Learning to Read and Write is Life-long and Life-wide

NORRAG  / NORRAG blog

 Text in Spanish: Leer y escribir es un aprendizaje a lo largo y ancho de la vida

Today is International #LiteracyDay ! This week’s blog by @rosamariatorres breaks down some of the key issues & challenges of policies & debates around this topic. 8 Sep. 2023.

 

Learning to Read and Write is Life-long and Life-wide

In this blogpost, published on the occasion of International Literacy Day, Rosa María Torres breaks down some of the key issues and challenges when it comes to debates and policies related to literacy. One of her key arguments is that dealing with illiteracy requires a lifelong learning policy framework that goes beyond schooling.

This blog is dedicated to Emilia Ferreiro.

▸ It is estimated that by 1950 36% of the world adult population was literate (Our World in Data). In 1958 UNESCO adopted the definition of literacy that became well known: “the ability of an individual to read and write with understanding a simple short statement related to his/her everyday life”. Literacy statistics have been collected since then with that definition in mind. Numeracy – basic mathematics: ability to add, subtract, multiply and divide – is often added as a separate category. Over the past few years the definition of what it means to be literate has expanded and become more complex, embracing digital literacy and multiple skill domains (UNESCO, 2023).

▸ The dichotomy illiterate/literate is now obsolete; it is acknowledged that there are different levels of mastery of the written language and different types of texts. Also, it is now clear that illiteracy is not only related to absence of schooling – so called “absolute” illiterates – but also to poor quality schooling.

▸ In 1964 UNESCO published the Declaration on Eradication of Illiteracy. The aspiration to eradicate illiteracy has been abandoned and substituted by reducing illiteracy (reducing illiteracy to half was, for example, one of the six goals of Education for All 1990-2015). The aspiration of universal literacy has also been abandoned; now the goal is reaching “all youth (15-24 years old) and a substantial proportion of adults” (SDG4) (Torres, 2017; see also Torres, 2013).

▸ Over the last decades there has been little progress with adult literacy statistics. Literacy for All was placed at the heart of Education for All; however, it was “one of the most neglected EFA goals”. In 2005 it was estimated that 770 million adults did not have basic literacy skills, two thirds of them women (EFA Global Education Monitoring Report Team, 2005). In 2023 they were 763 million. Real figures are probably higher since in many countries these continue to be perceptions and self-evaluations (Do you know to read and write? Yes/No). The United Nations Literacy Decade (2003-2012), coordinated by UNESCO, had little visibility and little impact on the situation of literacy worldwide. UNESCO’s Strategy for Youth and Adult Literacy 2020-2025 acknowledged that “there are now more adults without literacy compared with 50 years ago, meaning that our efforts have not kept pace with population growth” (UNESCO, 2019). The Strategy considered four dimensions of learning: lifelong, lifewide, intersectoral, and universal.

Many challenges remain:

▸ Literacy is an ageless concept. It applies to children, youth, and adults. However, it continues to be associated mainly with adults. Statistics refer to persons beyond 15 years of age. Illustrations related to literacy/illiteracy generally portray adult people, even when lifelong learning is mentioned.

▸ Most people think of reading and writing as a learning process that takes place in childhood and in school; remedial and non-formal “second-chance” learning opportunities are arranged for those who could not learn in childhood. Literacy education remains a key mission of the school system, but many school systems are failing to accomplish such mission, especially for the poor and the most disadvantaged. (See Torres, 2013, on Emilia Ferreiro’s presentation)

▸ Dealing with illiteracy implies not only a “two pronged approach” – with children and with adults – but an integrated approach that views child and adult learning as a continuum, within a lifelong learning policy framework (see Torres, 2012). The Base Document that we elaborated for the United Nations Literacy Decade, and that was approved at a special session during the World Education Forum in Dakar (2000), adopted a lifelong and lifewide learning framework. Unfortunately, UNESCO decided to discard the document and go back to UNLD as adult literacy (Torres, 2011).

▸ It is believed that teaching and learning to read and write is easy. Short literacy and post-literacy campaigns and programmes are offered to young people and adults. So-called “relapse into illiteracy” is usually the result of weak and incomplete literacy processes, and of lack of materials and opportunities to read and write. Children are expected to be proficient readers after three or four years of going to school, regardless of the conditions and obstacles faced by millions of them. The term “learning poverty” proposed by the World Bank applies to “children who are unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10” (Saavedra, 2019).

