16. Literacy

You have to collect information in part 2 for all persons mentioned in statement 1.1 and statement 1.2 of part 1. Some of the following questions have been answered in part 1. Therefore there will be no need to ask these questions again. In such cases all you have to do is to copy the information in the appropriate column.

69. Column 16: literacy

69.1. This information should be collected for all persons. Literacy is the ability to read and write with understanding in any language. A person is a literate when he/she can both read and write a simple message in any language or dialect. A person who cannot both read and write a simple message is considered illiterate. Also to be considered as illiterate is that person who is capable of writing or reading only his/her own name or numbers, as well as persons who can read but not write, or vice versa. For the present survey all children of the age of 6 years or less (i.e. completed age 0,1,2,3,4,5 and 6) should be treated as illiterate

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even if the child is going to a school and may have picked up reading and writing a few odd words in a language.

69.2 A person who knows how to read and write but at the time of the survey he/she can no longer read and write due to some physical defects or illness is still considered literate. An example of this is an aged person who knows how to read and write but can no longer perform these activities due to poor eyesight. Disabled persons who can read and write through any means such as Braille system for the blind, are considered literate.

69.3 Having described the concept of literacy, the following instructions are given for filling-in cols.16(a) and 16(b). For children aged 6 or less enter code 2 in col.16 (a) and code 1 in col.16(b).

69.4 Column16(a): literacy in Khmer language

The person aged 7 and above should be asked whether he/she can read and write with understanding in Khmer language. If the answer is yes, record 1 in col. 16(a). If it is No, record 2 in that column. If you are not sure whether the person can read and write, you may show the person the survey instruction manual and ask him to read a line or ask him to write a simple sentence in Khmer.