Governments the world over are engaged in a battle to create and maintain high-skilled jobs for their workforces. This relentless competition has led policy-makers to monitor one set of skills in particular: literacy.
Literacy is seen as a gateway enabling individuals to learn new skills in both the classroom and the workplace, while assuming their rights and responsibilities in society. So it is no surprise to find the most industrialized countries investing millions to develop new assessments like the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey (ALL). UNESCO believes that this kind of survey is not a luxury but a necessity for sound policy-making by countries rich and poor. Consequently, the UIS has developed the Literacy Assessment and Monitoring Programme (LAMP) in partnership with other international agencies and technical experts. LAMP builds upon the ALL survey by measuring five levels of literacy and numeracy skills through an innovative combination of household survey methods and educational assessments conducted on a five- to ten-year cycle. However, LAMP goes a step further by also measuring five component skills that underpin fluent reading. A major challenge lies in ensuring that test questions reflect local socio-cultural and linguistic circumstances. As a result, LAMP works closely with participating countries to design appropriate instruments and ensure that each assessment is tailored to the specific needs and requests of national policy-makers. Through this collaborative approach, countries strengthen local capacities to conduct their own surveys while collecting the data needed to focus on real needs and better target resources. LAMP is also a cornerstone of UNESCO's Literacy Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE), which provides a global framework for achieving the goals of the UN Literacy Decade.
For more information about LAMP, please use these links:
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