▸ In 2013, when Education for All (1990-2000-2015) and the Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015) were coming to a close, it was “discovered” that millions of children worldwide were not able to read, write and calculate after four or more years of schooling (UNESCO, 2013; EFA Global Education Monitoring Report Team, 2014). UNESCO and other international organizations spoke of a “global learning crisis”. The International Commission on the Futures of Education (2021) spoke also of a “teaching crisis”. In fact, we are facing a global education crisis that involves not only the school system but the family, the community, the media, the workplace. This is a systemic crisis that precedes the pandemic and demands a radical transformation in many fronts (Torres, 2023). In 1991, in Latin America, at a regional ministerial UNESCO-OREALC meeting, Ministers of Education signed the Quito Declaration proposing a “new education model” and announcing the beginning of “a new era of educational development that responds to the challenges of productive transformation, social equity, and political democratization”. More than 30 years later the old model is still in place (Torres, 2014).

▸ ”Learning crisis” and “learning poverty” concepts are currently at the center of global education reform efforts. Both are centered around the school system. “Learning poverty” focuses on reading (it does not include writing). There is however plenty of knowledge showing that literacy – and reading in particular – start at home and in early childhood, and are highly sensitive to context, family, socio-economic and cultural issues. Availability of reading facilities (libraries, mobile libraries) and reading materials at home and in the community – letters, posters, newspapers, magazines, comics, books, catalogs, menus, movie and TV subtitles, calendars, signs, labels, graffiti, texts produced by children themselves (Torres, 2012) – makes a big difference. There is a strong correlation between educated mothers and children’s literacy acquisition and development. Improving children’s foundational learning implies going beyond the school system and paying attention to the family, the community, the availability of reading materials, language issues, parental literacy/education, play, informal learning, peer-to-peer learning, and poverty eradication.

The Author

Dr. Rosa Maria Torres del Castillo is an Ecuadorian education expert and social activist specialised in basic education, reading and writing, and lifelong learning. She has worked as education advisor for a range of civil society, non-governmental and international organizations, such as UNICEF and UNESCO. In 1988-1990 she was Pedagogical Director of the National Literacy Campaign “Monseñor Leonidas Proaño” and in 2003 she served as Minister of Education and Cultures, in Ecuador.  She is the author of over 15 books and numerous articles on education and learning.

Ecuador: Just one figure: How much was the illiteracy rate reduced?

Rosa María Torres

This text was included in: PIMA BULLETIN NO 47 SPECIAL ISSUE HONOURING CHRIS DUKE, April 2023
Co-Editors: Heribert Hinzen, Phuoc Khau, Dorothy Lucardie, Maria Slowey, Shirley Walters.
Technical Assistance: Leslie Cordie

En español: El dato: ¿a cuánto se redujo la tasa de analfabetismo?

Dear Chris: I know you like stories. Am sure you will enjoy this one.

In 1988-1990 I directed the National Literacy Campaign "Monsignor Leonidas Proaño" in Ecuador. The day after the campaign was finalized, I had many journalists in my office asking for one figure: how much had the campaign reduced the illiteracy rate in the country.

I kindly explained them that:

 
1. Illiteracy and literacy data (in Ecuador and in many countries) are not reliable since they reflect selfperceptions in response to the question - Do you know how to read and write? YES/NO, rather than some sort of evaluation or verification.

2. In a literacy process there are three main data: a) number of persons registered, b) number of persons who completed the programme, and c) number of persons who learned (and how much they learned). Very often the data that are given as final are registration and/or termination data.

In Nicaragua, the National Literacy Crusade started on March 23, 1980 with an estimated illiteracy rate of 50.2% (722,431 illiterate persons). I was at the Plaza de la Revolución in Managua when the Sandinistas shared the Crusade results: 406.456 persons had become literate and the illiteracy rate was reduced to 12%. In reality, as I realized later, those were registration or termination data, not learning data.

