the middle and working classes, created a new mass market for printed material.{{Cite web |title=Print culture |url=https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/print-culture |access-date=2022-04-22 |website=British Library}} Wider schooling helped increase literacy rates, which in turn helped lower the cost of publication.

Unskilled labor forces were common in Western Europe, and, as British industry improved, more engineers and skilled workers who could handle technical instructions and complex situations were needed. Literacy was essential to be hired.{{Cite book |last=Hamerow |first=Theodore S. |title=The birth of a new Europe: state and society in the 19. century |year=1998 |publisher=University of North Carolina Pr |isbn=978-0-807-84239-3 |location=Chapel Hill |pages=148–174}} A senior government official told Parliament in 1870:

{{blockquote|Upon the speedy provision of elementary education depends our industrial prosperity. It is of no use trying to give technical teaching to our citizens without elementary education; uneducated labourers—and many of our labourers are utterly uneducated—are, for the most part, unskilled labourers, and if we leave our work–folk any longer unskilled, notwithstanding their strong sinews and determined energy, they will become overmatched in the competition of the world.{{rp|159}}}}

The skills of reading and writing are not the same. In Spain, the total rate of literacy between 1841 and 1860 was constant at almost 25%: in 1841 most of the literate could read but not write, but by 1860 most could read and write.{{cite journal |last1=Frago |first1=Antonio Viñao |title=The History of Literacy in Spain: Evolution, Traits, and Questions |journal=History of Education Quarterly |date=1990 |volume=30 |issue=4 |pages=573–599 |doi=10.2307/368947 |jstor=368947 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/368947 |issn=0018-2680|url-access=subscription }}

File:Figure 1 Adult literacy rates have increased Reading the past writing the futureUPDATED.svg

Data published by UNESCO shows that the worldwide literacy rate among adults has increased, on average, by 5 percentage points every decade since 1950, from 55.7% in 1950 to 86.2% in 2015. Due to rapid population growth, while the percentage of adults who were illiterate decreased, the actual number of illiterate adults increased from 700 million in 1950 to 878 million in 1990, before starting to decrease and falling to 745 million by 2015. The number of illiterate adults remains higher than in 1950, "despite decades of universal education policies, literacy interventions and the spread of print material and information and communications technology (ICT)".{{Cite book |last=UNESCO |url=http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002475/247563e.pdf |title=Reading the past, writing the future: Fifty years of promoting literacy |publisher=UNESCO |year=2017 |isbn=978-9-231-00214-4 |pages=21–23, 26}}

Available global data indicates significant variations in literacy rates between world regions. North America, Europe, West Asia, and Central Asia have almost achieved full literacy for men and women aged 15 or older. Most countries in East Asia and the Pacific, as well as Latin America and the Caribbean, have adult literacy rates over 90%.{{Cite journal |last=UNESCO Institute for Statistics |date=September 2015 |title=Adult and Youth Literacy |url=http://www.uis.unesco.org/literacy/Documents/fs32-2015-literacy.pdf |journal=UIS Fact Sheet |volume=32 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160315043900/http://www.uis.unesco.org/literacy/Documents/fs32-2015-literacy.pdf |archive-date=15 March 2016 |access-date=2 May 2016}} In other regions, illiteracy persists at higher rates; as of 2013, the adult literacy rate in South Asia and North Africa was 67.55% and 59.76% in Sub-Saharan Africa.{{Cite web |last=UIS |title=Education: Literacy rate |url=http://data.uis.unesco.org/Index.aspx?queryid=166# |access-date=22 May 2016 |website=data.uis.unesco.org}}{{Failed verification|date=September 2023}}

File:Figure 5 Literacy has rapidly spread Reading the past writing the future.svg

In much of the world, high youth literacy rates suggest that illiteracy will become less common as more educated younger generations replace less educated older ones.{{Cite book |last1=Wagner |first1=Daniel A. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k0mUCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA97 |title=Childhood and adolescence: cross-cultural perspectives and applications |last2=Tuz Zahra |first2=Fatima |last3=Lee |first3=Jinsol |year=2016 |publisher=Praeger |isbn=978-1-440-83223-9 |editor-last=Gielen |editor-first=Uwe P. |edition=2nd |pages=105–106 |chapter=Literacy Development: Global Research and Policy Perspectives |editor-last2=Roopnarine |editor-first2=Jaipaul L.}} However, in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where the vast majority of the world's illiterate youth live, lower school enrollment implies that illiteracy will persist to a greater degree. According to 2013 data, the youth literacy rate (ages 15 to 24) is 84% in South Asia and North Africa and 70% in sub-Saharan Africa.

However, the distinction between literacy and illiteracy is not clear-cut. Given that having a literate person in the household confers many of the benefits of literacy, some recent literature in economics, starting with the work of Kaushik Basu and James Foster, distinguishes between a "proximate illiterate" and an "isolated illiterate". A "proximate illiterate" lives in a household with literate members, while an "isolated illiterate" lives in a household where everyone is illiterate. Isolated illiteracy is more common among older populations in wealthier nations, where people are less likely to live in multigenerational households with potentially literate relatives. A 2018/2019 UNESCO report noted that "conversely, in low and lower middle income countries, isolated illiteracy is concentrated among younger people," along with increased rates among rural populations and women. This evidence indicates that illiteracy is a complex phenomenon with multiple factors impacting rates of illiteracy and the type of illiteracy one may experience.{{Cite web |year=2018 |title=Global education monitoring report 2019: Migration, displacement and education: building bridges, not walls |url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000366946 |access-date=2023-12-22 |website=UNESCO |pages=194–196}}

Literacy has rapidly spread in several regions in the last twenty-five years, and the United Nations's global initiative with Sustainable Development Goal 4 is also gaining momentum.{{Cite web |title=THE 17 GOALS |publisher=Department of Economic and Social Affairs |url=https://sdgs.un.org/goals |access-date=2020-09-22 |website=sdgs.un.org}}

The traditional concept of literacy widened as a consensus emerged among researchers in composition studies, education research, and anthropological linguistics that it makes little sense to speak of reading or writing outside of a specific context, with linguist James Paul Gee describing it as "simply incoherent."{{Cite journal |last=Gee |first=James Paul |year=1989 |title=Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction |journal=Journal of Education |volume=171 |issue=1 |pages=5–17 |doi=10.1177/002205748917100101 |s2cid=58334868}} For example, even the extremely early stages of acquiring mastery over symbol shapes take place in a particular social context (even if that context is "school"), and, after print acquisition, every instance of reading or writing will be for a specific purpose and occasion with particular readers and writers in mind. Reading and writing, therefore, are never separable from social and cultural elements.{{Cite book |title=Multidisciplinary perspectives on literacy research |year=2005 |publisher=Hampton |isbn=978-1-572-73626-9 |editor-last=Beach |editor-first=Richard |edition=2nd |location=Cresskill, NJ |editor-last2=Green |editor-first2=Judith |editor-last3=Kamil |editor-first3=Michael |editor-last4=Shanahan |editor-first4=Timothy}}{{Cite journal |last=Mkandwire |first=S. B. |year=2018 |title=Literacy versus Language: Exploring their Similarities and Differences |journal=Journal of Lexicography and Terminology |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=37–55}}{{Citation |last=Lindquist |first=Julie |title=Literacy |year=2015 |url=http://www.upcolorado.com/utah-state-university-press/item/2711-keywords-in-writing-studies |work=Keywords in Writing Studies |pages=99–102 |editor-last=Heilker |editor-first=Paul |access-date=2023-09-19 |publisher=Utah State University Press |doi=10.7330/9780874219746.c020 |isbn=978-0-874-21974-6 |editor2-last=Vandenberg |editor2-first=Peter|doi-access=free }}{{Cite book |last=Knobel |first=Michele |title=Everyday Literacies: Students, Discourse, and Social Practice |publisher=Peter Lang |year=1999 |location=New York}} A corollary point made by David Barton and Rosalind Ivanić, among others, is that the cognitive and societal effects of acquiring literacy are not easily predictable, since, as Brian Street has argued, "the ways in which people address reading and writing are themselves rooted in conceptions of knowledge, identity, and being."{{Cite book |title=Literacy and development: ethnographic perspectives |year=2001 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-23451-1 |editor-last=Street |editor-first=Brian V. |location=London |pages=7–8 |chapter=Introduction}}{{Cite book |last1=Street |first1=Brian V. |title=Literacy in theory and practice |last2=Street |first2=Brain V. |year=1999 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-28961-0}} Consequently, as Jack Goody has documented, historically, literacy has included the transformation of social systems that rely on literacy and the changing uses of literacy within those evolving systems.{{Cite book |last=Goody |first=Jack |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/logic-of-writing-and-the-organization-of-society/A58ECF96A6302FDC7972E713BDE5568D |title=The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society |year=1986 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-33962-9}}

File:Adult literacy rate, population 15+ years, male (%), OWID.svg

File:Adult literacy rate, population 15+ years, female (%), OWID.svg

File:Figure 4 Progress towards gender parity Reading the past writing the future.svg

According to 2015 data collected by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, about two-thirds (63%) of the world's illiterate adults are women. This disparity was even starker in previous decades, and from 1970 to 2000, the global gender gap in literacy decreased significantly.{{Cite journal |last1=Dorius |first1=Shawn F. |last2=Firebaugh |first2=Glenn |date=1 July 2010 |title=Trends in Global Gender Inequality |journal=Social Forces |volume=88 |issue=5 |pages=1941–1968 |doi=10.1353/sof.2010.0040 |issn=0037-7732 |pmc=3107548 |pmid=21643494}} Around the year 2013, however, this progress stagnated, with the gender gap holding almost constant over the last two decades. In general, the gender gap in literacy was not as pronounced as the regional gap; that is, differences between countries were often larger than gender differences within countries.{{Cite report |url=http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWDR2012/Resources/7778105-1299699968583/7786210-1315936222006/chapter-3.pdf |title=Gender Equality and Development: World Development Report |date=2012 |publisher=The World Bank |issue=114 |location=Washington, D. C. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412075924/http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWDR2012/Resources/7778105-1299699968583/7786210-1315936222006/chapter-3.pdf |archive-date=2019-04-12 |chapter=Education and Health: Where do Gender Differences Really Matter?}}{{Moved resource|date=September 2023}}

Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest overall literacy rate and the widest gender gap: 52% of adult women and 68% of adult men are literate. A similar gender disparity exists in North Africa, where 70% of adult women are literate versus 86% of adult men. In South Asia, 58% of adult women and 77% of adult men are literate.

The 1990 World Conference on Education for All, held in Jomtien, Thailand, brought attention to the literacy gender gap and prompted many developing countries to prioritize women's literacy.{{Cite book |last=Agnaou |first=Fatima |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PWz6mAEACAAJ |title=Gender, Literacy, and Empowerment in Morocco |year=2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-94765-7}}

In many contexts, female illiteracy coexists with other aspects of gender inequality. Martha Nussbaum says illiterate women are more vulnerable to becoming trapped in an abusive marriage, given that illiteracy limits their employment opportunities and worsens their position when negotiating within the household. Moreover, Nussbaum links literacy to the ability for women to effectively communicate and collaborate with one another "to participate in a larger movement for political change."{{Cite journal |last=Nussbaum |first=Martha C. |date=1 January 2004 |title=Women's Education: A Global Challenge |journal=Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=332–333 |doi=10.1086/378571 |issn=0097-9740 |s2cid=144593937}}

Social barriers can limit opportunities to increase literacy skills among women and girls; making literacy classes available can be ineffective when it conflicts with the use of the valuable limited time of women and girls.{{Cite journal |last1=Hill |first1=M. Anne |last2=King |first2=Elizabeth |date=1 July 1995 |title=Women's education and economic well-being |journal=Feminist Economics |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=21–46 |doi=10.1080/714042230 |issn=1354-5701}} School-age girls may face more expectations than their male counterparts to perform household work and care for younger siblings. Generational dynamics can also perpetuate these disparities; illiterate parents may not readily appreciate the value of literacy for their daughters, particularly in traditional, rural societies with expectations that girls will remain at home.{{Cite book |last=Al-Mekhlafy |first=Tawfiq A. |url=http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EDUCATION/Resources/278200-1099079877269/547664-1099080014368/DID_Girls_edu.pdf |title=Girls' Education in the 21st Century: Gender Equality, Empowerment, and Economic Growth |publisher=The World Bank |year=2008 |editor-last=Tembon |editor-first=Mercy |place=Washington D. C. |chapter=Strategies for Gender Equality in Basic and Secondary Education: A Comprehensive and Integrated Approach in the Republic of Yemen |editor-last2=Fort |editor-first2=Lucia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190824222436/http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EDUCATION/Resources/278200-1099079877269/547664-1099080014368/DID_Girls_edu.pdf |archive-date=2019-08-24}}{{Moved resource|date=September 2023}}

