In the past five decades, the global literacy rate among adults has grown from 67 percent in 1976 to 87.36 percent in 2023. In 1976, males had a literacy rate of 76 percent, compared to a rate of 58 percent among females. This difference of over 17 percent in 1976 has fallen to just seven percent in 2020. Although gaps in literacy rates have fallen across all regions in recent decades, significant disparities remain across much of South Asia and Africa, while the difference is below one percent in Europe and the Americas. Reasons for these differences are rooted in economic and cultural differences across the globe. In poorer societies, families with limited means are often more likely to invest in their sons' education, while their daughters take up a more domestic role. Varieties do exist on national levels, however, and female literacy levels can sometimes exceed the male rate even in impoverished nations, such as Lesotho (where the difference was over 17 percent in 2014); nonetheless, these are exceptions to the norm.
In 2023, the average adult literacy rates (15 years and older) in Latin America and the Caribbean amounted to 94.79 percent. Literacy rates in Latin America and the Caribbean have been slightly improving in all three age groups since 2014.
This statistic presents the level of self assessed financial literacy in the United States in 2014, by investable assets. During the survey period, it was found that ** percent of the respondents with investable assets worth ******* U.S. dollars and more admitted that they were very financially literate.
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The 2014 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP 2014) is a study that is part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) program; program data is available since 1990 at https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/naepdata/. NAEP 2014 (https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/) is a cross-sectional survey that assesses what America's students know and can do in various subject areas. The study is conducted using computer-based assessment of students. Students in grade 4, 8, and 12 are sampled. NAEP 2014 assessments consist of national assessments in civics, geography, U.S. history, and technology and engineering literacy for 8th-grade students. Key statistics produced from NAEP 2014 are results on subject-matter achievement, instructional experiences, and school environment for populations of students (e.g., all fourth-graders) and groups within those populations (e.g. female students, Hispanic students).
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The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the largest nationally representative and continuing assessment of what students in the United States know and can do in various subject areas. Assessments are conducted periodically in mathematics, reading, science, writing, the arts, civics, economics, geography, United States history, and beginning in 2014, in Technology and Engineering Literacy (TEL). Since NAEP assessments are administered uniformly using the same sets of test booklets across the United States, NAEP results serve as a common metric for all states and selected urban districts. The assessment stays essentially the same from year to year, with only carefully documented changes. This permits NAEP to provide a clear picture of student academic progress over time and for teachers, principals, parents, policymakers, and researchers to use NAEP results to assess progress and develop ways to improve education in the United States. There are two types of assessments: main NAEP and long-term trend NAEP. Main NAEP is administered to fourth-, eighth-, and twelfth-graders across the United States in a variety of subjects. The Main NAEP is conducted between the last week of January and the first week in March every year. National results are available for all assessments and subjects. Results for states and select urban districts are available in some subjects for grades 4 and 8. The Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) is a special project developed to determine the feasibility of reporting district-level NAEP results for large urban districts. In 2009 a trial state assessment was administered at grade 12. Long-term trend NAEP is administered nationally every four years. During the same academic year, 13-year olds are assessed in the fall, 9-year olds in the winter, and 17-year olds in the spring. Long-term trend assessments measure student performance in mathematics and reading, and allow the performance of students from recent time periods to be compared with students since the early 1970s. The 1997 and 2008 NAEP arts assessments were part of the Main NAEP Assessments. The NAEP 1997 Arts Assessment was conducted nationally at grade 8. For music and visual arts, representative samples of public and nonpublic school students were assessed. A special "targeted" sample of students took the theatre assessment. Schools offering at least 44 classroom hours of a theatre course per semester, and offering courses including more than the history or literature of theatre, were identified. Students attending those schools who had accumulated 30 hours of theatre classes by the end of the 1996-97 school year were selected to take the theatre assessment. The NAEP 2008 Arts Assessment was administered to a nationally representative sample of 7,900 eighth-grade public and private school students. Approximately one-half of these students were assessed in music, and the other half were assessed in visual arts. The music portion of the assessment measured students' ability to respond to music in various ways. Students were asked to analyze and describe aspects of music they heard, critique instrumental and vocal performances, and demonstrate their knowledge of standard musical notation and music's role in society. The visual arts portion of the assessment included questions that measured students' ability to respond to art as well as questions that measured their ability to create art. Responding questions asked students to analyze and describe works of art and design. For example, students were asked to describe specific differences in how certain parts of an artist's self-portrait were drawn. Creating questions required students to create works of art and design of their own. For example, students were asked to create a self-portrait that was scored for identifying detail, compositional elements, and use of materials. In addition, NAEP has a number of special studies that are conducted periodically. These include research and development efforts such as the High School Transcript Study and the National Indian Education Study. More information on these special studies is available on the NAEP Web site.