3. In the campaign in my own country I decided to place learning at the centre, conduct and disseminate widely a final evaluation of the campaign, and differentiate the three data: registration, termination, and learning. Literacy learners were asked to read a short text out of the primer and to write a short letter to the literacy teacher. For the literacy teachers - most of them students from the last two years of secondary school whom we trained for several months and assisted through radio during the campaign we prepared a written questionnaire where we asked their opinions on the various components of the campaign and on their experience in it.

4. It would take us several months to collect the data since it was a national campaign, covering urban and rural areas. Before leaving, literacy teachers were asked to collect the required information and deliver it to the brigade coordinators or to the campaign personnel in the various places.

5. I decided to accept adolescents between 12 and 15 years of age into the campaign. Illiteracy statistics usually start at 15 years of age. Therefore, we would have to eliminate the participants below the age of 15.

6. Besides the internal evaluation conducted by the pedagogical team of the campaign, we requested UNESCO-Santiago to assist us with an independent external evaluation. We would publish both reports as well as an integrated one.

7. The campaign in indigenous languages, in charge of the National Directorate of lntercultural Bilingual Education (DINEIB), would be evaluated following its own parameters. Its final evaluation would be published in a separate report.

Explanations were useless. Journalists insisted on obtaining a number. Today, not in six months or a year! Next day, newspapers and other media indicated that the campaign and the Ministry of Education were hiding information.

Almost a year later, in August 1990, when we published and distributed the final evaluation report (246 pages), nobody was waiting for it and nobody was interested to know what had been learned by the nearly 300,000 people who finalized the campaign, and by their literacy teachers.

Literacy: From «all» to «a substantial proportion of adults»

Rosa María Torres

Between 1980 and 2015 the goal referred to youth and adult literacy went from «eradicating illiteracy» (Major Project of Education for Latin America and the Caribbean, 1980-2000) to «all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy» (Sustainable Development Goals, 2015-2030).

In other words: current SDGs propose universal literacy for youth (15 to 24 year-olds) and an undefined goal for people beyond 25 years of age. This contradicts the Lifelong Learning rhetoric as well as SDG 4: "Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all and promote lifelong learning."

Texto en español: Alfabetización: De «todos» a «una proporción sustancial de los adultos»

Major Project of Education (1980-2000) | UNESCO-OREALC

In 1980, the Major Project of Education for Latin America and the Caribbean - MPE (1980-2000) was approved in Mexico. MPE was coordinated by UNESCO's Regional Office in Santiago, Chile. MPE proposed to achieve three goals by the year 2000. One of them was «eradicating illiteracy». The final evaluation of the project, in 2000, revealed that the goals were not met. 
 

1. Eight to ten years' minimum schooling for all children of school age.
2. Eradication of illiteracy and expansion of educational facilities for adults.
3. Improving the quality and efficiency of educational systems and education in general, through the implementation of necessary reforms and effective systems designed for measuring learning.

Education for All (1990-2000) | UNESCO, UNICEF, UNFPA, World Bank

The Education for All (EFA) world initiative was approved in1990 at the World Conference on Education for All held in Jomtien-Thailand. EFA proposed six basic education goals that covered children, youth and adults, in and out of school. One of those goals (goal 4) was reducing the adult illiteracy rate by half. EFA's evaluation, presented in 2000 at the World Education Forum in Dakar, concluded that the goals were not met. The decision was to postpone the goals for another 15 years. 
 

1. Expansion of early childhood care and development activities, including family and community interventions, especially for poor, disadvantaged and disabled children.
2. Universal access to, and completion of, primary education (or whatever higher
level  of education is considered «basic») by 2000.
3. Improvement in learning achievement such that an agreed percentage of an appropriate age cohort (e.g. 80% of 14 year-olds) attains or surpasses a defined level of necessary learning achievement.
4. Reduction in the adult illiteracy rate (the appropriate age cohort to be determined in each country) to, say, one-half its 1990 level by the year 2000, with sufficient emphasis on female literacy to significantly reduce the current disparity between the male and female illiteracy rates.
5. Expansion of provision of basic education and training in other essential skills required by youth and adults, with programme effectiveness assessed in terms of behavioural changes and impacts on health, employment and productivity.
6. Increased acquisition by individuals and families of the knowledge, skills and values required for better living and sound and sustainable development, made available through all educational channels including the mass media, other forms of modern and traditional communication, and social action, with effectiveness assessed in terms of behavioural change.