A World Bank and International Center for Research on Women review of academic literature concluded that child marriage, which predominantly impacts girls, tends to reduce literacy levels.{{Cite web |last=Wodon |first=Quentin |display-authors=etal |date=September 2015 |title=Child Marriage and the 2030 Agenda: Selected Findings from Early Research |url=http://www.costsofchildmarriage.org/publication/child-marriage-and-2030-agenda |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404061325/https://www.costsofchildmarriage.org/publication/child-marriage-and-2030-agenda |archive-date=2023-04-04 |website=The Economic Impacts of Child Marriage}} A 2008 analysis of the issue in Bangladesh found that for every additional year a girl's marriage is delayed, her likelihood of literacy increases by 5.6%.{{Cite journal |last1=Field |first1=Erica |last2=Ambrus |first2=Attila |date=1 October 2008 |title=Early Marriage, Age of Menarche, and Female Schooling Attainment in Bangladesh |journal=Journal of Political Economy |volume=116 |issue=5 |pages=881–930 |citeseerx=10.1.1.662.7231 |doi=10.1086/593333 |issn=0022-3808 |s2cid=215805592}} Similarly, a 2014 study found that in sub-Saharan Africa, marrying early significantly decreases a girl's probability of literacy, even after accounting for other variables.{{Citation |last1=Nguyen |first1=Minh Cong |title=Child Marriage and Education in Sub-Saharan Africa |date=September 2014 |url=http://allinschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/OOSC-2014-QW-Child-Marriage-final.pdf |editor-last=Wodon |editor-first=Quentin |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160629180823/http://allinschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/OOSC-2014-QW-Child-Marriage-final.pdf |chapter=Impact of Child Marriage on Literacy and Education Attainment in Africa |place=Washington D. C. |publisher=World Bank |archive-date=29 June 2016 |last2=Wodon |first2=Quentin}} Therefore, a 2015 literature review recommended marriage postponement as part of a strategy to increase educational attainment levels, including female literacy.{{Cite journal |last1=Parsons |first1=Jennifer |last2=Edmeades |first2=Jeffrey |last3=Kes |first3=Aslihan |last4=Petroni |first4=Suzanne |last5=Sexton |first5=Maggie |last6=Wodon |first6=Quentin |date=3 July 2015 |title=Economic Impacts of Child Marriage: A Review of the Literature |journal=The Review of Faith & International Affairs |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=12–22 |doi=10.1080/15570274.2015.1075757 |issn=1557-0274 |s2cid=146194521 |hdl-access=free |hdl=10986/23530}}

While women and girls comprise the majority of the global illiterate population, in many developed countries, a literacy-gender gap exists in the opposite direction. Data from the Programme for International Student Assessment has consistently shown the literacy underachievement of boys within member countries of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development).{{Cite journal |last1=Watson |first1=Anne |last2=Kehler |first2=Michael |last3=Martino |first3=Wayne |date=1 February 2010 |title=The Problem of Boys' Literacy Underachievement: Raising Some Questions |journal=Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy |volume=53 |issue=5 |pages=356–361 |doi=10.1598/JAAL.53.5.1 |issn=1936-2706 |s2cid=35301500}} In view of such findings, many education specialists have recommended changing classroom practices to better accommodate boys' learning styles and removing any gender stereotypes that may create the perception that reading and writing are feminine activities.{{Cite journal |last=Senn |first=Nicole |date=1 November 2012 |title=Effective Approaches to Motivate and Engage Reluctant Boys in Literacy |journal=The Reading Teacher |volume=66 |issue=3 |pages=211–220 |doi=10.1002/TRTR.01107 |issn=1936-2714}}{{Cite book |last1=Manitoba Education |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7ZHAAAAACAAJ |title=Me Read? No Way!: A Practical Guide to Improving Boys' Literacy Skills |date=January 2006 |publisher=Government of Manitoba |isbn=978-0-771-13506-4}}

Many policy analysts consider literacy rates to be a crucial measure of the value of a region's human capital. For example, literate people can be more easily trained than illiterate people and generally have a higher socioeconomic status;{{Cite web |title=Phonics. It's Profitable |url=http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/profitable.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071221151117/http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/profitable.html |archive-date=21 December 2007 |access-date=11 December 2007 |website=The Phonics Page}} thus, they enjoy better health and employment prospects. The international community has come to consider literacy as a key facilitator and goal of development.{{Cite journal |last1=Rao |first1=Vasudeva |last2=S |first2=B. |last3=Gupta |first3=P. Viswanadha |date=31 March 2006 |title=Low Female Literacy: Factors and Strategies |url=http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ797610 |journal=Australian Journal of Adult Learning |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=84–95 |issn=1443-1394}} In regard to the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the UN in 2015, the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning has declared the "central role of literacy in responding to sustainable development challenges such as health, social equality, economic empowerment and environmental sustainability."{{Cite book |last=Hanemann |first=Ulrike |url=http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED564012 |title=Transforming Our World: Literacy for Sustainable Development |date=30 November 2014 |publisher=UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning |isbn=978-9-282-01200-0 |page=7}}

A majority of prisoners have been found to be illiterate, and in Edinburgh prison, winner of the 2010 Libraries Change Lives Award, "the library has become the cornerstone of the prison's literacy strategy", reducing recidivism and reoffending and allowing incarcerated people to work toward attaining higher socioeconomic status once released.{{Cite news |last=Scott |first=Kirsty |date=7 July 2010 |title=Prison library helps to transform lives |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/jul/07/edinburgh-prison-library-literacy-books}}

As socioeconomics affects brain development and brain functions are heavily involved in processing both input and output, a learner's environment can affect the cognitive process of learning how to read and write.{{Cite journal |last1=Hackman |first1=D |last2=Gallop |first2=R |last3=Farah |first3=M. J. |year=2015 |title=Socioeconomics status and executive function: Developmental trajectories and mediation |journal=Developmental Science |volume=18 |issue=5 |pages=686–702 |doi=10.1111/desc.12246 |pmid=25659838}} Before a child enters a school setting, their executive function is influenced by their home environment.{{Cite journal |last1=Haft |first1=S. |last2=Hoeft |first2=F. |year=2017 |title=Poverty's impact on children's executive function: Global considerations |journal=New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development |volume=158 |pages=71}} Research demonstrates that for children who grow up in poverty, their socioeconomic circumstances severely strain their "neuro-endocrine and brain function". This affects a child's ability to regulate environmental stimuli, process and structure information, and plan and effectively execute tasks that involve their working memory—all of these are necessary cognitive facilities to successfully learn how to read and write. Living in poverty is stressful for all involved but is cognitively damaging for young children.{{Citation |last1=Wadsworth |first1=M. E. |title=Stress as a mechanism of poverty's ill effects on children |date=2012-07-01 |url=https://www.apa.org/pi/families/resources/newsletter/2012/07/stress-mechanism |work=CYF News |type=Newsletter |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190717231700/https://www.apa.org/pi/families/resources/newsletter/2012/07/stress-mechanism |url-status=dead |archive-date=2019-07-17 |last2=Rienks |first2=S. L.}}

A study done by NICHD indicates that socioeconomics plays a role for children who are young when the family experiences poverty, but shows no indication of adverse effects on reading achievement or behavior for adolescents entering poverty.{{Cite journal |last1=Anderson |first1=Sara |last2=Leventhal |first2=Tama |year=2014 |title=Exposure to Neighborhood Affluence and Poverty in Childhood and Adolescence and Academic Achievement and Behavior |journal=Applied Developmental Science |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=125 |doi=10.1080/10888691.2014.924355 |s2cid=144971888}} (conditions in early childhood based on 1990 U.S. Census and in middle childhood and adolescence on 2000 U.S. Census)

The data extensively shows that children from low socioeconomic backgrounds had poorer literacy performance, especially in reading. A study done by the OECD, which included over 25 countries in Europe, found that in all studied countries, students who lived in low-income households scored lower in reading than students who lived in high-income households.{{Cite journal |last=Sulkunen |first=Sari |date=2013 |title=Adolescent Literacy in Europe-An Urgent Call for Action |journal=European Journal of Education |volume=48 |issue=4 |pages=530 |doi=10.1111/ejed.12052 |via=ERIC}}

Parenting also affects a child's literacy. Field research was done by collecting data from families that were upper, middle, or lower class, or on welfare. The results found that, in a 100-hour week, children in upper-class households experienced an average of over 200,000 words, those in middle- and lower-class households heard about 125,000 words, and children from households on welfare were exposed to the fewest words—62,000 words. This indicates that a child from an upper-class family would be exposed to 8 million more words than a child from a family on welfare.{{Cite journal |last1=Hart |first1=B. |last2=Risley |first2=Todd |title=The Family Catastrophe: The 30 Million Word Gap by Age 3 |url=https://www.d11.org/cms/lib/CO02201641/Centricity/Domain/547/SharedDocuments/Reading%20Support%20Documents/Article%20The%20Early%20Catastrophe%20AFT%20Spring%202003.pdf |journal=American Educator |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=4–9}} Outside of word exposure, which is essential for word acquisition, the National Center for Educational Statistics found that 41.9% of children from low-income families scored substantially lower on most reading achievements for grades 4, 8, and 12 in 2013.{{Cite book |last=Knapp |first=Nancy |title=The Psychology of Reading: Theory and Applications |publisher=Guildford |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-462-52350-4 |location=New York |pages=20}}

According to a study performed by ANOVA, multiple socioeconomic variables influence children, such as parental education level, parental occupation, health history, and even usage of technology within the home. With these factors in mind, their study showed that young children are especially susceptible to environmental factors, meaning socioeconomics affects them cognitively and can have adverse effects as their brains continue to develop.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}} However, another study done by the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) around 2012 suggesteda slightly different conclusion.{{Cite journal |last1=Lipina |first1=Sebastian |last2=Segretin |first2=Soledad |last3=Hermida |first3=Julia |last4=Prats |first4=Lucia |last5=Fracchia |first5=Carolina |last6=Camelo |first6=Jorge |last7=Colombo |first7=Jorge |year=2013 |title=Linking childhood poverty and cognition: environmental mediators of non-verbal executive control in an Argentine sample |journal=Developmental Science |volume=16 |issue=5 |pages=697–707 |doi=10.1111/desc.12080 |pmid=24033575|hdl=11336/23971 |hdl-access=free}} While the study agrees that poverty negatively affects childhood literacy, some nuances are added. In both studies, children who experienced poverty scored lower in reading assessments, but the NLSY's study noted that the duration of poverty altered the literacy outcome.{{Cite journal |last=Lee |first=Kyunghee |year=2009 |title=The Bidirectional Effects of Early Poverty on Children's Reading and Home Environment Scores: Associations and Ethnic Differences |journal=Social Work Research |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=79–94 |doi=10.1093/swr/33.2.79}} It found that children ages 5–11 who experienced "persistent poverty" were more adversely affected than their peers who never experienced poverty. The study acknowledged that other factors affected these children's reading scores, particularly maternal influence. The mothers of these households were scaled based on a "home environment" score, which measured their emotional and verbal responsiveness, acceptance, and involvement with the child and organization. Households experiencing poverty tended to have lower scores, and lower scores correlated with lower reading levels. The study also showed that the effects of poverty on child literacy differed by ethnicity, culture, and gender.

