The eradication of illiteracy in Russia has a lengthy history but a systematic literacy campaign began only after the revolution of 1917. The literacy problem was considered to be solved two decades later. Success was due to the following factors: (1) illiterate people were eager to learn; (2) the eradication of illiteracy and preparation for…

The overall illiteracy rate has been in sharp decline in Latin America, falling from 27.3 percent in 1970 to 17.3 percent in 1985. However, the total number of illiterate people has remained practically stable over the same period. Overall literacy rates tend to increase with the rurality of the population, the proportion of women, the absence of…

The national language of Indonesia is Bahasa Indonesia, although there are hundreds of languages and dialects spoken by different ethnic groups. In 1977, more than 26 million Indonesians were illiterate in their national language. Present efforts to eradicate illiteracy include construction of 10,000-15,000 primary schools annually since 1973 and…

Literacy in China is mainly concerned with illiteracy in rural areas. Therefore, reforming literacy education is largely a problem of how to eliminate rural literacy within the general framework of reform in contemporary China. From 1949 to 1988, the illiteracy rate among the population decreased from 80 percent to 20 percent. There are still…

The United Republic of Tanzania was perhaps the first African country to give urgent attention to adult literacy. One of the immediate results of educating adults was to make them insist that schooling be provided for their children. The literacy campaign that started in 1971 reduced the 1969 illiteracy rate of 69 percent to 9.6 percent in 1986.…

The Philippines received the literacy award from Unesco in the 1986 International Literacy Day competition. The award was for the mobile tent school (MTS), an alternative school that can reach out to the most remote and deprived areas where groups of ethnic minorities exist whose cultures have resisted the lure of civilization. The nongraded MTS…

One of the reasons for the rapid advancement of literacy activities in Ethiopia is that different nationalities learn in their own mother tongues in their own cultures. The literacy rate before the 1974 revolution was 7 percent. The 1990 literacy rate is 75 percent. Literacy instructors in the current literacy campaign do more than instruct…

The National Institute for Literacy's Equipped for the Future initiative was undertaken to achieve customer-driven, standards-based reform of adult literacy and lifelong learning through a broad, national consensus-building process. The initiative's six stages are as follows: (1) build consensus on the knowledge and skills adults need to fulfill…