Education for All (2000-2015) | UNESCO, UNICEF, UNFPA, World Bank

In 2000, at the World Education Forum held in Dakar-Senegal, the six EFA goals were ratified, with some modifications. The goal referred to literacy (goal 4) remained as "achieving a 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy". EFA's final evaluation in 2015 confirmed that the goals were not met. EFA remained as an "unfinished agenda".

1. Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.
2.  Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and complete free and compulsory primary education of good quality.
3. Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life skills programmes.
4. Achieving a 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults.
5. Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality.
6. Improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence for all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills.

Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015) | United Nations 

In 2000 the United Nations launched the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), a global multisectoral agenda with eight goals to be achieved by 2015. The goal referred to education - Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education- focused on children (completing four years of schooling). It was not met. The MDGs did not include a goal for adult literacy. 

Sustainable Development Goals - SDG (2015-2030) | United Nations

In 2015, both EFA and MDG goals reached their deadline, and the Sustainable Development Goals (2015-2030) were approved. The Agenda 2030 was organized around 17 goals. SDG 4 refers to education: 

SDG 4 encompasses 10 targets summarized as follows:
4.1 Universal primary and secondary education
4.2 Early childhood development and universal pre-primary education
4.3 Equal access to technical/vocational and higher education
4.4 Relevant skills for decent work
4.5 Gender equality and inclusion
4.6 Universal youth and adult literacy
4.7 Education for sustainable development and global citizenship
4.a Effective learning environments
4.b Expand the number of scholarships available to developing countries
4.c Increase the supply of qualified teachers.

The target related to literacy (target 4.6) reads "by 2030, ensure all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy.“

According to UNESCO (2016 data, projected to 2017), in 2017 there were 260 million children who could not read and write, and 750 million adults in the same condition. Women continued to be two thirds of the adult illiterates. 102 million were young people between 15 and 24 years of age. Globally, between 2000 and 2015, the youth and adult literacy rate increased only 4%.

In terms of age, literacy rates are organized as follows:
- 86%: 15+
- 91%: 15 to 24
- 86%: 15 to 64 
- 78%: 65+

In most countries, literacy/illiteracy data continue to be collected through census and house surveys where people respond Yes or No to the question of whether they are illiterate. 

Lifelong Learning opportunities for all?

With regards to youth and adult literacy goals, between 1980 and 2015 we moved from «eradicating illiteracy" to ensuring universal literacy for youth and reaching «a substantial proportion of adults».

UNESCO document Unpacking Sustainable Development Goal 4: Education 2030 (2017) clarifies that target 4.6 understands «youth» as 15 to 25 years of age.

The document also explains that (p. 13):

"The principles, strategies and actions for this target are underpinned by the contemporary understanding of literacy as a continuum of proficiency levels in a given context. It goes beyond the understanding of a simple dichotomy of ‘literate’ versus ‘illiterate’. Therefore, action for this target aims at ensuring that by 2030, all young people and adults across the world should have achieved relevant and recognized proficiency levels in functional literacy and numeracy skills that are equivalent to levels achieved at successful completion of basic
education."

However, target 4.6 indicates that it is not all young people and adults who will be made literate. Moreover, a summary of the global goals indicates that only young people will be taken into account (p. 16).

In the 1970s and 1980s we criticized the «eradication of illiteracy» rhetoric for its grotesque and simplified vision of illiteracy and literacy.

Today, the SDG Agenda proposes universal literacy for youth and reaching «a substantial proportion of adults». Once again, we must expect adult literacy to have no priority.

This happens at a time when Lifelong Learning is proposed by UNESCO as the educational paradigm for the 21st century and in the framework of an education goal that promises to «Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all».