Print illiteracy generally corresponds with less knowledge about modern health, hygiene, and nutritional practices, and a lack of knowledge can exacerbate a range of health issues.{{Cite journal |last=Puchner |first=Laurel D. |date=1 July 1995 |title=Literacy links: Issues in the relationship between early childhood development, health, women, families, and literacy |journal=International Journal of Educational Development |volume=15 |issue=3 |pages=307–319 |doi=10.1016/0738-0593(94)00041-M}} Within developing countries in particular, literacy rates also have implications for child mortality; in these contexts, children of literate mothers are 50% more likely to live past age 5 than children of illiterate mothers.{{Cite web |date=24 August 2015 |title=The Economic and Social Cost of Illiteracy: A Snapshot of Illiteracy in a Global Context |url=https://worldliteracyfoundation.org//wp-content/uploads/2015/02/WLF-FINAL-ECONOMIC-REPORT.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160421083037/http://worldliteracyfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/WLF-FINAL-ECONOMIC-REPORT.pdf |archive-date=21 April 2016 |access-date=2 May 2016 |publisher=World Literacy Foundation}} Therefore, public health research has increasingly focused on the potential for literacy skills to allow women to more successfully access healthcare and thereby facilitate gains in child health.{{Cite journal |last1=LeVine |first1=Robert A. |last2=Rowe |first2=Meredith L. |year=2009 |title=Maternal Literacy and Child Health in Less-Developed Countries: Evidence, Processes, and Limitations |url=http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:13041198 |journal=Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics |volume=30 |issue=4 |pages=340–349 |doi=10.1097/dbp.0b013e3181b0eeff |pmid=19672161 |s2cid=21609263|url-access=subscription }}

A 2014 descriptive research survey project correlates literacy levels with the socioeconomic status of women in Oyo State, Nigeria. The study shows that developing literacy in the region will bring "economic empowerment and will encourage rural women to practice hygiene, which will in turn lead to the reduction of birth and death rates."{{Cite journal |last1=Okoji |first1=O. F. |last2=Ladeji |first2=O. O. |year=2014 |title=Influence of Adult Literacy Education on Socio-Economic Empowerment of Rural Women in Oyo State, Nigeria |journal=Gender & Behaviour |volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=6016–6026}}

Literacy can increase job opportunities and access to higher education. In 2009, the National Adult Literacy Agency in Ireland commissioned a cost–benefit analysis of adult literacy training, which concluded that there were economic gains for the individuals, the companies they worked for, and the Exchequer, as well as the economy and the country as a whole (e.g., increased GDP).{{Cite web |title=Policy Brief on Adult Literacy Strategy |url=http://www.nala.ie/sites/default/files/press_release_image-2010-March/files/Policy%20Brief%20on%20Adult%20Literacy%20Strategy%202009.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723224750/http://www.nala.ie/sites/default/files/press_release_image-2010-March/files/Policy%20Brief%20on%20Adult%20Literacy%20Strategy%202009.pdf |archive-date=23 July 2011 |access-date=23 November 2011}}

Korotayev and coauthors found a rather significant correlation between the level of literacy in the early 19th century and successful modernization and economic breakthroughs in the late 20th century, as "literate people could be characterized by a greater innovative-activity level, which provides opportunities for modernization, development, and economic growth."{{Cite journal |last1=Korotayev |first1=Andrey |last2=Zinkina |first2=Julia |last3=Bogevolnov |first3=Justislav |last4=Malkov |first4=Artemy |year=2011 |title=Global Unconditional Convergence among Larger Economies after 1998? |url=http://www.sociostudies.org/journal/articles/140671/ |journal=Journal of Globalization Studies |volume=2 |issue=2}}

While informal learning within the home can play an important role in literacy development, gains in childhood literacy often occur in primary school settings. Continuing the global expansion of public education is thus a frequent focus of literacy advocates.{{rp|103–104}} These kinds of broad improvements in education often require centralized efforts by national governments; however, local literacy projects implemented by NGOs can play an important role, particularly in rural contexts.{{Cite journal |last1=Beckman |first1=Paula J. |last2=Gallo |first2=Jessica |date=October 2015 |title=Rural Education in a Global Context |url=http://ger.mercy.edu/index.php/ger/article/view/238 |journal=Global Education Review |volume=2 |issue=4 |page=7 |issn=2325-663X |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160625015250/http://ger.mercy.edu/index.php/ger/article/view/238 |archive-date=25 June 2016 |access-date=23 May 2016}}

Funding for both youth and adult literacy programs often comes from large international development organizations. USAID, for example, steered donors like the Gates Foundation and the Global Partnership for Education toward the issue of childhood literacy by developing the Early Grade Reading Assessment.{{Cite book |last1=Bartlett |first1=Lesley |title=Routledge handbook of international education and development |last2=Frazier |first2=Julia |year=2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-138-07076-9 |editor-last=McGrath |editor-first=Simon |chapter=Literacy and Development |editor-last2=Gu |editor-first2=Qing}} Advocacy groups like the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education have frequently called upon international organizations such as UNESCO, the International Labour Organization, the World Health Organization, and the World Bank to prioritize support for adult women's literacy.{{Cite journal |last1=Eldred |first1=Janine |last2=Robinson-Pant |first2=Anna |last3=Nabi |first3=Rafat |last4=Chopra |first4=Priti |last5=Nussey |first5=Charlotte |last6=Bown |first6=Lalage |date=2014-07-04 |title=Women's right to learning and literacy: Women learning literacy and empowerment |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03057925.2014.911999 |journal=Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education |volume=44 |issue=4 |pages=655–675 |doi=10.1080/03057925.2014.911999 |s2cid=143260440 |issn=0305-7925 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160701135029/http://www.learningandwork.org.uk/sites/niace_en/files/document-downloads/womensrighttoliteracy_web.pdf |archive-date=2016-07-01|url-access=subscription }}{{Moved resource|date=September 2023}} Efforts to increase adult literacy often encompass other development priorities as well; for example, initiatives in Ethiopia, Morocco, and India have combined adult literacy programs with vocational skills trainings in order to encourage program enrollment and address the complex needs of women (and other marginalized groups) who lack economic opportunities.{{Cite book |url=http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002225/222588e.pdf |title=Literacy programmes with a focus on women to reduce gender disparities: case studies from UNESCO Effective Literacy and Numeracy Practices Database |year=2013 |publisher=UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning |isbn=978-9-282-01182-9 |editor-last=Kairies |editor-first=Jan |location=Hamburg |access-date=2023-09-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180712193531/http://unesdoc.unesco.org:80/images/0022/002225/222588e.pdf |archive-date=2018-07-12 |url-status=live}}

In 2013, the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning published a set of case studies on programs that successfully improved female literacy rates. The report features countries from a variety of regions and differing income levels, reflecting the general global consensus on "the need to empower women through the acquisition of literacy skills."{{rp|7}} Part of the impetus for UNESCO's focus on literacy is a broader effort to respond to globalization and "the shift towards knowledge-based societies" that it has produced.{{Cite book |last=UNESCO |url=http://www.unesco.org/education/GMR2006/full/chapt7_eng.pdf |title=Education for All Global Monitoring Report |year=2006 |chapter=Mapping the Global Literacy Challenge |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190607022405/http://www.unesco.org/education/GMR2006/full/chapt7_eng.pdf |archive-date=2019-06-07}}{{Moved resource|date=September 2023}} While globalization presents emerging challenges, it also provides new opportunities. Many education and development specialists are hopeful that new ICTs will expand literacy learning opportunities for children and adults, even in countries that have historically struggled to improve literacy rates through more conventional means.{{rp|112}}

Although most people acquire literacy during childhood, it continues to develop throughout life;{{Cite journal |last1=Lechner |first1=Clemens M. |last2=Gauly |first2=Britta |last3=Miyamoto |first3=Ai |last4=Wicht |first4=Alexandra |date=2021-10-01 |title=Stability and change in adults' literacy and numeracy skills: Evidence from two large-scale panel studies |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886921003652 |journal=Personality and Individual Differences |volume=180 |pages=110990 |doi=10.1016/j.paid.2021.110990 |issn=0191-8869|url-access=subscription }} literacy is not a skill that is fixed once a person leaves school but remains malleable across the entire lifespan. Among adults, both gains and losses in literacy occur in roughly equal measure, sometimes over relatively short periods of a few years. Even adults with very low literacy levels can acquire literacy over time.{{Cite journal |last1=Wicht |first1=Alexandra |last2=Durda |first2=Tabea |last3=Krejcik |first3=Luise |last4=Artelt |first4=Cordula |last5=Grotlüschen |first5=Anke |last6=Rammstedt |first6=Beatrice |last7=Lechner |first7=Clemens M. |date=2021-03-12 |title=Low Literacy is not Set in Stone |url=https://www.beltz.de/fachmedien/erziehungswissenschaft/zeitschriften/zeitschrift_fuer_paedagogik/artikel/46091-low-literacy-is-not-set-in-stone.html |journal=Zeitschrift für Pädagogik |language=de |volume=67 |issue=1 |pages=109–132 |doi=10.3262/ZPB2101109 |issn=0514-2717|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite book |last=Brandt |first=Deborah |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/literacy-in-american-lives/A6CD534DE3AB84520D9F269781245B4B |title=Literacy in American Lives |year=2001 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-78315-6}} Whether a person experiences gains or losses depends on a range of factors, and one of the key factors are the demands and opportunities to engage in literary practices in the workplace, home, or other contexts.{{Cite journal |last1=Wicht |first1=Alexandra |last2=Rammstedt |first2=Beatrice |last3=Lechner |first3=Clemens M. |date=2021-01-02 |title=Predictors of Literacy Development in Adulthood: Insights from a Large-scale, Two-wave Study |journal=Scientific Studies of Reading |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=84–92 |doi=10.1080/10888438.2020.1751635 |issn=1088-8438 |s2cid=219100241}}{{Cite journal |last1=Reder |first1=Stephen |last2=Gauly |first2=Britta |last3=Lechner |first3=Clemens |date=2020-06-01 |title=Practice makes perfect: Practice engagement theory and the development of adult literacy and numeracy proficiency |journal=International Review of Education |volume=66 |issue=2 |pages=267–288 |bibcode=2020IREdu..66..267R |doi=10.1007/s11159-020-09830-5 |issn=1573-0638 |s2cid=219050030|doi-access=free }}

File:Youth and adult literacy rate, 2000–2016 and projections to 2030.svg

The Human Development Index, produced by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), uses education as one of its three indicators. Originally, adult literacy represented two-thirds of this education index weight. In 2010, however, the UNDP replaced the adult literacy measure with mean years of schooling. A 2011 UNDP research paper frames this change as a way to "ensure current relevance", arguing that gains in global literacy already achieved between 1970 and 2010 mean that literacy will be "unlikely to be as informative of the future."{{Cite web |last1=Jeni Klugman |last2=Francisco Rodriguez |last3=Hyung-Jin Choi |date=April 2011 |title=The HDI 2010: New Controversies, Old Critiques |url=http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/hdrp_2011_01.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160207085822/http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/hdrp_2011_01.pdf |archive-date=7 February 2016 |website=United Nations Development Programme |page=19}} Other scholars, however, have since warned against overlooking the importance of literacy as an indicator and goal for development, particularly for marginalized groups such as women and rural populations.{{Cite journal |last=Stromquist |first=Nelly |date=17 March 2016 |title=Adult Literacy and Women: A Present Account |url=http://journals.uncc.edu/index.php/DSJ/article/view/506 |journal=Dialogues in Social Justice |volume=1 |issue=1|doi=10.55370/dsj.v1i1.506 |doi-access=free }}

The World Bank, along with the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, has developed the Learning Poverty concept and an associated measure that measures the proportion of students who are unable to read and understand a simple story by age 10. In low- and middle-income countries, 53% of children are "learning-poor", as are up to 80% of children in poor countries.{{Cite web |title=Learning Poverty is a combined measure of schooling and learning. |url=https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/education/brief/what-is-learning-poverty |access-date=2021-07-01 |website=World Bank}} In fact, these new measures indicate that these high rates of illiteracy are an "early warning sign that SDG 4 for education and all related global goals are in jeopardy." Current progress in improving literacy rates is seen as much too slow to meet the SDG goals, as at the current rate, approximately 43% of children will still be learning poorly by 2030.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) assesses children on reading and math skills at age 15. PISA-D encourages and facilitates PISA testing in low- and middle-income countries.{{Cite web |title=PISA for Development |url=https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisa-for-development/ |access-date=2021-07-01 |website=www.oecd.org}} In 2019, "PISA-D results reveal exceptionally low scores for participating countries. Only 23 percent of students tested achieved the minimum level of proficiency in reading, compared with 80 percent of OECD."{{Cite web |date=30 January 2019 |title=PISA-D Reveals Exceptionally Low Learning |url=https://riseprogramme.org/blog/PISA-D_low_learning |access-date=2021-07-01 |website=RISE Programme }} Minimum proficiency requires students to "read 'simple and familiar texts and understand them literally', as well as demonstrating some ability to connect pieces of information and draw inferences."

The Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) assesses literacy, numeracy and problem solving for working age population ages 16 to 65.

