The Bangladesh standard for literacy set by the government lags behind the international standard and does not fit the needs of the country’s workforces in this fast-growing world, educationists and researchers view.

Casting doubt on the current percentage of the literacy rate, they also said that the rate would likely be lower had the literacy rate of the country’s population been measured against the international standard.

Following the international standard for literacy, an improved quality of education and inclusion of more technical and life-skills based education are also musts for sustainable literacy, they added.

Against this backdrop, Bangladesh is observing International Literacy Day today highlighting this year’s theme ‘promoting multilingual education: literacy for mutual understanding and peace’.

In 2023, the literacy rate among the population aged over seven years was 77.9 per cent, according to the ‘Bangladesh Sample Vital Statistics 2023: key findings’ report published by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics in March this year.

The then Awami League-led government had a plan to end illiteracy by 2030 under the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals programme after it had missed the goal in 2014.

In 2014, the literacy rate among the population aged over seven years was 58.6 per cent, which was 56.7 per cent in 2009 when the Awami League-led government came to power after its previous tenure of 1996–2001.

During the three consecutive terms of the now ousted Sheikh Hasina-led government, the literacy rate increased by 21.2 per cent from 56.7 per cent in 2009 to 77.9 per cent in 2023.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation by now has taken the definition of literacy beyond its conventional concept as a set of reading, writing and counting skills, conceiving it as a means of identification, understanding, interpretation, creation, and communication in an increasingly digital, text-mediated, information-rich and fast-changing world.

Sheikh Md Alamgir, statistics division chief of the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics said that in Bangladesh literacy is defined by the ability of reading, writing and doing simple mathematics like addition and subtraction.

Campaign for Popular Education executive director Rasheda K Choudhury observed that the international standard and the Bangladesh standard for literacy do not match.

‘If the international standard was applied

we would see different

statistics on literacy,’ she says.

Professor M Wahiduzzaman, director of the Institute of Education and Research at Dhaka University, pointed out the changing definition of literacy over time.

‘Currently, literacy, according to the international standard, means functionality, and we divide people in three groups—literate, semi-literate and illiterate,’ he explained.

Functionality of reading indicates a person’s ability to grasp and summarise a material after reading it.

Functionality of writing, the professor continued, indicates the ability of a person to write letters to communicate with others.

The international definition further includes the ability to do maths in writing, M Wahiduzzaman pointed out, further explaining that in Bangladesh many people are quite able to do sums orally, but are unable to put those exercises in writing.

Doubt has always remained over the validity of the literacy data in Bangladesh, he said.

‘In the country, however, the literacy rate increased as the rate of enrolment increased and dropout rates reduced at the primary level,’ he also said.

Echoing other experts in the field, he also said that a big gap lies in the quality of literacy in Bangladesh.

‘The gap is between the standard of [literacy] in the current world and the standard of that in Bangladesh,’ he said, adding, ‘in Bangladesh the focus was always on the quantity or statistics regarding literacy while emphasis was not given on the quality of literacy.’

If the quality of literacy of a person is not sustainable, that person is always in a risk of becoming literate again, he warned.

The government should widen the opportunities for technical education to make the literacy rate sustainable, the professor added.

Rasheda K Choudhury also said that currently the literacy related projects are under the Bureau of Non-Formal Education, and closure of any of those projects would affect the target groups especially the adult population.

She urged the interim government to increase the students’ life skills by including more technical educational courses in curriculum to strengthen the sustainability of literacy.

‘The rate of literacy will also increase if the quality of education improves,’ she added.

As per different Bangladesh Sample Vital Statistics reports, the literacy rate among population aged over seven years was 76.8 per cent in 2022, 76.4 per cent in 2021, 75.2 per cent in 2020, 74.4 per cent in 2019, 73.2 per cent in 2018, 72.3 per cent in 2017, 71 per cent in 2016, 63.6 per cent in 2015, 58.6 per cent in 2014, 57.2 per cent in 2013, 56.3 per cent in 2012, 55.8 per cent in 2011, 56.8 per cent in 2010, 56.7 per cent in 2009, 55.8 per cent in 2008, 56.1 per cent in 2007, 52.5 per cent in 2006 and 52.1 per cent in 2005.