Literacy in India has been increasing as more and more people receive a better education, but it is still far from all-encompassing. In 2023, the degree of literacy in India was about 77 percent, with the majority of literate Indians being men. It is estimated that the global literacy rate for people aged 15 and above is about 86 percent. How to read a literacy rateIn order to identify potential for intellectual and educational progress, the literacy rate of a country covers the level of education and skills acquired by a country’s inhabitants. Literacy is an important indicator of a country’s economic progress and the standard of living – it shows how many people have access to education. However, the standards to measure literacy cannot be universally applied. Measures to identify and define illiterate and literate inhabitants vary from country to country: In some, illiteracy is equated with no schooling at all, for example. Writings on the wallGlobally speaking, more men are able to read and write than women, and this disparity is also reflected in the literacy rate in India – with scarcity of schools and education in rural areas being one factor, and poverty another. Especially in rural areas, women and girls are often not given proper access to formal education, and even if they are, many drop out. Today, India is already being surpassed in this area by other emerging economies, like Brazil, China, and even by most other countries in the Asia-Pacific region. To catch up, India now has to offer more educational programs to its rural population, not only on how to read and write, but also on traditional gender roles and rights.
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This dataset tracks annual reading and language arts proficiency from 2010 to 2014 for New America School vs. Colorado and School District N. 14 In The County Of Adams & State Of Colo
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United States CES: CM: AAE: Reading data was reported at 66.000 USD in 2016. This records a decrease from the previous number of 69.000 USD for 2015. United States CES: CM: AAE: Reading data is updated yearly, averaging 83.000 USD from Dec 1984 (Median) to 2016, with 33 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 112.000 USD in 1992 and a record low of 54.000 USD in 2014. United States CES: CM: AAE: Reading data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Bureau of Labor Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s USA – Table US.H042: Consumer Expenditure Survey: By Occupation.
The Ethiopia TEACH II activity aimed to strengthen the provision of equitable basic education services by implementing alternative basic education for children and youth, functional literacy for adults and improving the capacity of Woreda Education Offices (WEO) to manage non-formal educational programs. The activity operated in eight regions and provided instruction in four languages. The target population of the study were Level II learners from selected woredas in the SNNP, Tigray, Amhara, Benishangul, Oromia, Afar, Gambella, and Somali regions where PACT-Ethiopia and its partners operated. Students were randomly selected to measure basic literacy skills targeted at the Grade 2 level using EGRA assessments in eight different languages. The EGRA assessment sub-tasks measuring basic literacy skills were incremental in their complexity. Each sub-task was presented to the child on a one–to-one basis. Questionnaires were also administered to understand the background of the students. This data file contains the project's 2014 midline EGRA.
The National Reporting System (NRS) for Adult Education, 2017-18 (NRS 2017-18) is a performance accountability system for the national adult education program that is authorized under the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA), title II of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) of 2014. More information about the program is available at . NRS 2017-18 is a cross-sectional data collection that is designed to monitor performance accountability for the federally funded, state-administered adult education program. States are required to submit their progress in adult education and literacy activities by reporting data on the WIOA primary indicators of performance for all AEFLA program participants who receive 12 or more hours of service, as well as state expenditures on the adult education program. States may also report on additional, optional secondary measures that include outcomes related to employment, family, and community. The data collection is conducted using a web-based reporting system. NRS 2017-18 is a universe data collection activity, and all states are required to submit performance data. Key statistics that are produced from the data collection include student demographics, receipt of secondary school diploma or a high school equivalency (HSE) credential, placement in postsecondary education or training, measurable skill gain, and employment outcomes.