In 2020, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics estimated the global literacy rate at 86.68%.{{Cite web |title=Literacy rate, adult total (% of people ages 15 and above)|url=https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/literacy-rate-adults?tab=chart |access-date=5 February 2023 |website=ourworldindata.org}} It is important to understand how literacy rates have been measured in the past as well as how they are currently being measured. Starting in 1975, the head of a household answered a simple yes-or-no question asking whether household members could read and write; in 1988, some countries started using self-reporting as well.{{Cite web |title=How is literacy measured? |url=https://ourworldindata.org/how-is-literacy-measured |access-date=2021-07-01 |website=Our World in Data|date=8 June 2018 |last1=Ortiz-Ospina |first1=Esteban |last2=Beltekian |first2=Diana }}

Self-reported data is subjective and has several limitations. First, a simple yes-or-no question does not capture the continuum of literacy. Second, self-reports are dependent on what each individual interprets "reading" and "writing" to mean. In some cultures, drawing a picture may be understood as writing one's name. Lastly, many of the surveys asked one individual to report literacy on behalf of others, which "introduces further noise, in particular when it comes to estimating literacy among women and children, since these groups are less often considered 'head of household'".

In 2007, several countries began introducing literacy tests as a more accurate measurement of literacy rates, including Liberia, South Korea, Guyana, Kenya, and Bangladesh. However, in 2016, the majority of counties still reported literacy through either self-reported measures or other indirect estimates.File:Students-in-grade-2-who-cant-read-a-single-word-ca-2015.png

These indirect measurements are potentially problematic, as many countries measure literacy based on years of schooling. In Greece, an individual is considered literate if they have finished six years of primary education, while in Paraguay, individuals are considered literate if they have completed just two years of primary school.

However, emerging research reveals that educational attainment (e.g., years of schooling) does not perfectly correlate with literacy. Literacy tests show that in many low-income countries, a large proportion of students who have attended two years of primary school cannot read a single word. These rates are as high as 90% of second-grade students in Malawi, 85.4% in rural India, 83% in Ghana, and 64% in Uganda.{{Cite web |title=Students in grade 2 who can't read a single word, ca 2015 |url=https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/students-in-grade-2-who-cant-read-a-single-word-ca-2015 |access-date=2021-07-01 |website=Our World in Data}} In India, over 50% of Grade 5 students have not mastered Grade 2 literacy. In Nigeria, only about 1 in 10 women who completed Grade 6 can read a single sentence in their native language.{{Cite journal |last1=Pritchett |first1=Lant |last2=Sandefur |first2=Justin |year=2020 |title=Girls' schooling and women's literacy: schooling targets alone won't reach learning goals |journal=International Journal of Educational Development |volume=78 |pages=102242 |doi=10.1016/j.ijedudev.2020.102242 |doi-access=free}} This data reveals that literacy rates measured by using years of schooling as a proxy are potentially unreliable and do not reflect the true literacy rates of populations.

Unlike medieval times, when reading and writing skills were restricted to a few elites and the clergy, literacy skills are now expected from every member of society.{{Cite journal |last=Benson Mkandwire |first=Sitwe |year=2018 |title=Literacy versus Language: Exploring their Similarities and Differences |journal=Journal of Lexicography and Terminology |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=37–55}} Literacy is therefore considered a human right, essential for lifelong learning and social change, as supported by the 1996 Report of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-First Century and the 1997 Hamburg Declaration:

{{blockquote|Literacy, broadly conceived as the basic knowledge and skills needed by all in a rapidly changing world, is a fundamental human right. (...) There are millions, the majority of whom are women, who lack opportunities to learn or who have insufficient skills to be able to assert this right. The challenge is to enable them to do so. This will often imply the creation of preconditions for learning through awareness raising and empowerment. Literacy is also a catalyst for participation in social, cultural, political and economic activities, and for learning throughout life.{{Cite conference |year=1997 |title=Adult education: the Hamburg Declaration; the Agenda for the Future |url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000116114 |conference=International Conference on Adult Education, 5th, Hamburg, Germany, 1997 |publisher=UNESCO Institute for Education |page=6 |access-date=2023-09-21}}{{Cite web |date=15 February 2018 |title=Fifth International Conference on Adult Education |url=http://uil.unesco.org/adult-education/confintea/fifth-conference |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211224203628/https://uil.unesco.org/adult-education/confintea/fifth-conference |archive-date=24 December 2021 |access-date=29 May 2019}}{{Cite book |last=Belalcázar |first=Carolina |url=http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002343/234325E.pdf |title=Mobile phones and literacy: Empowerment in Women's Hands; A Cross-Case Analysis of Nine Experiences |publisher=UNESCO |year=2015 |isbn=978-9-231-00123-9}}}}

In 2016, the European Literacy Policy Network (an association of European literacy professionals) published a document entitled the European Declaration of the Right to Literacy.{{Cite web |title=European literacy policy network (ELINET) |url=http://www.eli-net.eu |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201230113354/https://eli-net.eu/ |archive-date=30 December 2020 |access-date=22 March 2021}} It states that:

{{blockquote|Everyone in Europe has the right to acquire literacy. EU Member States should ensure that people of all ages, regardless of social class, religion, ethnicity, origin and gender, are provided with the necessary resources and opportunities to develop sufficient and sustainable literacy skills in order to effectively understand and use written communication be in handwritten, in print or digital form.{{Cite web |year=2016 |title=European Declaration of the Right to Literacy |url=https://elinet.pro/policy-statements/}}}}

{{Main|Reading#Teaching reading|Composition studies}}

{{globalize|section|date=April 2011}}

File:Brain pathways for mirror discrimination learning during literacy acquisition.jpg

In school, reading and writing are often taught as separate skills. However, children show curiosity about the written word and begin to experiment with both in a process of emergent literacy and making sense of (and using) the writing system they see used around them. Every new piece of writing draws on previous reading through a process of intertextuality, sometimes explicitly through citation, as in academic writing, and writing about reading is one of the major approaches for teaching writing in higher education.{{Cite book |last1=Spivey |first1=N. N. |title=Theoretical models and processes of reading |last2=King |first2=J. R. |year=1994 |publisher=International Reading Association |isbn=978-0-872-07502-3 |editor-last=Ruddell |editor-first=Robert B. |location=Newark, DE |pages=668–694 |chapter=Readers as writers compose from sources |editor-last2=Unrau |editor-first2=Norman}} Intertextuality, however, can also be implicit through well-known, recognizable phrases from specific works or genres or through the development of a distinct writing style. Evidence has supported the integration of reading and writing at all levels of schooling, as improvement in one area supports the other.{{Cite journal |last=Graham |first=Steve |date=September 2020 |title=The Sciences of Reading and Writing Must Become More Fully Integrated |journal=Reading Research Quarterly |volume=55 |issue=S1 |pages=S35–S44 |doi=10.1002/rrq.332 |s2cid=225214359 |issn=0034-0553}}{{Cite journal |last1=Graham |first1=Steve |last2=Liu |first2=Xinghua |last3=Aitken |first3=Angelique |last4=Ng |first4=Clarence |last5=Bartlett |first5=Brendan |last6=Harris |first6=Karen R. |last7=Holzapfel |first7=Jennifer |year=2018 |title=Effectiveness of Literacy Programs Balancing Reading and Writing Instruction: A Meta-Analysis |journal=Reading Research Quarterly |volume=53 |issue=3 |pages=279–304 |doi=10.1002/rrq.194|doi-access=free}} A series of metastudies have examined the effectiveness of various methods of teaching writing, revealing that attention to context, cognitive/motivational factors, and the instruction strategy, among other things, are important.{{Cite journal |last1=Graham |first1=S. |last2=Harris |first2=K. |last3=Santangelo |first3=T. |year=2015 |title=Research-based writing practices and the common core |journal=The Elementary School Journal |volume=115 |issue=4 |pages=498–522|doi=10.1086/681964 |s2cid=147028533}}{{Cite book |last1=Graham |first1=S. |title=Writing Next: Effective strategies to improve writing of adolescent middle and high school |last2=Perin |first2=D. |publisher=Alliance for Excellence in Education |year=2007 |location=Washington, D. C.}}

Critiques of autonomous models of literacy notwithstanding, the belief that reading development is key to literacy remains dominant, at least in the United States, where it is understood as the progression of skills that begins with the ability to understand spoken words and decode written words and culminates in the deep understanding of the text. Reading development involves a range of complex language underpinnings, including awareness of speech sounds (phonology), spelling patterns (orthography), word meaning (semantics), syntax, and patterns of word formation (morphology), all of which provide a necessary platform for reading fluency and comprehension. Once these skills are acquired, it is believed a reader can attain full language literacy, which includes the abilities to apply to printed material critical analysis, inference, and synthesis; to write with accuracy and coherence; and to use information and insights from text as the basis for informed decisions and creative thought.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

For this reason, teaching English reading literacy in the United States is dominated by a focus on a set of discrete decoding skills. From this perspective, literacy—or rather, reading—comprises a number of sub-skills that can be taught to students. These sub-skills include phonological awareness, phonics decoding, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. Mastering each of these sub-skills is necessary for students to become proficient readers.{{Cite book |last1=National Reading Panel (U.S.) |title=Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction: Reports of the Subgroups |last2=National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (U.S.) |publisher=National Institute of Child Health and Human Development National Institutes of Health |year=2000 |location=Washington, D. C. |oclc=47848860}}

From this same perspective, readers of alphabetic languages must understand the alphabetic principle to master basic reading skills. For this purpose, a writing system is "alphabetic" if it uses symbols to represent phonemes (individual language sounds),{{Cite web |date=23 April 2008 |title=Glossary of Reading Terms - The Cognitive Foundations of Learning to Read: A Framework |url=http://www.sedl.org/reading/framework/glossary.html |access-date=23 November 2011 |publisher=Sedl.org}} though the degree of correspondence between letters and sounds varies between alphabetic languages. Syllabic writing systems (such as Japanese kana) use a symbol to represent a single syllable, and logographic writing systems (such as Chinese) use a symbol to represent a morpheme.{{Cite web |last=Paul Halsall |title=Chinese Cultural Studies: Chinese Logographic Writing |url=http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/texts/chinlng4.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927232215/http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/texts/chinlng4.html |archive-date=27 September 2011 |access-date=23 November 2011 |publisher=Acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu}}

There are a number of approaches to teaching reading.{{Cite report |url=http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001257/125767eb.pdf |title=New approaches to literacy learning: A guide for teacher educators |last=Carter |first=V. Elaine |date=November 2000 |publisher=UNESCO}} Each is shaped by its assumptions about what literacy is and how it is best learned by students. Phonics instruction, for example, focuses on reading at the level of letters or symbols and their sounds (i.e., sublexical).{{Cite journal |last1=Ktori |first1=M. |last2=Mousikou |first2=P. |last3=Rastle |first3=K. |year=2018 |title=Sublexical: the parts of a word (i.e. letters, phonemes & graphemes), Cues to Stress Assignment in Reading Aloud, Journal of Experimental Psychology, 2018 |journal=Journal of Experimental Psychology. General |volume=147 |issue=1 |pages=36–61 |doi=10.1037/xge0000380 |pmc=5765884 |pmid=29309196}} It teaches readers to decode the letters, or groups of letters, that make up a word. A common method of teaching phonics is synthetic phonics, in which a novice reader pronounces each individual sound and blends them to pronounce the whole word. Another approach is embedded phonics instruction, used more often in whole language reading instruction, in which novice readers learn about the individual letters in words on a just-in-time, just-in-place basis that is tailored to meet each student's reading and writing learning needs. That is, teachers provide phonics instruction opportunistically, within the context of stories or student writing that feature repeat instances of a particular letter or group of letters. Embedded instruction combines letter-sound knowledge with the use of meaningful context to read new and difficult words.{{Cite web |title=Glossary |url=http://www.ldonline.org/glossary#E |access-date=23 November 2011 |publisher=LD OnLine}} Techniques such as directed listening and thinking activities can be used to aid children in learning how to read and in reading comprehension. For students at both primary and secondary levels, writing about what they read as they are learning to write has been found to also be effective in improving their reading skills.{{Cite book |last1=Graham |first1=S. |title=Writing to read: Evidence for how writing can improve reading. A Carnegie Corporation Time to Act Report |last2=Hebert |first2=M. A. |publisher=Alliance for Excellent Education |year=2010 |location=Washington, D. C.}}

