Shah Alam Nur :Despite a number of initiatives taken in last one year the literacy rate in the country now stands at 61 percent, the figure is 4 percent down from the last year.Primary and Mass Education Minister Mostafizur Rahman said this at a media briefing on Sunday ahead of the International Literacy Day on September 8. According to a new survey of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), 61 out of 100 persons of the country, aged above five years, can read and write, down from 65 percent in 2014. The Minister also said a total of one crore and 30 lakh primary school students will get monthly stipend.The proposal’s approval is now at a final stage, it is only a matter of time, he said. He said the government at present gives stipend to 78 lakh primary students in the village areas. The amount, per month, to each student is Tk 100.According to the BBS survey, which was conducted in 2013, shows illiteracy rate of people aged between 5 and 9 years is 16.43 percent, people aged between 10 and 14 years 67.38 percent, people aged between 15 and 19 years 82.17 percent, and the literacy rate of people aged between 20 and 24 years 75.09 percent.On the other hand, the literacy rate of people aged between 15 and 24 years is 78.63 per cent, added the survey.It said, literacy rate of people aged above 7 years stands at 54.19 percent, people aged above 15 years is 59.82 percent and people aged above 25 years comes at 52.75 percent.Literacy is traditionally understood as the ability to read and write. The term’s meaning has been expanded to include the ability to use language, numbers, images and other means to understand and use the dominant symbol systems of a culture.The key to all literacy is reading development, a progression of skills that begins with the ability to understand spoken words and decode written words, and culminates in the deep understanding of text. Reading development involves a range of complex language underpinnings, including awareness of speech sounds (phonology), spelling patterns (orthography), word meaning (semantics), grammar (syntax) and patterns of word formation (morphology), all of which provide a necessary platform for reading fluency and comprehension. Once these skills are acquired, the reader can attain full language literacy, which includes the abilities to apply to printed material critical analysis, inference and synthesis; to write with accuracy and coherence; and to use information and insights from text as the basis for informed decisions and creative thought.The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defined literacy as the “ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. “Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in their community and wider society,” it said.