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The Longitudinal Study of American Youth (LSAY) is a project that was funded by the National Science Foundation in 1985 and was designed to examine the development of: (1) student attitudes toward and achievement in science, (2) student attitudes toward and achievement in mathematics, and (3) student interest in and plans for a career in science, mathematics, or engineering, during middle school, high school, and the first four years post-high school. The relative influence parents, home, teachers, school, peers, media, and selected informal learning experiences had on these developmental patterns was considered as well. The older LSAY cohort, Cohort One, consisted of a national sample of 2,829 tenth-grade students in public high schools throughout the United States. These students were followed for an initial period of seven years, ending four years after high school in 1994. Cohort Two, consisted of a national sample of 3,116 seventh-grade students in public schools that served as feeder schools to the same high schools in which the older cohort was enrolled. These students were followed for an initial period of seven years, concluding with a telephone interview approximately one year after the end of high school in 1994. Beginning in the fall of 1987, the LSAY collected a wide array of information including: (1) a science achievement test and a mathematics achievement test each fall, (2) an attitudinal and experience questionnaire at the beginning and end of each school year, (3) reports about education and experience from all science and math teachers in each school, (4) reports on classroom practice by each science and math teacher serving a LSAY student, (5) an annual 25-minute telephone interview with one parent of each student, and (6) extensive school-level information from the principal of each study school. In 2006, the NSF funded a proposal to re-contact the original LSAY students (then in their mid-30's) to resume data collection to determine their educational and occupational outcomes. Through an extensive tracking activity which involved: (1) online tracking, (2) newsletter mailing, (3) calls to parents and other relatives, (4) use of alternative online search methods, and (5) questionnaire mailing, more than 95 percent of the original sample of 5,945 LSAY students were located or accounted for. In addition to re-contacting the students, the proposal defined a new eligible sample of approximately 5,000 students and these young adults were asked to complete a survey in 2007. A second survey was conducted in the fall of 2008 that sought to gather updated information about occupational and education outcomes and to measure the civic scientific literacy of these young adults, in which to date more than 3,200 participants have responded. A third survey was conducted in the fall of 2009 that sought to gather updated information about occupational and education outcomes and to measure the participants' use of selected informal science education resources, in which to date more than 3,200 participants have responded. A fourth survey was conducted in the fall of 2010 that sought to gather updated information about occupational and education outcomes, as well as provided questions about the participants' interactions with their children, in which to date more than 3,200 participants have responded. Finally, a fifth survey was conducted in the fall of 2011 that sought to gather updated information about education outcomes and included an expanded occupation battery for all participants, as well as an expanded spousal information battery for all participants. The 2011 questionnaire also included items about the 2011 Fukushima incident in Japan along with attitudinal items about nuclear power and global climate change. To date approximately 3,200 participants responded to the 2011 survey. There were no surveys conducted in 2012 or 2013. Beginning in 2014 the LSAY was funded by the National Institute on Aging for five years. This data release adds the 2017 data to the previous data release that included data through 2016. The public release data files include information collected from the national probability sample students, their parents, and the science and mathematics teachers in the students' schools. The data covers the initial seven years, beginning in the fall of 1987, as well as the data collected in the
This statistic shows the share of public libraries offering selected education and learning programs in the United States in 2014, by conductor. Basic literacy skills programs were offered by partner organizations in 35.2 percent of public libraries.
