Directory: Education
International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS)

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Abstract:

The International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) was a seven-country
initiative first conducted in the fall of 1994. Its goal: to create
comparable literacy profiles across national, linguistic and cultural
boundaries. The survey also offers the world's only source of
comparative data on participation in adult education and training. The
results, published in the report "Literacy, economy and society: Results
of the first International Adult Literacy Survey" (Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Statistics Canada,
1995), demonstrated a strong plausible link between literacy and a
country's economic potential. Since then, a second and a third round of
data collection of IALS were conducted in an additional 16 countries in
1996 and in 1998. Several thematic reports and international comparative
reports were published following these second and third waves of data
collection. In total, IALS includes literacy data pertaining to 23
countries or regions around the world.

The Canadian component of the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS)
was conducted in 1994. The main purpose of the survey was to find out
how well adults used printed information to function in society. Another
aim was to collect data on the incidence and volume of participation in
adult education and training, and to investigate the relationships
between initial and adult education, on the one hand, and literacy
proficiency and wider economic and social outcomes, on the other.

Note:
Participants of the first two rounds of IALS are referenced in this
guide as part of the first cycle (1994, 1996), whereas participants of
the third round are referenced as the second cycle (1998).

Downladed 
June 06, 2007
CK