Adult Literacy A Review of International Experience Mae Chu Chang The World Bank 21 June 2011, Jakarta

Outline  The Current Situation and History of Adult Literacy  How Effective are Literacy Programs?  Why are Literacy Outcomes still Modest?  Issues, Recommendations and Lessons Learned 2

The Current Situation and History of Adult Literacy 3

Who is illiterate?  Over 793 million adults (15+) worldwide.  Over 500 million of these are women.  Nearly 70 percent are in E-9 countries.  Most are unschooled, some illiterate because of early drop-out or poor schooling. 4 History of Adult Literacy Source: UIS Literacy database as in June 2011

Government spending on adult literacy programmes is low Source: CONFINTEA VI report, Education Sector Plan, MoF Budget.

A tiny fraction of Gross National Income is devoted to adult education and literacy CountryYearPublic spending on adult literacy as % of GNI (estimate) Senegal Pakistan2009/ India South Africa Brazil Indonesia Colombia Thailand

Adult Literacy: Important… but disappointing history  Analysis of 32 World Bank and non-World Bank Literacy projects…  Reveals that progress in last few decades has been uneven and inadequate.  In these, 50 percent participants dropped out, of the remaining, 50 percent dropped back into illiteracy.  Overall, lots of government-led, top-down, brief courses without follow up… Efficiency rates = 12.5% 7 History of Adult Literacy

New Strategies in 1990s based on past experience History of Adult Literacy 8 Focus on Demand Limit Government Role to standard- setting Emphasize NGOs/Community for better outreach Better textbooks Instruction in local language

How Effective are Literacy Programs? 9

Outcomes of the 90s projects 10 Efficient? Efficacy and efficiency were modest… Sustainable? …and sustainability was not evaluable. Issues Less than adequate Monitoring Systems No attention paid to instructional effectiveness Effectiveness

Findings from the 90s projects: Unreliable/Incomplete Data Not enough standardized information available globally. (E.g – Primary Education) Unclear information on how many people entered programs and emerged literate. Large variance in test pass rates (5% - 88%).Relapse into illiteracy seems significant 11 Effectiveness

Findings from the 90s projects: Drop out/Graduation rates High enrollment when programs open. Relatively low/irregular attendance and disappointing completion rates. Demand exists but content may not meet needs of students (among other factors). 12 Effectiveness

Findings from the 90s projects: Reading Achievement + Social Benefits Indonesia: Approx. 30% more people could read after completing the program. Kenya: 51% of sampled graduates could read and understand simple sentences. Mexico: 29% of graduates reported they had learned to read successfully. Increased willingness to send own children to school. 13 Effectiveness

Findings from the 90s projects: Cost of Adult Literacy Programs Limited returns on investment Costs: Per ‘completor’ ($11 - $74) Per successful learner ($37 - $175) Teacher pay – should be competitive for sustainable programs. 14 Effectiveness

Why are literacy outcomes still modest? Some insights from research on cognitive neuroscience 15

Literacy participants are usually poor and female who face significant social and family problems  The neuro-cognitive basis of reading  The importance of reading speed  Instructional time use 16 But children become literate under similar circumstances. What else may account for the outcomes? Research

How does reading and comprehension work? Complex Biology To decipher and understand a message we need:  The brain pathways controlling fluency to function  Enough language knowledge to match letters and sounds  A sense of where words start and end (phonological awareness)  A good enough short-term memory to keep the message that has been read 17 Research

How Do We Remember? 18 About 7 items, 4 pictures Long-term memory 12 seconds at most All you have stored, Infinite capacity Short-term (working memory) What is in your mind right now Entryway Research

What are the implications for Literacy? 19 To understand a sentence we must read it within the 12 seconds deadline of our working (short-term) memory. Read too slowly and you forget by the end of the sentence what you read in the beginning. Research

How are you managing to read this, with only a 12 second short term memory?  Your brain creates larger chunks (words or phrases instead of individual letters) that pass as one through the working memory  Initially, learners process small syllables, then words.  With practice comes automaticity Research 20

Practice in Youth configured your brain for Automaticity  Can you read this? 21  Why? Research

A learner may see just jumbles of letters, some incorrectly… T h e g r o u p c o m m i t e e w i l l w o r k h a r d t o d e v e l o p n e w p r o d u c t s a n d s e l l t h e m t o t h e m a r k e t a t g o o d p r i c e s w i t h c r e d i t f r o m t h e s a v i n g s b a n k Research 22

Letter-by-letter readers fill the working memory with letters. They run out of working memory! Research 23 To be literate: it is necessary to work within the limits of the working memory.

Adults learning to read seem to have difficulty attaining automaticity  The brain “cuts off” unneeded circuits at various times until maturity “critical” periods for acquiring some skills  During adolescence we may lose the ability to recognize new letters within milliseconds  We may all become dyslexic as adults in terms of learning new languages!  Issue not well researched Research

So, what are the requirements for Functional Literacy?  To read an average sentence in an ‘average’ language roughly.. 7 items in 12 seconds…  Students must read at least a word per second  words per minute  with 95% accuracy  Minimal criterion to reach in literacy classes 25 Research

What we need to be fully literate: Automaticity! Fluency! A miracle state A special brain pathway gets activated:  The brain identifies entire words rather than single letters  Each word or phrase becomes an item  Letters are recognized within milliseconds  Speed easily rises to 200+ words per minute  People can’t help but read  Pay attention to message rather than the print  Automatized reading is not normally forgotten 26 Research

Adult Literacy Instruction should focus on:  Increasing speed and accuracy, objectives that are usually not central in literacy courses.  Literacy tests should be timed. 27

How is instructional time in literacy classes used? Class cancellations  Teacher absenteeism Late arrivals, early departures  Student absenteeism  Dropout and re-enrollment  Limited engagement in reading practice in class How much time do learners really spend reading? 28 Research

A lot of time is wasted… students don’t spend enough time reading 29 Research Class time as allocated by a government or NGO program (e.g. 900 hours or 9 months). Time remaining after class cancellations (teacher absence, weather, extra holidays) Time remaining after delayed teacher arrivals. Time remaining after student absenteeism. Class time devoted to any learning task (e.g. listening to others read). Time students engaged in reading

Issues, Recommendations and Lessons Learned

Instruction and Information Processing The Forgotten Variables  Peculiarity of human memory may be at the root of limited performance of literacy programs.  More attention required for instructional variables, quality and effectiveness issues.  More scientific research is required. And Governments and Development agencies need to work with researchers.  Adult literacy experts worldwide typically lack training in cognitive science. 31 Issues

Better targeting for improved outcomes 32 Different classes for different levels of readers Emphasize individual needs Low quality primary education implies need for more targeted approach.

Lessons Learned 33 Achievement undermined by dropout and poor instruction. Attention to scientific research is necessary. Stand-alone projects more likely to work.

Lessons Learned 34 Long term financial commitment is required for success. Government training, NGO supervision and Community Participation Better Monitoring and evaluation.