The USAID/Kenya Primary Math and Reading (PRIMR) initiative is a task order under the USAID Education Data for Decision Making (EdData II) project that operates in collaboration with the Kenyan Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) and USAID/Kenya, and implemented by RTI International. The program is a randomized controlled trial intervention that included formal (public or government) schools and low-cost private schools (LCPS) located in Nairobi, Kiambu, Nakuru and Kisumu counties. PRIMR and its Kenyan partners created, published, and distributed new teaching and learning materials, based on the existing Kenyan curriculum; designed and led professional development to build the skills of educators and improve student literacy outcomes; and introduced a number of innovative teaching methods. Teachers and head teachers received training to encourage active learning and participation by both girls and boys in the classroom and were further supported with frequent visits and advising by trained instructional coaches. By mutual agreement among the MoEST, USAID, and RTI, approximately 500 formal schools and LCPSs located in Nairobi, Kiambu, Nakuru, and Kisumu counties were to participate in the PRIMR Initiative. To choose the sample of formal schools, the project team first selected all eligible zones from within the selected locations, then randomly assigned a subset of zones to groups that would receive the PRIMR treatment in phases (Cohorts 1, 2, and 3). Across all three cohorts, 262 formal schools were selected. Sampling for LCPSs began by clustering the schools into geographic groups of either 10 or 15 schools from across Nairobi’s divisions. Twenty clusters then were randomly assigned to Cohorts 1, 2, or 3, stratified by geographic region. The number of LCPSs selected was 240. In January 2012, the Cohort 1 schools (125 schools: 66 public, 59 LCPS) began implementing the reading interventions using PRIMR-designed materials and techniques, and the math intervention followed beginning in July 2012. The Cohort 2 schools (185: 65 public, 120 LCPS) began reading and math interventions in January 2013. Cohort 3 schools (101: 51 public, 50 LCPS) served as a control group for most of the program, and then began receiving the full intervention during the final stages of PRIMR (January 2014). In addition, it was decided that the 2014 phase of the intervention would be extended to all 547 remaining schools, rather than only to Cohort 3 as originally planned. As a result, the number of pupils benefitting increased from 12,755 in January 2012 to 56,036 in January 2014. Randomly selected students from all treatment and control schools were assessed via administration of a combined Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA), Early Grade Mathematics Assessment (EGMA), and Snapshot of School Management Effectiveness (SSME) at three time points: baseline, midterm, and endline. The PRIMR Initiative’s research design included several “experiments within an experiment.” These consisted of a study of three different combinations of information and communication technology (ICT) as teaching and learning aids in selected schools in Kisumu County; a longitudinal study of about 600 students who were assessed at all three time points, with their reading and numeracy competency levels compared and contrasted across the assessments; and MoEST-driven policy research on various education issues at the national level.
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This dataset tracks annual reading and language arts proficiency from 2010 to 2011 for New America Charter School vs. Colorado and Eagle County School District No. Re 50
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United States CES: $150 Th & More: AAE: Reading data was reported at 262.000 USD in 2015. This records an increase from the previous number of 249.000 USD for 2014. United States CES: $150 Th & More: AAE: Reading data is updated yearly, averaging 289.000 USD from Dec 2003 (Median) to 2015, with 13 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 372.000 USD in 2003 and a record low of 249.000 USD in 2014. United States CES: $150 Th & More: AAE: Reading data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Bureau of Labor Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s USA – Table US.H041: Consumer Expenditure Survey: By Income Level.
In 2023, adults in the United States spent more time reading on weekends than weekdays, according to recent data. The average time spent reading in the U.S. amounted to **** hours (almost ** minutes) on weekends and holidays, while daily time spent reading on weekdays in 2023 dropped back to pre-pandemic levels at a ******* of an hour.
This schedule is designed to collect the information on (a) participation of persons aged 5-29 years in the pursuit of education, (b) private expenditure incurred on the education of household members including those who are resident of Students' hostel at the time of survey, (c) examining the extent of educational wastage and their causes in terms of dropout and discontinuance and (d) IT literacy of persons aged 14 years and above. However, inclusions and exclusions, in a nutshell, are mentioned below.
Inclusions: I.School education commencing from class I to X or XII, as the case may be, irrespective of the recognition status of the educational institution, II.Higher secondary / Pre-university education leading to award of certificate/ diploma/ degree etc. including enrolment in private unrecognised institutions, which are authorised to sponsor students for public examinations as private or external candidates, III.General University education in Universities which are recognised by University Grant Commission(UGC), IV.Correspondence or distance learning courses conducted by Universities, Deemed Universities or Institutions, authorised by competent authorities for awarding regular degrees or diplomas or certificates, V.Technical or Professional courses, conducted by Universities, Deemed Universities or institutes like, National Institute of Fashion Technology, National School of Drama, Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Film and Television Institute of India, Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan National Institute of Criminology and Forensic Science, etc. or Institutions, authorised by competent authorities like All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), Medical Council of India (MCI), The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, The Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India, The Institute of Company Secretaries of India, Actuarial Society of India, etc., leading to award of degree/diploma/certificates VI.All types of courses of duration three months or more, conducted by Institutions like Industrial Training Institute (ITI), National Vocational Training Institute, Regional Vocational Training Institutes, etc., authorised by competent authorities VII.Any course at primary level and above conducted by recognised educational institution not covered above.
Exclusions: I.Art, music and similar type of courses conducted by individuals in their houses or by unrecognised/ unaffiliated institutions, II.Classes taken by Private tutors, III.Education in nursery/Kindergartens/Preparatory levels except for their enrolment statuses and dropout / discontinuance statuses . IV.The non-formal system of education being implemented through various programmes by government or other agencies except for their enrolment statuses and discontinuance / dropout statuses.
