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by Talia Jayasekera

An astounding 388 million people are illiterate in South Asia, while 39 million children lack even primary education and two-thirds of illiterate adults are women. Although for many years, Sri Lanka reigned supreme in the literacy rate of the South Asian region, a report - Human Development in South Asia 2002 - recently released by the Mahbub ul Haq Human Development Centre together with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) showed that the country now ranks second in the `Adult Literacy Rate' with 96.1 per cent. Maldives is now in the forefront with 96.7 per cent. However, public expenditure on education increased in the latter part of the nineties with 3.4 per cent allocated of its Gross National Product (GNP).

The report also revealed that the `pupil-teacher' ratio was 30 students per teacher and that the country has the highest number of female teachers at primary level (82%) along with highest rates of female literacy in South Asia.

Sri Lanka has 1.2 million illiterate individuals compared with India, which has 274 million illiterates, this is one-third of its entire population. Our country's free education system and compulsory education laws for children have been seen as responsible for the high literacy rates. Schooling is mandatory for children between the ages of 5 - 14 years. The obvious question then to be asked is - what is literacy and how is it measured? In its most basic terms, literacy means the ability to read and write.

But could this signify that if a person merely knows how to sign his name, he is then considered literate? Most literacy measurements carried out usually ask whether the individual can read and write with understanding. It is based on the negative or positive response given by the person and not an actual test.

"There are two kinds of literacy - adult and youth literacy. The United Nations Global Human Development Report's adult literacy definition states that a person, above the age of 15, is declared literate when he can, with understanding, read and write a short simple statement about his everyday life", says UNDP spokesman Mohan Samaranayake. "The statistics and data available in the various United Nations reports are taken from the figures released by the respective country and its national departments", he said. "Literacy tests in this country are carried out by the Census and Statistics Board".

The Census Department is the central agency responsible for the collection, compilation and dissemination of data on the demographic and socio-economic conditions of the country. The last island wide census was conducted in June/July 2001. Daily News spoke with the Department's Director A.G.W. Nanayakkara who said that when the Department conducts surveys, it asks the respondents whether they can read and write. Their answer is taken at face value and no tangible literacy tests are carried out. "At present, the literacy rate for males is 92.5% and the rate for females is 87.5%. We term literacy as the ability to read and write. The surveys that are carried out are islandwide which means it is done on a very large scale. We only ask the person whether he can read and write but we do not conduct the actual test. It is not our job, we only gather the information and interpret it. But during the last census, we asked people whether they could read and write in each of the three separate languages, that is Sinhalese, English and Tamil. That information will be released later".

"The Education Ministry does conduct literacy tests but these are only for schoolchildren within their national schools", he said. "Our job is to compile the data and then present it in a manner beneficial to others".

A spokesperson for the Education Ministry said regular aptitude tests are carried out to review the progress of children in the various schools. Tests are conducted in literacy and numeracy. The literacy test includes vocabulary, comprehension and writing. The numeracy test includes items on conceptual understanding, knowledge of procedures and problem-solving. The life skills tests include test items for sub-skills, namely, duties and responsibilities, science skills, environmental skills and health skills.

In designing these tests, the syllabus used at primary level is also considered.In a bid to lower adult illiteracy, the Ministry joined the UNESCO/UNICEF Monitoring Learning Achievement (MLA) project in 1994. The Ministry conducts also literacy classes for adults and out-of-schoolchildren in comprehension and numeracy. In 1996, 8,236 children were enrolled in 422 literacy classes in the country.

Sri Lanka can truly be proud of its achievements in the education sphere. Though lacking in some essentials, the Government has identified this key-area to success and is regularly updating its efforts. It is hoped that we can regain our place at the top of the table once again.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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