The two most commonly used approaches to reading instruction are structured literacy instruction and balanced literacy instruction. The structured literacy approach explicitly and systematically focuses on phonological awareness, word recognition, phonics, decoding, spelling, and syntax at both the sentence and paragraph levels.{{Cite web |title=An Explanation of Structured Literacy, and a Comparison to Balanced Literacy |publisher=Iowa Reading Research Center |url=https://iowareadingresearch.org/blog/structured-and-balanced-literacy |access-date=2021-05-09 |website=iowareadingresearch.org}} The balanced literacy approach, as the name suggests, balances emphasis on phonics and decoding; shared, guided, and independent reading; and grapheme representations with context and imagery. Both approaches have their critics—those who oppose structured literacy claim that by restricting students to phonemes, their fluency development is limited; critics of balanced literacy claim that if phonics and decoding instruction are neglected, students will have to rely on compensatory strategies when confronted with unfamiliar text.{{efn|Compensatory strategies include memorizing words, using context to guess words, and even skipping ones they do not know.{{refn|{{Cite web |last=Hanford |first=Emily |title=How a flawed idea is teaching millions of kids to be poor readers |url=https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2019/08/22/whats-wrong-how-schools-teach-reading |access-date=2021-05-09 |website=www.apmreports.org}}}}}}

These strategies are taught to students as part of the balanced literacy approach based on a theory about reading development called the three-cueing system. As the name suggests, the three-cueing system uses three cues to determine the meaning of words: grapho-phonetic cues (letter-sound relationships); syntactic cues (grammatical structure); and semantic cues (a word making sense in context).{{cn|date=May 2024}} However, cognitive neuroscientist Mark Seidenberg and professor Timothy Shanahan do not support the theory. They say the three-cueing system's value in reading instruction "is a magnificent work of the imagination", and it developed not because teachers lack integrity, commitment, motivation, sincerity, or intelligence, but because they "were poorly trained and advised" about the science of reading. In England, the simple view of reading and synthetic phonics are intended to replace "the searchlights multi-cueing model".{{Cite web |last=Shanahan |first=Timothy |date=2019-04-01 |title=Is It a Good Idea to Teach the Three Cueing Systems in Reading |url=https://www.readingrockets.org/blogs/shanahan-literacy/it-good-idea-teach-three-cueing-systems-reading}}{{Cite book |last=Seidenberg |first=Mark |title=Language at the speed of light |year=2017 |publisher=Basic |isbn=978-0-465-08065-6 |pages=300–304}}{{Cite web |last=Hempenstall |first=Kerry |date=29 October 2017 |title=The three-cueing system in reading: Will it ever go away |url=https://www.nifdi.org/resources/hempenstall-blog/402-the-three-cueing-system-in-reading-will-it-ever-go-away |access-date=5 February 2023 |publisher=National Institute for Direct Instruction}}{{Specify |reason=Which source(s) do the quotes come from? |date=September 2023}}

In his 2009 book Reading in the Brain, cognitive neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene said "cognitive psychology directly refutes any notion of teaching via a 'global' or 'whole language' method." He goes on to talk about "the myth of whole-word reading", saying it has been refuted by recent{{when|date=September 2023}} experiments. "We do not recognize a printed word through a holistic grasping of its contours, because our brain breaks it down into letters and graphemes."{{Cite book |last=Dehaene |first=Stanislas |title=Reading in the Brain |date=2010-10-26 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-143-11805-3 |pages=222–228}}

However, a 2012 hypothesis proposed that reading might be acquired naturally, in the same manner as spoken language, if print is constantly available at an early age.{{Cite journal |last=Massaro |first=D. W. |year=2012 |title=Acquiring Literacy Naturally: Behavioral science and technology could empower preschool children to learn to read naturally without instruction |url=https://www.americanscientist.org/article/acquiring-literacy-naturally |journal=American Scientist |volume=100 |issue=4 |pages=324–333 |doi=10.1511/2012.97.324|url-access=subscription }} According to this theory, if an appropriate form of written text is made available before formal schooling begins, reading should be learned inductively, emerge naturally, and have no significant negative consequences. This proposal challenges the commonly held belief that written language requires formal instruction and schooling; thus, its success would change current views of literacy and schooling. Using developments in behavioral science and technology, Technology-Assisted Reading Acquisition (TARA), an interactive system, would enable young pre-literate children to accurately perceive and learn the properties of written language through simple exposure to the written form.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

In Australia, a number of state governments have introduced Reading Challenges to improve literacy. The Premier's Reading Challenge in South Australia, launched by Premier Mike Rann, has one of the highest participation rates in the world for reading challenges. It has been embraced by more than 95% of public, private, and religious schools.Center for National Policy, Washington DC, What States Can Do, 2 May 2012{{Full citation needed|date=September 2023}}

Programs have been implemented in regions that have an ongoing conflict or are in a post-conflict stage. The Norwegian Refugee Council Pack program has been used in 13 post-conflict countries since 2003. The program organizers believe that daily routines and otherwise predictable activities help ease the transition from war to peace. Learners can select one area of vocational training for a year-long period; they also complete required courses in agriculture, life skills, literacy, and numeracy. Results have shown that active participation and management of the members of the program are important to the success of the program. These programs share the use of integrated basic education, e.g., literacy, numeracy, scientific knowledge, local history and culture, native and mainstream language skills, and apprenticeships.

Although there is considerable awareness that language deficiencies, including a lack of proficiency, are disadvantageous to immigrants settling into a new country, there is a lack of pedagogical approaches to teaching literacy to migrant English-language learners (ELLs). Harvard scholar Catherine Snow called for the gap to be addressed: "The TESOL field needs a concerted research effort to inform literacy instruction for such children—to determine when to start literacy instruction and how to adapt it to the LS reader's needs."{{Cite journal |last=Snow |first=Catherine |date=Winter 2001 |title=Learning to Read in an L2 |journal=TESOL Quarterly |volume=35 |issue=4 |pages=599–601 |doi=10.2307/3588432 |jstor=3588432}} Recent developments to address the gap in teaching literacy to foreign language learners{{efn|See also: ESL}} have been ongoing, with promising results seen with a curricular framework from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, which integrates Teaching for Understanding.{{Cite web |last1=Pearson |last2=Pellerine |year=2010 |title=Teaching for Understanding in Higher Education: A Framework for Developing Literacy within a TESOL Context |url=http://marifa.hct.ac.ae/2010/100 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171022085359/http://marifa.hct.ac.ae/2010/100 |archive-date=22 October 2017}}

A series of pilot projects have been carried out in the Middle East and Africa,{{Cite web |title=How an educator from Nova Scotia uses cameras to teach English in Ethiopia |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/canadian-teacher-literacy-visual-arts-1.3635661|last=Patl|first=Anjuli|date= June 15, 2016}} and significant interest from the learners has been seen in the use of visual arts as springboards for literacy-oriented instruction. In one project, migrant women were provided with cameras and took the instructor on a walking tour of their village. There, they photographed places and activities that would later be used for writings about their daily lives—in essence, a narrative of life. Other primers for writing activities include painting, sketching, and other craft projects.

File:Sample sketch of milestone.jpg

In another series of pilot studies, alternatives to instructing literacy to migrant English-language learners were investigated,{{Cite web |last=Pellerine |first=Stephen |title=Alternative Literacy |url=http://stephenpellerin4.wixsite.com/altlit}} starting with simple trials aiming to test the effects of teaching photography to participants with no prior photography background and then painting and sketching activities that could later be integrated into a larger pedagogical initiative. In efforts to develop alternative approaches for literacy instruction utilizing visual arts, work was carried out with Afghan laborers, Bangladeshi tailors, Emirati media students, internal Ethiopian migrants (both laborers and university students), and a street child.{{Cite web |last=Perez |first=Andrea |title=Why every picture tells a story |url=http://www.elgazette.com/item/296-why-every-picture-tells-a-story.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170913135001/http://www.elgazette.com/item/296-why-every-picture-tells-a-story.html |archive-date=13 September 2017 |access-date=7 May 2017}}

File:Migrant Woman Reviewing Photography, Making Seletions for Writing.jpeg

It should be pointed out that in these challenging contexts, sometimes the teaching of literacy may have unforeseen barriers. The EL Gazette reported that in the trials carried out in Ethiopia, for example, it was found that all ten of the participants had problems with vision. In order to overcome this or avoid such challenges, preliminary health checks can help inform pre-teaching in order to better assist in the teaching and learning of literacy.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

Using a visual arts approach to literacy instruction can provide benefits by incorporating a traditional literacy approach (reading and writing) while also addressing 21st-century digital literacy through the use of digital cameras and posting images onto the web. Many scholars, such as Hutchison and Woodward, feel that it is necessary to include digital literacy under the traditional umbrella of literacy instruction, specifically when engaging second language learners.{{Cite journal |last1=Hutchison |last2=Woodward |date=March 2014 |title=A Planning Cycle for Integrating Digital Technology Into Literacy Instruction |journal=TOC |volume=67 |issue=6 |pages=455–464}}

A visual arts approach to literary instruction for migrant populations can also be blended with core curricular goals.

File:Integrating Content for Language Instruction to MELLs.jpg

A pressing challenge in education is the instruction of literacy to migrant English-language learners (MELLs), a term coined by Pellerine and not limited to English. "Due to the growing share of immigrants in many Western societies, there has been increasing concern for the degree to which immigrants acquire language that is spoken in the destination country".{{Citation |last=Tubergen |first=F. |title=Immigrant Integration: A Cross National Study |year=2006 |publisher=Scholarly Publishing}}

While learning literacy in one's first language can be challenging, the challenge becomes even more cognitively demanding when learning a second language. The task can become considerably more difficult when confronted by a migrant who has made a sudden change by immigrating and requires the second language immediately upon arrival. In most instances, a migrant will not have the opportunity to start school again in grade one and acquire the language naturally; instead, alternative interventions need to take place. In these cases, a visual arts approach can be helpful—taking a photo, sketching an event, or painting an image have been seen as effective ways to understand the intention of the learner as they can incorporate orality.Carre, Ingrid W. [https://www.proquest.com/openview/c5d89ddd6766117ebcaf9dd0243ae05a/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y "Visual Art and the Teaching of English as a Second Language."] Order No. 1383180 University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez (Puerto Rico), 1996. United States -- Puerto Rico: ProQuest. Web. 25 Jan. 2024{{Cite web |last1=Wirag |first1=Andreas |last2=Alfes |first2=Luisa |year=2021 |title=Using Visual Arts as a Tool to Foster the Four Language Skills |url=https://www.hltmag.co.uk/apr21/using-visual-arts |access-date=January 25, 2024}}

File:Including Orality.jpg

In the above image, from left to right:{{Cite journal |last1=Warschauer |first1=Mark |last2=Matuchniak |first2=Tina |date=March 2010 |title=New Technology and Digital Worlds: Analyzing Evidence of Equity in Access, Use, and Outcomes |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/0091732X09349791 |journal=Review of Research in Education |volume=34 |issue=1 |pages=179–225 |doi=10.3102/0091732X09349791 |s2cid=145400905 |issn=0091-732X|hdl=11059/15126 |hdl-access=free }}

• An image taken during a phototour of the participant's village. This image is of the individual at her shop with one of the products she sells: dung for cooking fuel. The image helps the instructor understand the realities of the participant's daily life, and most importantly, it gives the participant the opportunity to determine what is important to them.
• An image of a student explaining to a group and elaborating on a drawn series of milestones in her life. This student had a very basic ability and, with some help, was able to write brief captions under the images. While she speaks, her story is recorded to help her understand and develop it in the new language.
• A painting created by composite in a graphics editing program. With further training, participants can learn how to blend images, thereby introducing elements of digital literacy that are beneficial in many spheres of life in the 21st century.

In a study based in Ethiopia, participants were asked to rate their preference for activity on a scale of 1–10. The survey prompt was: "On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate photography as an activity that helped you get inspiration for your writing activities (think of enjoyment and usefulness)?" The activities used as primers for writing were rated, in order of preference:{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

• Photography: 97%
• Oral presentations/sharing your art: 92%
• Process painting: 84%
• Painting: 82%
• Sketching: 78%
• Gluing activities: 72%
• Stencil/tracing activities: 60%

More research would need to be conducted to confirm such trends.

