The following major provisions of the National Literacy Act of 1991 are described: increase authorization for literacy programs; establish a National Institute for Literacy; authorize state literacy resource centers; create national work force demonstrations; amend basic state grants; revise the Even Start Family Literacy Programs; and authorize…

The Family Support Act of 1988 requires each state to set up a Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Program (JOBS) to provide a work/education/training program for recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) by October 1, 1990. The law provides a broad outline for JOBS leaves the critical decisions to the states; hence, the major…

JurisLIT was a literacy training effort operated jointly by the Sacramento County Probation Department, the Sacramento County Office of Education, the Los Rios Community College District, and the Superior and Municipal Courts of Sacramento County from March 1990 to March 1994. The program required selected probationers aged 18-30 to participate in…

Human survival means more than purely physical survival. Human beings, because of language, also have a cultural nature that must survive. In today's world, all speak, but more than one-fourth of the world's people--and more than half in developing nations--do not have the uniquely human capacity of reading and writing. The diffusion of literacy…

International Literacy Year (1990), sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), is a time of great hope and unique opportunity. It is intended to convey two essential messages: (1) education matters and will be decisive in shaping the future of individuals and societies; and (2) there is an urgent…

There is a close connection between illiteracy and poverty at all levels--global, national, and subnational; the countries with the lowest levels of literacy are also the poorest economically. Poverty breeds illiteracy by forcing children to drop out of school to work, and these illiterate people are forced to stay on the lowest levels of the work…

This paper describes the literacy education work being done by two agencies, the Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA) and the Canadian Organization for Development through Education (CODE). SIDA strives to promote economic growth, economic and social equality, economic and political independence, democratic development, the use of…

The Arizona Adult Literacy and Technology Resource Center and the University of Tennessee's Center for Literacy Studies undertook a collaborative project to explore the feasibility and effectiveness of regional sharing of resources and expertise in field of adult education and literacy education. The project's goals were as follows: involve a…

Intended for planners of adult education curriculums, this literature review explains the concepts involved in designing an adult education program, provides information about the roles of the people involved in the adult education process, cites some program planning models, and applies the program planning principles to an Adult Basic Education…

Scouting is an expanding worldwide youth movement, with more than 16 million members in 169 countries and territories. Its goal is to contribute to the physical, intellectual, social, and spiritual development of young people. Since participation in development is one of the cornerstones of their program, scouts cannot ignore the challenge that…

A number of counter-assumptions can be posited to challenge the usual basic assumptions of the professional literacy establishment. These counter-assumptions include the following: (1) literacy is not just a technical skill neutral across all cultures; (2) culture refers to basic questions about truth and knowledge and varies from one society to…

Changes in colleges of further education over recent years, including the involvement of a much wider range of students, mean that provision of basic skills has become an important issue for most colleges in England and Wales. Some colleges provide no basic skills support for students; others have some support for students; and still others also…

The importance of research in literacy is that it provides some routes to greater efficiency in literacy provision. Research from the past shows how important reading and writing have been over the centuries. Literacy was often invested with social and moral power as well, and religious literacy was the predominant form of reading and writing from…

Volunteers and voluntary organizations are crucial to the literacy effort throughout the world. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are ideal channels for direct involvement of the people in literacy efforts. NGOs often directly carry out the teaching of reading, writing, and numeracy programs; government efforts usually involve such…

In 1987, the department of Rio San Juan was declared the first "illiteracy-free territory" in Nicaragua, since it had reduced its rate of illiteracy from 96 percent in 1979 to 3.7 percent. This regional literacy crusade was made possible by the facts that the necessary facilities had been provided; a network of consultative committees…