Literacy, Economy and Society, produced by Statistics Canada
and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, is the first
report from the International Adult Literacy Survey. This book defines and
presents the results of tests for three types of literacy: prose
literacy, the skills and know-how needed to understand texts found in daily
life; document literacy, the ability to respond to written information
contained in materials like job applications, transportation schedules, maps,
tables and graphs; and quantitative literacy, the skills required for
daily arithmetic operations like balancing chequebooks. This is a landmark
demonstration of the intersection between literacy skills and national economic
performance. The richly nuanced skill profiles of adult populations in the
seven countries covered (including Canada) show substantial differences in both
distribution and overall performance level. As OECD countries continue to
evolve into post-industrial societies, strategies to build literacy skills, as
part of broader strategies for lifelong learning, are pivotal for developing
comparative national advantage. Published by Statistics Canada and
the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 1995. |