 
To know more
» UNESCO Institute for Statistics - Literacy

Related texts in this blog
» Los erradicadores del analfabetismo
» ¿Renuncia a un mundo alfabetizado? | Giving up to a literate world?
» Alfabetización de adultos en América Latina y el Caribe: planes y metas 1980-2015 
» Seis metas de Educación para Todos | Six Education for All goals
» Carta Abierta a la UNESCO por parte del GLEACE en 2007
» Ecuador: El fiasco de la alfabetización | Ecuador's literacy fiasco

» International Initiatives for Education | Iniciativas internacionales para la educación
 

Ecuador's literacy fiasco

Rosa María Torres

Texto en español - Ecuador: El fiasco de la alfabetización

During Rafael Correa's government (2007-2017) there were two failed attempts at "eradicating illiteracy" in Ecuador. In 2009, a Patria Alfabetizada (Literate Homeland) declaration had to be changed to Patria Alfabetizándose (Homeland in the Process of Becoming Literate). In 2015, the Ministry of Education informed that the 2006-2015 Ten-Year Education Plan had been accomplished; one of its eight policies was "eradicating illiteracy". As it turned out, the claim was once again false.

Sin leer ni escribir: Visión 360 - Ecuavisa (Oct. 23, 2017)

▸ In 2009, on September 8th, International Literacy Day, Rafael Correa's government declared Ecuador as Patria Alfabetizada (Literate Homeland). Minister of Education Raúl Vallejo informed that the illiteracy rate had been reduced from 9% to 2,7% between 2007 and 2009 (420.888 newly literate people). The celebration took place at the Jocay Stadium in the city of Manta. Dr. Edouard Matoko, UNESCO Representative for Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela, supported the declaration. President Correa addressed the nation and said: "In two years we have done what no government did in decades".

One month later, at the 35th Session of UNESCO's General Conference in Paris (6-23 October, 2009), minister Vallejo shared Ecuador's achievement. Here is his speech (Spanish).

Four months later, the government changed Patria Alfabetizada with Patria Alfabetizándose. Based on the 2009 national empoyment and unemployment survey, the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC) informed that the illiteracy rate in the country was 7,8%. Between 2007 and 2009 the illiteracy rate had experienced a small reduction (7.92% in 2007, 7.62% in 2008, 7.76% in 2009).

▸ In 2015, Minister of Education Augusto Espinosa informed the nation that the eight policies of the Ten-Year Education Plan (2006-2015) had been accomplished. The Plan, prepared during President Palacios' government (2005-2007), was approved in a popular consultation held in November 2006. Policy 4 of the Plan referred to eradicating illiteracy. 

According to an evaluation report of the Plan published by the Ministry of Education in February 2016, all 8 policies/goals had been met.  

However, a second evaluation report publisehd by the ministry in October 2016 concluded that the illiteracy rate in 2015 was 5,54% and that the goal had not been met.

"395.229 people were made literate through the Basic Literacy for Youth and Adults Project, which reduced the illiteracy rate from 8,6% in 2006 to 5,54% in 2015."  

Based on information provided by the government, in 2014 UNESCO's Literacy Jury awarded Ecuador the King Sejong Literacy Prize.

"The Ministry of Education of Ecuador has reached close to 325,000 beneficiaries in 2012 and 2013 with its Basic Literacy Education for Youth and Adults Project.
For 2014, the project has set itself the challenge of reaching out to 100,000 people. The initiative will be extended to 2015."
- UNESCO, Inclusive programme wins 2014 UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize for Ecuador, 12 August 2014.

The Project was also included by UIL-UNESCO in a list of "Effective Literacy Programmes".

 
▸ In September 2017, Lenin Moreno's government announced a literacy campaign called Campaña Todos ABC. The campaign aims at young people and adults over 15 years of age interested in learning to read and write and/or completing basic education and secondary education. The document presented by minister of education Fander Falconí informed that 414.813 people had been made literate during Correa's government between 2011 and 2017, thanks to the Basic Literacy for Youth and Adults Project, and indicated that 660.000 persons remained illiterate in the country. The new literacy campaign plans to reach 200.000 of them until the year 2019.

Thus, for the second time in the last decade the government failed to declare Ecuador Patria Alfabetizada. The first time there was an official celebration. The second time there was no celebration, the media and the population were not even aware of the ministerial reports and claims. In both cases the information was inaccurate. In both cases, UNESCO played a role.

It is evident that the country continues to face a major challenge in terms of youth and adult literacy.  Among others because in modern times it is acknowledged that literacy is a long process that is not aimed at "eradicating illiteracy" but at ensuring that people effectively learn to read and write and use reading and writing in their daily lives.