Authorship programs have been successful in bringing student work together in book format as part of the program's culmination. These books can be used to document learning, and more importantly, to reinforce language and content goals.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

File:Covers for Authorship Initiatives to Promote Literacy via Visual Art with ELLs.jpg

The collection of such writings into books can trigger both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Feedback by students involved in such initiatives indicates that the healthy pressures of collective and collaborative work were beneficial.{{Cite journal |last1=Donaldson |first1=J. P. |last2=Bucy |first2=M. |date=2016 |title=Motivation and Engagement in Authorship Learning |journal=College Teaching |volume=64 |issue=3 |pages=130–138 |doi=10.1080/87567555.2015.1125842}}

{{see also|Literacy rate by country}}

File:Figure 2 Most illiterate persons in South Asia and Subsaharan Africa Reading the past writing the future.svg

On average, girls do better than boys at English, yet nearly one in ten young adult women have poor reading and writing skills in the UK in the 21st century, which seriously damages their employment prospects. Many are trapped in poverty but hide their lack of reading skills due to social stigma.{{Cite web |last=Coughlan |first=Sean |date=7 September 2018 |title=Kate Winslet warns of 'shame' of illiteracy |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-45435973 |website=BBC}}

Literacy is first documented to have occurred in the area of modern England on 24 September 54 BCE, when Julius Caesar and Quintus Cicero wrote to Marcus Cicero "from the nearest shores of Britain".{{Cite book |last=Tomlin |first=R. S. O. |title=Artefacts in Roman Britain: their purpose and use |year=2011 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-86012-3 |editor-last=Allason-Jones |editor-first=Lindsay |page=133 |chapter=Writing and Communication}} Literacy was widespread under Roman rule but became very rare, limited almost entirely to churchmen, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. In 12th and 13th century England, the ability to recite a particular passage from the Bible (Psalm 51) in Latin entitled a common law defendant to the benefit of clergy and trial before an ecclesiastical court, where sentences were more lenient, instead of a secular one, where hanging was a likely sentence. Thus, literate defendants often claimed the benefit of clergy, while an illiterate person who had memorized the psalm used in the literacy test could also claim the benefit of clergy.{{Cite book |last=Baker |first=John R. |title=An Introduction to English Legal History |publisher=Butterworths |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-406-93053-8 |location=London}}

Despite lacking a system of free and compulsory primary schooling, England reached near universal literacy in the 19th century as a result of shared, informal learning provided by family members, fellow workers, or benevolent employers. Even with near-universal literacy, the gap between male and female rates persisted until the early 20th century. Many women in the West during the 19th century were able to read but unable to write.{{Cite book |last=Lyons |first=Martyn |title=Books: A Living History |year=2011 |publisher=Getty |isbn=978-1-606-06083-4 |edition=2nd |location=Los Angeles |page=98}}

{{Unreferenced section|date=September 2023}}

Formal higher education in the arts and sciences in Wales, from the Middle Ages to the 18th century, was limited to the wealthy and the clergy. Following the Roman occupation and the conquest by the English, education in Wales was at a low point during the early modern period; in particular, formal education was only available in English while the majority of the population spoke only Welsh. The first modern grammar schools were established in Welsh towns such as Ruthin, Brecon, and Cowbridge. One of the first modern national education methods to use the native Welsh language was started by Griffith Jones in 1731. Jones became rector of Llanddowror in 1716 and remained there for the rest of his life. He organized and introduced a Welsh language-circulating school system, which was attractive and effective for Welsh speakers, while also teaching them English, which gave them access to broader educational sources. The circulating schools may have taught half the country's population to read. Literacy rates in Wales by the mid-18th century were one of the highest.

File:Adriaen van Ostade 007.jpg

File:Russa literacy 1897.jpg was illiterate (map of 1897 census literacy data).]]

The ability to read did not necessarily mean the ability to write. The 1686 church law (kyrkolagen) of the Kingdom of Sweden (modern Sweden, Finland, Latvia, and Estonia) made literacy compulsory, and by 1800, the percent of people able to read was close to 100%.{{Cite book |last=Bornstein, Mark H. |title=The SAGE Encyclopedia of Lifespan Human Development |year=2018 |publisher=National Institute of Child Health & Human Development |location=Bethesda, MD |isbn=978-1-506-30765-7}} This was directly dependent on the need to read religious texts in the Lutheran faith in Sweden and Finland; as a result, literacy in these countries was specifically focused on reading.{{Cite book |last=Lyons |first=Martyn |title=Books: A Living History |year=2011 |publisher=Getty |isbn=978-1-606-06083-4 |edition=2nd |location=Los Angeles |page=97}} However, as late as the 19th century, many Swedes, especially women, could not write. Iceland was an exception, as it achieved widespread literacy without formal schooling, libraries, or printed books via informal tuition by religious leaders and peasant teachers.

Historian Ernest Gellner argues that Continental European countries were far more successful in implementing educational reform because their governments were more willing to invest in the population as a whole.{{Cite book |last=Gellner |first=Ernest |title=Nations and Nationalism |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=1983 |isbn=978-0-801-49263-1 |location=Ithaca, NY}} Government oversight allowed countries to standardize curriculum and secure funding through legislation, thus enabling educational programs to have a broader reach.{{Cite book |last=Houston |first=Rab |title=Literacy in early modern Europe: culture and education, 1500-1800 |publisher=Routledge |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-582-36810-1 |edition=2nd}}

Although present-day concepts of literacy have much to do with the 15th-century invention of the movable type printing press, it was not until the Industrial Revolution of the mid-19th century that paper and books became affordable to all classes of industrialized society. Until then, only a small percent of the population was literate, as only wealthy individuals and institutions could afford the materials. Even {{As of|2008|alt=today}}, the cost of paper and books is a barrier to universal literacy in some developing nations.{{Cite web |title=Economic Issues No. 33 - Educating Children in Poor Countries |url=https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/issues/issues33/ |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=www.imf.org}}

On the other hand, historian Harvey Graff argues that the introduction of compulsory education was, in part, an effort to control the type of literacy the working class had access to. According to Graff, learning was increasing outside of formal settings (e.g., schools), and this uncontrolled reading could lead to increased radicalization of the populace. In his view, mass schooling was meant to temper and control literacy, not spread it.{{Cite book |last=Graff |first=Harvey J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AAj9sM99qekC&pg=PR26 |title=The literacy myth: cultural integration and social structure in the nineteenth century |publisher=Transaction Publishers |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-887-38884-2 |page=xxvi}} Graff also says, using the example of Sweden, that mass literacy can be achieved without formal schooling or instruction in writing.

{{main|Literacy in Canada}}

In the last 40 years, the rate of illiteracy in Mexico has been steadily decreasing. In the 1960s, because the majority of the residents of the federal capital were illiterate, the planners of the Mexico City Metro designed a series of unique icons to identify each station in the system in addition to its formal name. The INEGI's census data in 1970 showed a national average illiteracy rate of 25.8%, which had decreased to under 7% by the 2010 census. Mexico still has a gender educational bias—the illiteracy rate for women was 8.1% compared with 5.6% for men.{{Cite web |title=Analfabetismo. Cuéntame de México |url=http://cuentame.inegi.org.mx/poblacion/analfabeta.aspx?tema=P |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141021084934/http://cuentame.inegi.org.mx/poblacion/analfabeta.aspx?tema=P |archive-date=21 October 2014 |access-date=8 September 2014 |website=cuentame.inegi.org.mx}}

Rates differ across regions and states. The states with the highest poverty rate had greater than 15% illiteracy in 2010: 17.8% in Chiapas, 16.7% in Guerrero, and 16.3% in Oaxaca. In contrast, the illiteracy rates in the Federal District (now part of Mexico City) and in some northern states like Nuevo León, Baja California, and Coahuila were below 3% in the 2010 census (2.1%, 2.2%, 2.6%, and 2.6%, respectively).

{{main|Literacy in the United States}}

{{see also|Writing education in the United States}}

{{Expand section|date=September 2023}}

In 1964, Paulo Freire was arrested and exiled for teaching peasants to read.{{Cite web |last=Lownd |first=Peter |title=Freire's Life and Work |url=http://www.paulofreireinstitute.org/PF-life_and_work_by_Peter.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061210202602/http://www.paulofreireinstitute.org/PF-life_and_work_by_Peter.html |archive-date=2006-12-10 |website=Paulo Freire Institute at UCLA}} However, since democracy returned to Brazil, there has been a steady increase in the percentage of literate people.{{Cite book |last=Baer |first=Werner |title=The Brazilian economy: growth and development |year=2007 |publisher=L. Rienner |isbn=978-1-588-26475-6 |edition=6th |location=Boulder, CO |page=7}} Educators with the Axé project in the city of Salvador, Bahía, attempt to improve literacy rates among urban youth, especially youth living on the streets, through the use of cultural music and dances. Then, "they are encouraged to go on learning and become professional artists."{{Cite journal |last1=Bernhardt |first1=Anna Caroline |last2=Yorozu |first2=Rika |last3=Medel-Añonuevo |first3=Carolyn |year=2014 |title=Literacy and life skills education for vulnerable youth: What policy makers can do |journal=International Review of Education |volume=60 |issue=2 |pages=279–299 |bibcode=2014IREdu..60..279B |doi=10.1007/s11159-014-9419-z |s2cid=143930297}}{{rp|284}}

The literacy rates in Africa vary significantly between countries. The registered literacy rate in Libya was 86.1% in 2004,{{Cite web |title=Libya Adult literacy rate, 1960-2019 |url=https://knoema.com//atlas/Libya/topics/Education/Literacy/Adult-literacy-rate |access-date=2020-06-01 |website=Knoema}} and UNESCO says that the literacy rate in the region of Equatorial Guinea is approximately 95%,{{Cite web |date=2016-11-27 |title=Equatorial Guinea |url=http://uis.unesco.org/country/GQ |access-date=2020-06-01 |website=uis.unesco.org}}{{Cite web |title=Equatorial Guinea Adult literacy rate, 1960-2019 |url=https://knoema.com/atlas/Equatorial-Guinea/topics/Education/Literacy/Adult-literacy-rate?mode=amp |access-date=2020-06-01 |website=knoema.com}} while the literacy rate in South Sudan is approximately 27%.{{Cite web |date=2016-11-27 |title=South Sudan |url=http://uis.unesco.org/en/country/ss |access-date=2020-06-01 |website=uis.unesco.org}}

In sub-Saharan Africa, youth from wealthier families often have more educational opportunities to become literate than poorer youth, who may need to leave school because they are needed at home to farm or care for siblings. Additionally, the rate of literacy has not improved enough to compensate for the effects of demographic growth. As a result, the number of illiterate adults has risen by 27% over the last 20 years, reaching 169 million in 2010.{{Cite web |year=2012 |title=Information bulletin: School and teaching resources in sub-Saharan Africa |url=http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Documents/ib9-regional-education-africa-2012-en-v5.pdf |website=UNESCO}} Thus, out of the 775 million illiterate adults in the world in 2010, more than one fifth (20%) were in sub-Saharan Africa. The countries with the lowest levels of literacy in the world are also concentrated in this region, where adult literacy rates can be well below 50%.{{Cite web |year=2015 |title=Digital Services for Education in Africa |url=http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002318/231867e.pdf |website=UNESCO |page=17}}

The literacy rate in Algeria is 81.4%, attributable to the fact that education is compulsory and free up to age 17.{{cite web|last1=Singh|first1=Kishore|date=Jun 29, 2015|title=Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to education|url=http://daccess-ods.un.org/access.nsf/Get?Open&DS=A/HRC/29/30/Add.2&Lang=E|website=ohchr.org|access-date=Apr 5, 2025}}

Burkina Faso has a very low literacy rate of 28.7%, defined as anyone at least 15 years of age who can read and write.{{Cite web |title=National Population and Housing Census 2014 |url=https://www.ubos.org/wp-content/uploads/publications/03_20182014_National_Census_Main_Report.pdf |access-date=2023-09-18}} To improve the literacy rate, the government has received at least 80 volunteer teachers. A severe lack of primary school teachers causes problems for any attempt to improve the literacy rate and school enrollment.{{Cite web |title=Volunteer teachers combat illiteracy in Burkina Faso |url=http://www.africa.undp.org/content/rba/en/home/ourwork/povertyreduction/successstories/burkina-faso-illiteracy/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210510024914/https://www.africa.undp.org/content/rba/en/home/ourwork/povertyreduction/successstories/burkina-faso-illiteracy/ |archive-date=10 May 2021 |access-date=3 October 2014 |website=United Nations Development Programme |ref=UNDP}}

Egypt has a relatively high literacy rate. The adult literacy rate in 2010 was estimated at 72%.

