Revisit Literacy Definition and Assessment Procedure

Bangladesh has moved forward in many sectors of development including education and economy, during the past four-and-a-half decades after its Independence but its definition of literacy stayed stagnant since then. Ability of writing a letter to communicate a message– is the official definition of literacy in Bangladesh. National censuses, and sample surveys conducted by various institutions including Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) use this definition. Information is collected by asking the household heads about such ability of each of the members. This ‘reported’ information is decoded dichotomously – literate or non-literate. 

On the other hand, highlighting the problems related to dichotomous assessment of literacy, UNESCO has been advocating for long for a recognition of the continuum in defining and measuring literacy skills. The industrialized countries (OECD and North America) have taken the idea seriously and test-based literacy assessment at various levels of skills has long been practiced there, including some Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) recently.
The Education Watch, in 2002, for the first time in Bangladesh, made an attempt to broaden the scope of the concept of literacy. 
The definition reads, Possession of skills in reading, writing and numeracy related to familiar contents and contexts and the ability to use these skills in everyday life in order to function effectively in society. 
This definition contains four domains of skills. These are Reading, Writing, Numeracy and Application of these three skills. Following this definition a national sample survey was conducted in the same year and literacy of the population was assessed through a test and measured the status at four levels viz., non-literate, semi-literate, literate at initial level and literate at advanced level. 
The above process of literacy assessment was repeated by the Dhaka Ahsania Mission and BBS, in 2005 and 2008, respectively. Unfortunately, the initiative did not move further. Although, the then Secretary of the Planning Division in the Ministry of Planning said, ‘the new approach and methodology adopted in this survey may be used for the future surveys of this kind for getting reliable estimate of literacy of the country’. 
No other effort was made to use this methodology to collect literacy statistics; BBS continued to use the old approach. The Education Watch administered a fresh national assessment in 2016 and observed that more than two million initial and advanced level literates add in the population every year. 
The ability to ‘identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute’ is emphasized by UNESCO in line with the education related Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) which specifies numeracy as a skill to be acquired along with literacy. This sounds something similar to that attempted by Education Watch group. 
Analysing the current official practice in Bangladesh the Education Watch group identified the following drawbacks in literacy assessment.
a.    The definition is very elementary. It does not reflect the level of literacy skills necessary for a person to function in the present development stage of the country. 
b.    This is not in line with the expectation of education related SDG. ‘Numeracy skills’ is mentioned in SDG and literacy skills are seen as the foundation of lifelong learning.
c.    Dichotomously measured Literacy (literate and non-literate) does not represent the way literacy is acquired which happens in a continuous process. The continuum of literacy needs to be acknowledged in the definition and measurement of literacy. 
Therefore, the national definition of literacy needs to be revisited with the aim of making literacy skills the foundation of lifelong learning as envisioned in SDG. At the same time, a national assessment-based literacy measurement should be adopted. 
The archaic measurement method and the dichotomous definition of literacy are no longer useful. A test-based literacy assessment that establishes different skill levels should guide measurement of literacy skills and design of school programmes. 
Likely to Labour Force Surveys (LFS) and Household Income and Expenditure Surveys (HIES), a separate test-based assessment of literacy should be a regular activity of the government statistics department. 
This can be done by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) or the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics (BANBEIS).

 

Revisit Literacy Definition and Assessment Procedure

Bangladesh has moved forward in many sectors of development including education and economy, during the past four-and-a-half decades after its Independence but its definition of literacy stayed stagnant since then. Ability of writing a letter to communicate a message is the official definition of literacy in Bangladesh. National censuses, and sample surveys conducted by various institutions including Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) use this definition. Information is collected by asking the household heads about such ability of each of the members. This reported information is decoded dichotomously literate or non-literate. On the other hand, highlighting the problems related to dichotomous assessment of literacy, UNESCO has been advocating for long for a recognition of the continuum in defining and measuring literacy skills. The industrialized countries (OECD and North America) have taken the idea seriously and test-based literacy assessment at various levels of skills has long been practiced there, including some Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) recently. The Education Watch, in 2002, for the first time in Bangladesh, made an attempt to broaden the scope of the concept of literacy. The definition reads, Possession of skills in reading, writing and numeracy related to familiar contents and contexts and the ability to use these skills in everyday life in order to function effectively in society. This definition contains four domains of skills. These are Reading, Writing, Numeracy and Application of these three skills. Following this definition a national sample survey was conducted in the same year and literacy of the population was assessed through a test and measured the status at four levels viz., non-literate, semi-literate, literate at initial level and literate at advanced level. The above process of literacy assessment was repeated by the Dhaka Ahsania Mission and BBS, in 2005 and 2008, respectively. Unfortunately, the initiative did not move further. Although, the then Secretary of the Planning Division in the Ministry of Planning said, the new approach and methodology adopted in this survey may be used for the future surveys of this kind for getting reliable estimate of literacy of the country. No other effort was made to use this methodology to collect literacy statistics; BBS continued to use the old approach. The Education Watch administered a fresh national assessment in 2016 and observed that more than two million initial and advanced level literates add in the population every year. The ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute is emphasized by UNESCO in line with the education related Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) which specifies numeracy as a skill to be acquired along with literacy. This sounds something similar to that attempted by Education Watch group. Analysing the current official practice in Bangladesh the Education Watch group identified the following drawbacks in literacy assessment. a. The definition is very elementary. It does not reflect the level of literacy skills necessary for a person to function in the present development stage of the country. b. This is not in line with the expectation of education related SDG. Numeracy skills is mentioned in SDG and literacy skills are seen as the foundation of lifelong learning. c. Dichotomously measured Literacy (literate and non-literate) does not represent the way literacy is acquired which happens in a continuous process. The continuum of literacy needs to be acknowledged in the definition and measurement of literacy. Therefore, the national definition of literacy needs to be revisited with the aim of making literacy skills the foundation of lifelong learning as envisioned in SDG. At the same time, a national assessment-based literacy measurement should be adopted. The archaic measurement method and the dichotomous definition of literacy are no longer useful. A test-based literacy assessment that establishes different skill levels should guide measurement of literacy skills and design of school programmes. Likely to Labour Force Surveys (LFS) and Household Income and Expenditure Surveys (HIES), a separate test-based assessment of literacy should be a regular activity of the government statistics department. This can be done by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) or the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics (BANBEIS).