Related texts in this blog

» Sobre aprendizaje de jóvenes y adultos  |  On youth and adult learning (compilation)

» Ecuador: La "Patria Alfabetizada" que no fue

» El Ministro mintió: Plan Decenal de Educación 2006-2015 (Ecuador)
» Ecuador 2007-2017 ¿Década Ganada en educación?

» Campaña Nacional de Alfabetización Monseñor Leonidas Proaño (1988-1990)

» Los erradicadores del analfabetismo
» "No basta con enseñar a leer y escribir: es preciso acercar la lectura y la escritura a la gente" (entrevista a Rosa María Torres)

Adult education: The inclusive classroom

Rosa María Torres

Published in
Adult Education and Development, No. 84, Inclusion and Diversity,

DVV International 2017

Texto en español: Educación de adultos, la más inclusiva de todas

If we mean inclusion in its broadest sense, no education is more inclusive than adult education. What is lacking in infrastructure and general conditions for teaching and learning is made up for by empathy, resilience, flexibility, companionship and solidarity. Challenges that are difficult to achieve in the formal education system are almost naturally found in adult education: collaborative learning, intergenerational learning, family education and community education.

Age remains the most discriminatory factor in education, despite the rhetoric of lifelong learning; education, the right to education, and even learning, remain closely associated with childhood. Adult education centres break with this logic, even though they cannot overcome prejudice by themselves. From adolescents aged 15, or younger, through to people aged 90 or older, everyone can share the same space and learn together, often challenging policies that restrict learners’ ages. The rigidity of the classroom organised by age, typical of formal education, does not apply in adult education.

Literacy centres throughout the world are characterised by a sizeable presence of women – women who see in literacy an opportunity not only to learn, but also to socialise, to meet other women, to escape for a few hours from the overwhelming slavery of domestic tasks.

Adult education spaces are generally spaces for intercultural learning in which people from different places, ethnic groups and cultures converge. Many times they are not only multicultural environments, but also multilingual.

Adult education welcomes people with all kinds of disabilities. The “solutions” I have seen in many centres have shown me the best in human beings and blurred the boundaries between the possible and the impossible.

Adolescents and pregnant women, often regarded with disapproval and even rejected from formal classrooms, are welcome in adult classrooms. Here the multi-remedial can find a place to try again, without fear. I have seen LGBTI people fully integrated into the group, and foreigners feel at home. Even religious, ideological and political differences may go unnoticed or be actively tolerated in these centres.

Adult education centres are living laboratories for solving economic, social and cultural problems in precarious material conditions but with considerable human and creative wealth. It is unfair that adult education, which contributes and teaches so much, remains so misunderstood, discriminated against and underappreciated in our societies.

Related texts in this blog
» Sobre aprendizaje de jóvenes y adultos | On youth and adult learning (compilation)

Comments on "The New Skills Agenda for Europe"

Rosa María Torres

 Participation at "ICAE Virtual Seminar on Skills and Competencies", 
organized by the International Council for Adult Education (ICAE) together with DVV International in April 2017.
Based on DVV International’s journal “Adult Education and Development“ Issue 83 (Dec. 2016)
The  journal is published once a year in English, French and Spanish.

En español: Comentarios a "La Nueva Agenda de Capacidades para Europa"

Rosa María Torres. Ecuadorian, researcher, international adviser, specialist in literacy and Lifelong Learning, Ex-minister of Education and Cultures.

My comments refer to, and are triggered by, "The new Skills Agenda for Europe" by Dana Bachmann and Paul Holdsworth, of the European Commission.

I speak here from the perspective of "developing countries" and of Latin America in particular. From this perspective it is always useful to see what Europeans are thinking and doing, not necessarily to do the same but rather to understand better our specific realities and needs. In the end, given the strong cultural dependence, our governments end up trying to follow and imitate Europe and/or North America (the classic "developing"/"developed" notion). Concepts, indicators, ideals, international co-operation, focus generally on the global North.

