Literacy and Numeracy from a Lifelong Learning Perspective

SDG Target 4.6 requires that by 2030 Member States ‘ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy’ (WEF, 2016, p. 46). The principles, strategies and actions for this target are ‘underpinned by a contemporary understanding of literacy not as a simple dichotomy of “literate” versus “illiterate”, but as a continuum of proficiency levels’ which ‘depend on specific contexts’. The aim is that ‘by 2030, all young people and adults across the world should have achieved relevant and recognized proficiency levels in functional literacy and numeracy skills that are equivalent to levels achieved at successful completion of basic education’ (ibid., p. 47).