After World War II, educational development efforts focused on expanding formal schooling. But research and experience have shown that schooling does not necessarily produce literacy or the kinds of literacy that students need. Therefore formal schooling programs might not be the best way of investing scarce literacy resources. There may be more effective means of teaching literacy skills in some areas that are more tailored to the needs of the community. See the Tok Ples Project for some insight into nonformal schooling.
Literacy is of central importance to development.
Increasingly, it is correlated with higher income and job productivity. The social consequences of low levels of literacy in some cultures can include higher prison incarceration rates, welfare dependency, and higher fertility. From the poorest village in Bangladesh to the elegant boulevards of Paris, one can hear the refrain of the economic rationale for literacy development. Few countries are oblivious to the perception that a literate and skilled populace can have an important impact on the social and economic life of nations. Numerous claims have been put forward that a given minimum rate of literacy is a prerequisite for economic growth in developing countries, and we can read headlines in North American newspapers today which proclaim that, in the context of global competition, low adult literacy will be the economic ruination of previously well-off countries such as Canada and the United States.