Summary description of the schedule: In the present round, Schedule 25.2 on education and IT literacy consists of 10 blocks. The first three blocks, viz., Block 0, Block 1 and Block 2 have used for recording identification of sample households and particulars of field operations, as practised in previous rounds. The last two blocks, viz., Block 8 and Block 9 have used to record the remarks/comments of investigator and supervisory officer(s) respectively. Block 3 is used for recording the household characteristics like household size, principal industry and principal occupation of household, household type, religion, social group, distance from nearest school having primary/upper primary/secondary level classes, whether the household has a computer/ any access to internet and household's usual consumer expenditure in a month etc. Block 4 is used for recording the demographic and other particulars of all the household members satisfying the modified definition of household. Particulars of IT literacy for household members aged 14 & above and the particulars of current educational attendance and current enrolment status for household member aged 5-29 years are also collected in Block 4. The education particulars of the household members, aged 5 years to 29 years, who are currently attending educational institutions at primary level and above are recorded in Block 5. In this block, information on course, level, class/grade/year, type of institution, medium of instruction, etc., are collected on basic course. Block 6 is designed to collect particulars of private expenditure on education of the household members, whose educational particulars are collected in block 5. Here, the break-up of expenditure of the basic course of each such member is collected in detail. Particulars of household members, aged 5 years to 29 years, who are currently not attending any educational institution, are collected in Block 7. In this block, information like whether ever enrolled, age at entry in school, age of discontinuation / dropping, etc. have also recorded.
National, States, Urban, Rural
Households Indivisuals
Households, persons aged 5-29 years in the pursuit of education
Sample survey data [ssd]
Outline of sample design: A stratified multi-stage design has been adopted for the 71st round survey. The first stage units (FSU) are the census villages (Panchayat wards in case of Kerala) in the rural sector and Urban Frame Survey (UFS) blocks in the urban sector. The ultimate stage units (USU) are households in both the sectors. In case of large FSUs, one intermediate stage of sampling is the selection of two hamlet-groups (hgs)/ sub-blocks (sbs) from each rural/ urban FSU.
Sampling Frame for First Stage Units: For the rural sector, the list of 2011 census villages (henceforth the term 'village' would mean Panchayat wards for Kerala) constitutes the sampling frame. In case of Kerala, due to the non-availability of Panchayat wards based on census 2011, the available list of Panchayat wards based on census 2001 is used as the rural frame. For the urban sector, the latest updated list of UFS blocks (phase 2007-12) is considered as the sampling frame.
Stratification: Stratum has been formed at district level. Within each district of a State/UT, generally speaking, two basic strata have been formed: (i) rural stratum comprising of all rural areas of the district and (ii) urban stratum comprising of all the urban areas of the district. However, within the urban areas of a district, if there are one or more towns with population 1 lakh or more as per Census 2011, each of them formed a separate basic stratum and the remaining urban areas of the district has been considered as another basic stratum.
Special stratum in the rural sector: There are some villages in Nagaland and Andaman & Nicobar Islands which reamins difficult to access. As in earlier rounds, a special stratum has been formed at State/UT level comprising these villages in the two State/UTs.
Sub-stratification:
Rural sector: If 'r' be the sample size allocated for a rural stratum, the number of sub-strata formed was 'r/2'. The villages within a district as per frame have been first arranged in ascending order of population. Then sub-strata 1 to 'r/2' have been demarcated in such a way that each sub-stratum comprised a group of villages of the arranged frame and had more or less equal population. Urban sector: If 'u' be the sample size allocated for an urban stratum, the number of sub-strata formed was 'u/2'. For all strata, if u/2 >1, implying formation of 2 or more sub-strata, all the UFS blocks within the stratum have been first arranged in ascending order of total number of households in the UFS Blocks as per UFS phase 2007-12. Then sub-strata 1 to 'u/2' have been demarcated in such a way that each sub-stratum had more or less equal number of households.
Total sample size (FSUs): 8300 FSUs have been allocated for the central sample at all-India level. For the state sample, there are 9274 FSUs allocated for all-India. State wise allocation of sample FSUs is given in Table 1.