The Ethiopians are among the first literate people in the world, having written, read, and created manuscripts in the ancient Ge'ez language (an Amharic language) since the 2nd century CE. All boys learned to read the Psalms around the age of 7. The national literacy campaign introduced in 1978 increased literacy rates to between 37% (unofficial) and 63% (official) by 1984.{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/ethiopiacountrys00ofca |title=Ethiopia: A Country Study |publisher=Library of Congress |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-844-40739-5 |editor-last=Ofcansky |editor-first=Thomas P. |location=Washington, D. C. |chapter=Literacy |editor-last2=Berry |editor-first2=LaVerle |chapter-url=http://countrystudies.us/ethiopia/73.htm}}

Guinea has a literacy rate of 41%, defined as anyone at least 15 years old who can read or write. Guinea was the first to use the Literacy, Conflict Resolution, and Peacebuilding (LCRP) project. This project was developed to increase agriculture production, develop key skills, resolve conflict, and improve literacy and numeracy skills. The LCRP worked within refugee camps near the border of Sierra Leone; however, this project only lasted from 1999 to 2001. There are several other international projects working within the country that have similar goals.{{Cite journal |last=McCaffery |first=Juliet |date=Dec 2005 |title=Using transformative models of adult literacy in conflict resolution and peacebuilding processes at community level: examples from Guinea, Sierra Leone and Sudan. |journal=Compare: A Journal of Comparative Education |volume=35 |issue=4 |pages=443–462 |doi=10.1080/03057920500368548 |s2cid=144494846}}

The literacy rate in Kenya among people below 20 years of age is over 70%, as the first 8 years of primary school are provided tuition-free by the government. In January 2008, the government began offering a limited program of free secondary education. Literacy is much higher among the young than among the older population, with the total being about 81.54% for the country. Most of this literacy, however, is at an elementary level—not secondary or advanced.{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}

{{main|Education in Mali}}

In Mali in 2015, the adult literacy rate was 33%, one of the lowest in the world, with males having a 43.1% literacy rate and females having a 24.6% rate.{{Cite web |title=Education Statistics |url=http://datatopics.worldbank.org/education/country/mali |access-date=2019-11-19 |website=datatopics.worldbank.org}} The government defines literacy as anyone at least 15 who can read or write. In recent years, the government of Mali and international organizations have taken steps to improve the literacy rate. The government recognized the slow progress and began creating ministries for basic education and literacy in their national languages in 2007; they also increased the education budget by 3%, when it was at 35% in 2007. The lack of literate adults causes the programs to be slowed—they need qualified female instructors, which is problematic as many men refuse to send female family members to be trained by male teachers.{{Cite news |date=17 April 2008 |title=Mali: Still a long way to go to meet adult literacy targets |work=IRIN |url=http://www.irinnews.org/report/77803/mali-still-a-long-way-to-go-to-meet--liteadultracy-targets |access-date=3 October 2014 |ref=IRIN}}

The adult literacy rate in Mauritius was estimated at 89.8% in 2011. Male literacy was 92.3%, and female literacy was 87.3%.{{Cite journal |year=2011 |title=2011 POPULATION CENSUS MAIN RESULTS |url=http://www.govmu.org/portal/goc/cso/ei977/pop2011.pdf |journal=Economic and Social Indicators |publisher=Statistics Mauritius |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141223170840/http://www.govmu.org/portal/goc/cso/ei977/pop2011.pdf |archive-date=23 December 2014 |access-date=22 January 2015}}

Niger has an extremely low literacy rate of 28.7%, in part due to the gender gap—men have a literacy rate of 42.9%, while for women it is only 15.1%. The Nigerien government defines literacy as anyone who can read or write over the age of 15. The Niass Tijāniyyah, a Sufi order, has started anti-poverty, empowerment, and literacy campaigns. The women in Kiota had not attempted to improve their education or economic standing until Saida Oumul Khadiri Niass, known as Maman and married to a leader of the Niass Tijaniyya, talked to men and women throughout the community, changing the community's beliefs on appropriate behavior for women. Maman's efforts have allowed women in Kiota to own small businesses, sell in the market, attend literacy classes, and organize small associations that can give microloans. Maman personally teaches children in and around Kiota, with special attention to girls. Maman has her students require instructor permission to allow the girls' parents to marry their daughters early, increasing the amount of education these girls receive as well as delaying marriage, pregnancy, and having children.{{Cite journal |last=Barnes |first=Shailly |year=2009 |title=RELIGION SOCIAL CAPITAL AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE SAHEL: THE NIASS TIJANIYYA IN NIGER |url=http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/39764466 |journal=Journal of International Affairs |volume=62 |issue=2 |pages=209–221 |access-date=8 November 2014}}

Senegal has a literacy rate of 49.7%, defined as anyone who is at least 15 and can read and write. However, many students do not attend school long enough to be considered literate. The government did not begin actively attempting to improve the literacy rate until 1971, when it gave the responsibility to the Department for Vocational Training at the Secretariat for Youth and Sports. This department, and those that followed, had no clear policy on literacy until the Department of Literacy and Basic Education was formed in 1986. The government of Senegal relies heavily on funding from the World Bank to fund its school system.{{Cite journal |last=Nordtveit |first=Bjorn |date=May 2008 |title=Producing Literacy and Civil Society: The Case of Senegal |url=http://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1034&context=cie_faculty_pubs |journal=Comparative Education Review |volume=52 |issue=2 |pages=175–198 |doi=10.1086/528761 |s2cid=54071719 |hdl=10722/57348 |hdl-access=free}}

There is no reliable data on the nationwide literacy rate in Somalia. A 2013 FSNAU survey indicates considerable differences per region, with the autonomous northeastern Puntland region having the highest registered literacy rate at 72%.{{Failed verification|date=September 2023}}

The Sierra Leone government defines literacy as anyone over the age of 15 who can read and write in English, Mende, Temne, or Arabic. Official statistics put the literacy rate at 43.3%. Sierra Leone was the second country to use the Literacy, Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding project. However, fighting near the city where the project was centered caused a delay until an arms amnesty was in place.

File:Schoolgirls in Bamozai.JPG of Afghanistan]] According to UNESCO, Afghanistan has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world. As of 2020, over 10 million youth and adults are illiterate. However, since 2016, the country has made significant progress. While in 2016–2017 the literacy rate was 34.8%, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics recently confirmed that it has increased to 43%. "That is a remarkable 8 percent increase." In addition, the literacy rate for youths aged 15–24 has substantially increased and now stands at 65%.

However, there are still a large number of people who lack literacy and opportunities to access continuing education. There is also a substantial gender gap: the literacy rate for men stands at 55%, while for women it is only 29.8%. The UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning has provided technical support to the government of Afghanistan since 2012, with the aim of improving the literacy skills of an estimated 1.2 million people.{{Cite web |date=2020-03-17 |title=Interview: "Literacy rate in Afghanistan increased to 43 per cent" |url=https://uil.unesco.org/interview-literacy-rate-afghanistan-increased-43-cent |access-date=2023-10-24 |website=uil.unesco.org |archive-date=5 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211205135342/https://uil.unesco.org/interview-literacy-rate-afghanistan-increased-43-cent |url-status=dead }}

To improve the literacy rate, the US military taught Afghan Army recruits how to read before teaching them how to fire a weapon. In 2009, US commanders estimated that as many as 65% of recruits may be illiterate.{{Cite news |last=Baron |first=Kevin |date=2009-12-10 |title=United States Training Plan for Afghanistan: Read First, Shoot Later |work=STARS AND STRIPES |url=https://www.stripes.com/news/u-s-training-plan-read-first-shoot-later-1.97205}}

{{main|Education in the People's Republic of China}}

The Chinese government conducts standardized testing to assess proficiency in Standard Chinese, known as Putonghua, but this is primarily for foreigners or those needing to demonstrate professional proficiency in the Beijing dialect. While literacy in Chinese can be assessed by reading comprehension tests, just as in other languages, historically, literacy has often been judged by the number of Chinese characters introduced during the speaker's schooling, with a few thousand considered the minimum for practical literacy.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

The CIA World Factbook says 96.7% of Chinese people are literate; however, social science surveys in China have repeatedly found that just over half the population of China is conversant in spoken Putonghua.{{Cite news |date=7 March 2007 |title=More than half of Chinese can speak mandarin |work=China View |url=http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-03/07/content_5812838.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070315211818/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-03/07/content_5812838.htm |archive-date=15 March 2007}}{{Cite news |date=6 September 2013 |title=Beijing says 400 million Chinese cannot speak Mandarin |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-23975037}} In classical Chinese civilization, access to literacy for all classes originated with Confucianism, where previously literacy was generally limited to the aristocracy, merchants, and priests.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

{{main|Literacy in India}}

Literacy is defined by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India as the ability of "a person aged 7 years and above to both write and read with understanding in any language." According to the 2011 census, the literacy rate stood at 74%.{{Cite book |title=2011 Census of India |publisher=Government of India |year=2011 |chapter=State of Literacy of Rural Urban Population}}

In 2023, the Iranian government stopped a literacy campaign that had begun in 1930, despite 9 million people still being reported as illiterate.{{Cite web |title=The literacy movement is facing a shortage of human resources |script-title=fa:نهضت سوادآموزی با کمبود نیروی انسانی مواجه است |url=https://www.irna.ir/news/85210851/ماموریت-های-نهضت-سوادآموزی-به-معاونت-آموزش-ابتدایی-واگذار-می-شود/}} The government reported that elementary school education cost 5–40 million toman (approximately US$12–95 or €11–89) per child per year,{{Cite web |title=The condition of receiving more than the approved tuition fees in non-government schools was announced |script-title=fa:شرط دریافت مبالغی بیش از شهریه مصوب در مدارس غیردولتی اعلام شد |url=https://www.eghtesadonline.com/n/3hq8 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230829100558/https://www.eghtesadonline.com/%D8%A8%D8%AE%D8%B4-%D8%B9%D9%85%D9%88%D9%85%DB%8C-30/733012-%D8%B4%D8%B1%D8%B7-%D9%85%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%BA%DB%8C-%D8%B4%D9%87%D8%B1%DB%8C%D9%87-%D9%85%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%A8-%D9%85%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%B3-%D8%BA%DB%8C%D8%B1%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%84%D8%AA%DB%8C |archive-date=2023-08-29 |access-date=2023-09-19}} and 27% of children did not sign up for first grade because of the cost.{{Cite web |title=27% of first graders have not registered |script-title=fa:۲۷ درصد کلاس اولی‌ها ثبت نام نکرده‌اند |url=https://ettelaat.com/0003aP |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230919042524/https://ettelaat.com/fa/news/13789/%DB%B2%DB%B7-%D8%AF%D8%B1%D8%B5%D8%AF-%DA%A9%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B3-%D8%A7%D9%88%D9%84%DB%8C%E2%80%8C%D9%87%D8%A7-%D8%AB%D8%A8%D8%AA-%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%85-%D9%86%DA%A9%D8%B1%D8%AF%D9%87%E2%80%8C%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%AF |archive-date=2023-09-19 |access-date=2023-09-19}}

File:Lao schoolgirls reading books.jpg girls sit outside their school reading.]]