The paper presents The New Skills Agenda for Europe, which sees skills as a pathway to employability and prosperity. The Agenda revolves around some problems and data identified as critical:

- A quarter of the European adult population (70 million) struggles with reading and writing, and has poor numeracy and digital skills, putting them at risk of unemployment, poverty and social exclusion.

- More than 65 million people have not achieved a qualification corresponding to upper secondary level. This rate varies significantly across countries, reaching 50% or more in some.

- The adults mostly in need of engaging in learning participate very little in lifelong learning. On average, only 10.7% of adult Europeans participated in any education and training in 2014, with significant variation between countries and against an EU target of 15% set to be reached by 2020. An analysis of the participation of low-qualified adults in education and training shows even lower participation rates, varying from below 1% in some countries to over 20% in others. On average in the EU only 4.3% of low-qualified adults – that is, the group most in need of learning – participate in education and training.

To improve the employment opportunities and overall life chances of low-skilled adults, the Commission has made a proposal to help low-skilled adults – both in-work and out of work – to improve their literacy, numeracy and digital skills and, where possible, to develop a wider set of skills leading to an upper secondary education qualification or equivalent.

The proposal is that Member States should introduce a Skills Guarantee, which would involve offering to low qualified adults: (a) a skills assessment, enabling them to identify their existing skills and their upskilling needs; (b) a package of education or training tailored to the specific learning needs of each individual, and (c) opportunities to have their skills validated and recognised.

The Agenda is structured around three priority areas: more and better skills; put the skills developed to good use; and better understand what skills will be demanded to help people choose what skills to develop.

These main challenges are identified:

- Improving the quality and relevance of skills formation.
- Strengthening the foundation: basic skills (literacy, numeracy, digital skills) for everybody ("the proposal for a Skills Guarantee aims to provide low qualified adults access to flexible tailored upskilling pathways to improve these skills or progress towards an upper secondary qualification").
- Making vocational education and training (VET) a first choice. Increasing its attractiveness, through quality provision and flexible organisation, allowing progression to higher vocational or academic learning, and closer links with the world of work.
- Building resilience: key competences and higher, more complex skills. These include literacy, numeracy, science and foreign languages, as well as transversal skills and key competences such as digital competences, entrepreneurship, critical thinking, problem solving or learning to learn, and financial literacy. 

- Getting connected: focus on digital skills.
- Making skills and qualifications more visible and comparable.

- Improving transparency and comparability of qualifications.

- Early profiling of migrants’ skills and qualifications.
- Improving skills intelligence and information for better career choices.
- Better information for better choices.
- Boosting skills intelligence and cooperation in economic sectors.
- Better understanding the performance of graduates from Universities and VET.

My comments and suggestions

The diagnosis and the proposal are centred around formal education and training. This remains, in fact, the main international approach to adult education and to education in general. The "being knowledgeable" dimension of UNDP's Human Development Index (HDI) continues to refer to education and to formal education only, all ages: expected years of schooling, adult literacy rate, government expenditure on education, gross enrolment ratio all levels, mean years of schooling, population with at least some secondary education, primary school dropout rate, primary school teachers trained to teach, and pupil-teacher ratio in primary school. (As we see, two indicators are related to adult education: adult literacy rate, and population with at least some secondary education). It is with these indicators that countries' educational profile is defined. 

Without ignoring the importance of these data and of the formal education system, I would like to stress the need to: revisit some concepts; insist on the critical importance of non-formal education and of informal learning not only in adult life but throughout life; consider other ways of thinking/organising the question of learning for what; radically rethink the eternal struggle with literacy and numeracy; and reconsider adulthood and the adult age. Also, the understanding of 'low-skilled adults' must be made explicit and analysed in general and in each particular context.

» Schooling versus education  Education exceeds schooling. Many adults are eager to advance their education, not necessarily to get more schooling (i.e. completing primary and secondary education). For many young people and adults, completing secondary education implies a tremendous effort, meeting a bureaucratic requisite rather than having a pleasant and fruitful learning experience, and the economic and social reward may not be the one expected.

» Education/training versus learning  Skills are not developed only through deliberate education and training efforts. Most skills are developed through a combination of formal and non-formal education and informal learning (reading, writing, parenting, arts, sports, work, travel, social participation, volunteering, social service, etc.).

