Adult Literacy in Latin America and the Caribbean: Plans and Goals 1980-2015

Rosa María Torres

(texto en español: Alfabetización de adultos en América Latina y el Caribe:
planes y metas 1980-2015)

     Plans and Goals for Adult Literacy (1980-2015)

PPE Major Project in Education for Latin America and the Caribbean	EFA Education for All		UNLD Década de las Naciones Unidas para la Alfabetización		PIA  Iberoamerican Plan for Youth and Adult Literacy and Basic Education (now integrated within Metas 2021 / 2021 Goals)
	Jomtien (1900)	Dakar (2000)		LIFE   Iniciativa de Alfabetización 'Saber para el Poder'
1980-2000	1990-2000	2000-2015	2003-2012	2006-2015	2007-2015
OREALC-UNESCO	UNESCO-UNICEF-PNUD-UNFPA-The World Bank		UNESCO	UIL-UNESCO	OEI
Eradicate  illiteracy by 2000	Reduce  illiteracy by 2000	Reduce illiteracy to half  by 2015	Reduce illiteracy by 2012	Reduce illiteracy to half  by 2015	Eradicate illiteracy by 2015

   Elaborated by R.M. Torres

The table provides an overall picture and the texts in red highlight what few government officials and even education specialists seem to know or take into account:

▸ The race to eliminate or reduce adult illiteracy in Latin America and the Caribbean is several decades old - slow, tortuous and unsuccessful so far.

▸ Since 1980 there have been various successive or simultaneous plans - regional, continental, global - co-ordinated by diverse international agencies, with different deadlines and goals, all of them signed and approved by ministers of education and Chiefs of State of the countries involved.

▸ The original goal of "eradicating" illiteracy was reduced to the much more modest one of "reducing" it to half. What was believed a rather easy goal, achievable in a short period of time, has proven a much harder endeavour. Stubborn poverty adds to the also stubborn dysfunctionality of school systems which continue to produce new generations of illiterates, thanks to exclusion and/or low school quality. 

▸ In the past few years we have reached the absurd of both goals - "eradicating" and "reducing" - coexisting, even with the same deadlines. Different international agencies (UNESCO, OEI), same countries. As can be seen in the table below, it is likely that none of the two goals will be accomplished by 2015. 
 

Estimated Rates and Projections for Adult Literacy (15 years of age and over) 1985–2015

	1985-1994	2000-2006	Projections for 2015
Latin America and the Caribbean	87%	91%	93%
- Latin America	87%	91%	94%
- The Caribbean	66%	74%	78%
Developing countries	68%	79%	84%
World	76%	84%	87%

          Elaborated by R.M. Torres. Source: EFA Global Monitoring Report 2009 

Included in: Rosa María Torres, Regional Report "From Literacy to Lifelong Learning: Trends, Issues and Challenges for Youth and Adult Education in Latin American and the Caribbean" prepared for the Sixth International Conference on Adult Education - CONFINTEA VI  - held in Belém-Pará, Brazil, 1-4 Dec. 2009. Available in English and Spanish.

Related texts in this blog
▸ Rosa María Torres, Somos América Latina ▸ We are Latin America 
▸ Rosa María Torres,  Sobre Lectura y Escritura ▸ On Reading and Writing

To Learn More
▸ Rosa María Torres, Over Two Decades of 'Education for All' ▸ Más de dos décadas de 'Educación para Todos' 
▸ Rosa María Torres, América Latina: Cuatro décadas de metas para la educación (1980-2021)
▸ GLEACE