Laos has the lowest level of adult literacy in all of Southeast Asia, other than East Timor.{{Cite web |title=Adult literacy rate (both sexes) (% aged 15 and above) |url=http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/indicators/6.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110513165357/http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/indicators/6.html |archive-date=13 May 2011 |access-date=2023-09-24 |website=International human development indicators}}

Obstacles to literacy vary by country and culture, as writing systems, quality of education, availability of written material, competition from other sources (television, video games, cell phones, and family obligations), and culture all influence literacy levels. In Laos, which has a phonetic alphabet, reading is relatively easy to learn—especially compared to English, where spelling and pronunciation rules are filled with exceptions, and Chinese, with thousands of symbols to be memorized. However, a lack of books and other written materials has hindered functional literacy in Laos.{{Cite web |last=Daniel G. Dorner |first=G. E. Gorman |title=Contextual factors affecting learning in Laos and the implications for information literacy education |url=https://informationr.net/ir/16-2/paper479.html |access-date=2024-06-07 |website=informationr.net |language=en}} Many children and adults read so haltingly that the skill is hardly beneficial.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

A literacy project in Laos addresses this by using what it calls "books that make literacy fun!" The project, Big Brother Mouse, publishes colorful, easy-to-read books, then delivers them during book parties at rural schools. Some of the books are modeled on successful western books by authors such as Dr. Seuss; the most popular, however, are traditional Laotian fairy tales. Two popular collections of folktales were written by Siphone Vouthisakdee, who comes from a village where only five children finished primary school.{{Cite news |last=Krausz |first=Tibor |date=21 February 2011 |title=Publishing Children's Books and Delivering Them by Elephant |work=Christian Science Monitor |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Making-a-difference/2011/0221/Publishing-children-s-books-and-delivering-them-by-elephant |access-date=25 December 2013}}

Big Brother Mouse has also created village reading rooms and published books for adult readers about subjects such as Buddhism, health, and baby care.{{Citation |last=Wells |first=Bonnie |title=Picturing Laos |date=27 August 2010 |publisher=Amherst Bulletin}}

{{Unreferenced section|date=September 2023}}

In Pakistan, the National Commission for Human Development aims to bring literacy to adults, especially women. While speaking at a function held in connection with International Literacy Day, Islamabad Director Kozue Kay Nagata said:

{{blockquote|Illiteracy in Pakistan has fallen over two decades, thanks to the government and people of Pakistan for their efforts working toward meeting the Millennium Development Goals. Today, 70 percent of Pakistani youths can read and write. In 20 years, illiterate population has been reduced significantly.}}

She also emphasized the need to do more to improve literacy in the country, saying:

{{blockquote|The proportion of population in Pakistan lacking basic reading and writing is too high. This is a serious obstacle for individual fulfillment, to the development of societies, and to mutual understanding between peoples.}}

Referring to the recent national survey carried out by the Ministry of Education, Trainings and Standards in Higher Education with the support of UNESCO, UNICEF, and provincial and area departments of education, Nagata pointed out that in Pakistan, although 70% of children finish primary school, a gender gap still exists as 68% of girls finish compared to 71% of boys.

Referring specifically to Punjab, she said that while the primary school completion rate is higher at 76%, there is a gender gap of 8 percentage points: 72% of girls compared to 80% for boys. She also noted that the average cost per primary school student (ages five–nine) was higher in Punjab at Rs 6,998 (approximately US$24 or €22.5).

In Balochistan, although almost the same amount (Rs 6,985) is spent per child as in Punjab, the primary school completion rate is only 53%: 54% for girls and 52% for boys.

The Literate Pakistan Foundation, a non-profit organization established in 2003, is a case study bringing to light solutions for improving literacy rates in Pakistan. Their data shows that in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the primary school completion rate is 67%, which is lower than the national average of 70%. Furthermore, a gender gap exists, with only 65% of girls completing primary school compared to 68% of boys. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the education expenditure per student at the primary school level (age five–nine) is Rs 8,638 ($30, €28).

In Sindh, the primary school completion rate is 63%, with a gender gap of 67% of girls completing primary school compared to 60% of boys.{{Clarify|date=September 2023|reason=Are these rates reversed?}} In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the education expenditure per student at the primary school level (age five–nine) is Rs 5,019 ($17.50, €16.50).

Nagata, referencing the report, said that the most common reason for children ages 10–18 (both boys and girls) leaving school is "the child [is] not willing to go to school", which may be related to quality and learning outcome. She added that the second-highest reason for girls living in rural communities dropping out is that their "parents did not allow" them to continue school, which might be related to prejudice and cultural norms surrounding girls.

{{main|Baybayin}}

About 91.6% of Filipinos ages 10–64 were functionally literate in 2019, according to the results of the 2019 Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey; this translates to around 73.0 million out of the population of 79.7 million.

Starting in 300 BCE, early Filipinos devised and used their own writing system derived from the Brahmic family of scripts of ancient India. Baybayin became the most widespread of these derived scripts by the 11th century. Early chroniclers, who came during the first Spanish expeditions to the islands, noted the proficiency of some of the natives, especially the chieftain and local kings, in Sanskrit, Old Javanese, Old Malay, and several other languages.{{Cite web |title=Viasat vs HughesNet Satellite Internet |url=http://bibingka.com/dahon/lci/lci.htm}}{{Cite web |year=2003 |title=Over the edge of the world: Magellan's terrifying circumnavigation of the globe |url=https://archive.org/details/overedgeofworl00berg}}

During the Spanish colonization of the islands, reading materials were destroyed far less than during the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Education and literacy were introduced solely to the Peninsulares and remained a privilege until the arrival of Americans, who introduced a public school system to the country, and English became the lingua franca in the Philippines. During the brief Japanese occupation of the Philippines, the Japanese were able to teach their language and teach the children their written language.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

{{main|Education in Sri Lanka}}

File:Sarachchandra Theatre.jpg's Sarachchandra open-air theatre, named in memory of Ediriweera Sarachchandra, Sri Lanka's premier playwright]]

With a literacy rate of 92.5%, Sri Lanka has one of the most literate populations among developing nations.{{Cite journal |last=Gunawardena |first=Chandra |year=1997 |title=Problems of Illiteracy in a Literate Developing Society: Sri Lanka |journal=International Review of Education |volume=43 |issue=5/6 |pages=595–609 |bibcode=1997IREdu..43..595G |doi=10.1023/A:1003010726149 |jstor=3445068 |s2cid=142788627}} Its youth literacy rate stands at 98%, its computer literacy rate at 35%,{{Cite web |title=Govt targets 75% computer literacy rate by 2016 |url=http://archives.dailynews.lk/2011/07/29/cdnstory.asp?sid=20110705_01 |website=The Daily News}} and its primary school enrollment rate at over 99%.{{Cite web |title=Sri Lanka – Statistics |url=http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/sri_lanka_statistics.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180830142313/https://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/sri_lanka_statistics.html |archive-date=30 August 2018 |access-date=2 August 2017 |publisher=UNICEF}} An education system that dictates nine years of compulsory schooling for every child is in place. The free education system, established in 1945,{{Cite book |last=De Silva |first= K. M. |title=A Short History of Sri Lanka |publisher=University of California Press |year=1981 |isbn=978-0-520-04320-6 |location=Los Angeles |page=472}} is a result of the initiative of C. W. W. Kannangara and A. Ratnayake.{{Cite web |title=Honouring the Father of Free Education |url=http://archives.dailynews.lk/2009/06/08/fea26.asp |website=The Daily News}}{{Cite web |title=Who was "Father" of free education in Sri Lanka?: C.W.W. Kannangara or A. Ratnayake? |url=http://transcurrents.com/tc/2009/10/who_was_father_of_free_educati.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304065821/http://transcurrents.com/tc/2009/10/who_was_father_of_free_educati.html |archive-date=4 March 2016 |access-date=21 November 2012 |publisher=Trans Currents |df=dmy-all}} Sri Lanka is one of the few countries in the world that provides universal free education from the primary to the tertiary stage.{{Cite web |title=Education: Traditional and Colonial Systems |url=http://countrystudies.us/sri-lanka/46.htm |publisher=Library of Congress Country Studies}}

A 2016–2017 survey of adult skills conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on behalf of the OECD found that one in five adults of working age has low literacy skills, numeracy skills, or both.{{Cite book |title=Building skills for all in Australia: policy insights from the Survey of Adult Skills |year=2017 |publisher=OECD |isbn=978-9-264-28111-0|location=Paris}} The Australian Early Development Census National Report for 2021 reported that 82.6% of five-year-olds are on track to develop good language and cognitive skills.{{Cite web |title=2021 AEDC National Report |url=https://www.aedc.gov.au/resources/detail/2021-aedc-national-report |access-date=2023-04-04 |website=www.aedc.gov.au}} In 2012–2013, Australia had 1515 public library service points, lending almost 174 million items to 10 million members at an average per capita cost of just under AU$45.{{Cite web |last=Said |first=Aimee |date=2023-03-17 |title=Annual Australian public libraries statistics |url=https://www.nsla.org.au/resources/public-libraries-statistics/ |access-date=2023-04-04 |website=National and State Libraries Australasia }} By 2020–2021, this had increased to a total of 1690 library outlets with just over 9 million registered or active members.

{{cmn|

• {{Annotated link |Reading#Balanced literacy|Balanced literacy}}
• {{Annotated link |Book desert}}
• {{Annotated link |International Literacy Day}}
• {{Annotated link |International Literacy Foundation}}
• {{Annotated link |Legal awareness|Legal literacy}}
• {{Annotated link |List of countries by literacy rate}}
• {{Annotated link |Literacy in the United States}}
• {{Annotated link |Postliterate society}}
• {{Annotated link |Psychological literacy}}
• {{Annotated link |Right to education}}
• {{Annotated link |Reading#Structured Literacy|Structured literacy}}
• {{Annotated link |Reading#Teaching reading|Teaching reading}}

}}

{{notelist}}

{{reflist|1=30em}}

• {{Free-content attribution

| title = Reading the past, writing the future: Fifty years of promoting literacy

| author = UNESCO

| publisher = UNESCO

| page numbers = 21–23, 26

| source = UNESCO

| documentURL = http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002475/247563e.pdf

| license statement URL = http://www.unesco.org/ulis/cgi-bin/ulis.pl?catno=247563&set=0058F76FD3_3_282&gp=1&lin=1&ll=1

| license = CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0

}}

• {{Free-content attribution

| title = Mobile phones and literacy: Empowerment in Women's Hands; A Cross-Case Analysis of Nine Experiences

| author = UNESCO

| publisher = UNESCO

| page numbers = 22-23

| source = UNESCO

| documentURL = http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002343/234325E.pdf

| license statement URL = http://www.unesco.org/ulis/cgi-bin/ulis.pl?catno=234325&set=0058F07C09_0_256&gp=1&lin=1&ll=1

| license = CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0

| howto = hide

}}

• {{Free-content attribution

| title = Digital Services for Education in Africa

| author = UNESCO

| publisher = UNESCO

| page numbers = 17

| source = UNESCO

| documentURL = http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002318/231867e.pdf

| license statement URL = http://www.unesco.org/ulis/cgi-bin/ulis.pl?catno=231867&set=0058F47E4D_2_3&gp=1&lin=1&ll=1

| license = CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0

| Editors =

| howto = hide

}}

• Graff, Harvey J. The legacies of literacy : continuities and contradictions in western culture and society (Indiana University Press, 1986)
• Graff, Harvey J. The Literacy Myth: Literacy and Social Structure in the Nineteenth Century City (Academic Press, 1979).
• Guzzetti, Barbara, ed. Literacy in America: An Encyclopedia of History, Theory, and Practice (ABC-CLIO, 2002)
• Hunter, Carman St. John, and David Harman. Adult Illiteracy in the United States: A Report to the Ford Foundation (McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1979).
• {{Cite web |last=Mustafa |first=Ghulam |date=30 October 2022 |title=The Pakistani Education System – An Overview of the Current Situation |url=https://waziranlost.com/the-pakistani-education-system-and-its-overview/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221105110115/https://waziranlost.com/the-pakistani-education-system-and-its-overview/ |archive-date=5 November 2022 |website=Waziranlost}}
• {{Cite journal |last1=Roser |first1=Max |last2=Ortiz-Ospina |first2=Esteban |date=2016 |title=Literacy |url=https://ourworldindata.org/literacy |journal=Our World in Data}}
• Snyder, Tom, ed. 120 Years of American Education: A Statistical Portrait (National Center for Education Statistics, 1993). [https://nces.ed.gov/pubs93/93442.pdf online]

{{Wiktionary}}

{{Commons category}}

• [https://www.unesco.org/en/literacy UNESCO Literacy Portal]
• [https://uil.unesco.org/literacy/effective-practices-database-litbase UNESCO Effective Literacy and Numeracy Practices Database – LitBase] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151122033938/http://www.unesco.org/uil/litbase/?menu=4&programme=15 |date=22 November 2015 }}
• [https://sites.gsu.edu/csal/ Center for the study of adult literacy] at Georgia State University
• [https://www.thedaln.org/ The Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives]
• [https://www.literacyassessment.co.uk/ Literacy Assessment Online] at Edukey Education
• [https://literacytrust.org.uk/ National Literacy Trust]
• [https://archive.today/20121223224312/http://www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/nationalstrategies/primary/literacysubjectarea The National Strategies for Primary Literacy] (archived 23 December 2012)

{{Literacy|state=uncollapsed}}

{{Dyslexia}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Applied linguistics

Category:Learning to read

Category:Reading (process)

Category:Writing