» Literacy and numeracy  They continue to be considered basic skills and they continue to be major problems throughout the world, in both 'developed' and 'developing' countries. In 'developing' countries, it is very common that people counted as 'new literates' often do not read and write autonomously and thus do not get to use reading and writing in their daily life. Also, often there is no evaluation involved, and no follow-up. We must radically rethink and improve the ways we conceptualize and do adult literacy, and stop cheating ourselves with fake statistics.

» Digital skills  In most 'developing countries' access to the Internet is still limited (50% or less of the population). Cell phones are widely used, also by adults and by the poor. But it is the younger generations that makes the most use of computers and of the internet. Internet policies focus on children and youth. Little is being done, and much more should be done, to offer adults and older adults meaningful access to the digital world.

» Learning for what?  There are many ways to think of, and deal with, this question. Well-being and prosperity mean different things to different people and cultures throughout the world. Sumak Kawsay (Buen Vivir, Good Living), the indigenous paradigm proposed as an alternative to the development paradigm, understands Buen Vivir as reaching a harmonious relationship between self, others, and the environment. Thus, 'learning for what' becomes learning to take care of oneself, learning to take care of others (family, community, peers), and learning to take care of the environment. These tree domains lead to a holistic, alternative understanding of the whys, hows, and what fors of education and learning.

» Adults and the adult age  Life expectancy has grown all over the world. As a result, the adult age has expanded. However, and despite the lifelong learning rhetoric, adults continue to be denied the right to education and the right to learn. Today, in too many countries, education policies and programmes do not go beyond the age of 30 or 35. It is time to organize adulthood in different age groups for education, training and learning purposes. While we oversegment childhood, adolescence and youth, we continue to refer to adulthood and to adult education as something that covers from 15 year-olds to 95 year-olds. A very effective strategy to ignore older adults and to amputate the lifelong learning concept.

Related recent texts of mine in this blog (English/Spanish)

- "Rethinking education" and adult education, Regional consultation with civil society on the document "Rethinking education: Towards a global common view?", ICAE-UNESCO, Brasilia, 25 April 2016.
- "Replantear la educación" y la educación de adultos, Consulta regional de la sociedad civil "El derecho a la educación de personas jóvenes y adultas desde una perspectiva de aprendizaje a lo largo de la vida", ICAE-UNESCO, Brasilia, 25 abril 2016.

- What is youth and adult education today? (2017)
- ¿Qué es educación de jóvenes y adultos, hoy? (2017)

- Formal, non-formal and informal learning (2016)
- Aprendizaje formal, no-formal e informal (2016)

- Giving up to a literate world?, in: Adult Education and Development, Issue 80, December 2013.
- ¿Renuncia a un mundo alfabetizado?, en: Educación de Adultos y Desarollo, número 80, Diciembre 2013

- From Literacy to Lifelong Learning: Trends, Issues and Challenges of Youth and Adult Education in Latin America and the Caribbean, Regional Report prepared for the Sixth International Conference on Adult Education - CONFINTEA VI, organized by UNESCO. Belém, Brazil, 1-4 December 2009.
Report commissioned by UIL-UNESCO.
- De la alfabetización al aprendizaje a lo largo de la vida: Tendencias, temas y desafíos de la educación de personas jóvenes y adultas en América Latina y el Caribe, Informe Regional preparado para la VI Conferencia Internacional sobre Educación de Adultos - CONFINTEA VI, organizada por la UNESCO. Belém, Brasil, 1-4 diciembre 2009. Informe encargado por el UIL-UNESCO. Una contribución del Centro de Cooperación Regional para la Educación de Adultos en América Latina y el Caribe (CREFAL) a CONFINTEA VI.

- Social Education and Popular Education: A View from the South, Closing conference AIEJI XVII World Congress “The Social Educator in a Globalised World”, Copenhagen, Denmark, 4–7 May, 2009.

- Lteracy and Lifelong Learning: The Linkages, Conference at the 2006 Biennale of ADEA, Libreville, Gabon, March 27-31, 2006. 

- On youth and adult learning (compilation)
- Sobre aprendizaje de jóvenes y adultos (compilación)

- On Lifelong Learning (compilation)
- Sobre Aprendizaje a lo Largo de la Vida (compilación)