Allocation of total sample to States and UTs: The total number of sample FSUs heve been allocated to the States and UTs in proportion to population as per Census 2011 subject to a minimum sample allocation to each State/ UT. While doing so, the resource availability in terms of number of field investigators has been kept in view.
Allocation of State/ UT level sample to rural and urban sectors: State/UT level sample size has been allocated between two sectors in proportion to population as per Census 2011 with double weightage to urban sector subject to the restriction that urban sample size for bigger states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu etc. do not exceed the rural sample size. A minimum of 16 FSUs (minimum 8 each for rural and urban sector separately) is allocated to each State/ UT.
Allocation to strata: Within each sector of a State/ UT, the respective sample size has been allocated to the different strata in proportion to the population as per Census 2011. Stratum level allocation has been adjusted to multiples of 2 with a minimum sample size of 2.
For special strata in the rural areas of Nagaland and A & N Islands, 4 FSUs has been allocated to each.
Allocation to sub-strata: Allocation for each sub-stratum has been 2 in both rural and urban sectors.
Selection of FSUs:
For the rural sector, from each stratum/sub-stratum, required number of sample villages have been selected by Probability Proportional to Size With Replacement (PPSWR), size being the population of the village as per Census 2011. For the urban sector, from each stratum/sub-stratum, FSUs have been selected by Probability Proportional to Size With Replacement (PPSWR), size being the number of households of the UFS Blocks. Both rural and urban samples have been drawn
A USAID-supported, nationally representative EGRA conducted in Nepal in 2014 found that 34 percent of second graders and 19 percent of third graders could not read a single world of Nepali. Moreover, the assessment showed significant regional disparities, as well as larger deficiencies among students who spoke a language other than Nepali at home. USAID’s EGRP in Nepal is being implemented by RTI International and supports the MoEST and its CLAs—the Curriculum Development Center, Department of Education, Education Review Office, National Center for Educational Development, and Non-Formal Education Center—to develop and test an early grade reading program that is effective, replicable, cost-efficient, and sustainable. The EGRP has two principal goals: 1) To improve early grade reading performance of students in Grades 1-3; and 2) To build the GoN’s capacity to deliver an early grade reading program that can be replicated nationwide. This Data asset contains all data collected to assess the impact of the program.
The Tusome Early Grade Reading Program involves a national effort in Kenya to scale up a proven model for improved results in early grade literacy. Based on positive findings during a rigorous impact evaluation of a pilot test of this intervention, the Government of Kenya (GOK) asked USAID/Kenya to assist with the nationwide rollout of an activity to improve reading skills and increase the capacity of educators and the GOK to deliver and administer early grade reading (EGR) programs modeled on the pilot activity’s success. Tusome, which means “Let’s Read” in Kiswahili, targeted 28,000 formal and nonformal public and low-cost private primary schools in the 47 counties in Kenya (nationwide). About 1,000 of these are informal schools that exist mostly in urban “slums,” while the vast majority of the remaining 27,000 schools are in rural areas. Roughly 5.4 million children who entered primary school between 2014 and 2017 are expected to benefit from this scaling-up initiative. Intermediate beneficiaries include: 1) approximately 60,000 class 1 and 2 teachers, 2) 28,000 primary school head teachers, 3) 1,052 Teacher Advisory Center (TAC) tutors, plus “coaches” for nonformal schools and 4) 300 senior education personnel. Tusome also assisted the GOK at the technical and policy levels to sustainably improve reading skills beyond the span of the activity.
This statistic presents the percentage of adults from various ethnic groups who read print magazines in the United States. In spring 2014, 91 percent of African-Americans read print magazines.
In the past five decades, the global literacy rate among adults has grown from 67 percent in 1976 to 87.36 percent in 2023. In 1976, males had a literacy rate of 76 percent, compared to a rate of 58 percent among females. This difference of over 17 percent in 1976 has fallen to just seven percent in 2020. Although gaps in literacy rates have fallen across all regions in recent decades, significant disparities remain across much of South Asia and Africa, while the difference is below one percent in Europe and the Americas. Reasons for these differences are rooted in economic and cultural differences across the globe. In poorer societies, families with limited means are often more likely to invest in their sons' education, while their daughters take up a more domestic role. Varieties do exist on national levels, however, and female literacy levels can sometimes exceed the male rate even in impoverished nations, such as Lesotho (where the difference was over 17 percent in 2014); nonetheless, these are exceptions to the norm.