Measuring Literacy Gap in the World for Economic and Social Development: Evidence from Selected Countries and the Lessons Learned

Abstract

Literacy rate is a major indicator of economic and social development, the campaign for growth and improvement in this area by several international organizations have caused significant growth in all major regions of the world. The persistent theme to these various programs is that illiteracy is nonetheless prevalent in the world and more study needed to eradicate it, thus generates a significant interest in this issue. Therefore, the primary goal of this current study is to compare five major regions in the world as classified by the World Bank in regards to the differences which exist in literacy. The study concludes that literacy rates of male and female across the regions are different for Youth literacy between the age of 15 and 24. The vast conclusion is that that there is a no significant difference in male literacy among the regions in the world except for Africa. While no significant difference in female literacy among the regions in the world.