National Adults Literacy Survey 2006
Kenya, 2006
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KEN_2006_NALS_v01_M
National Adults Literacy Survey 2006
| Name | Country code |
|---|---|
| Kenya | KEN |
Sample Frame, Households [sf/hh]
The last literacy survey carried out by the Central Bureau of Statistics in 1988 covered only rural areas and the concept of literacy only considered ability to read and write in any language.
The Kenya National Adult Literacy Survey was conducted throughout the country between June 8 to August 8, 2006 by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) and the Department of Adult Education (DAE). The purpose was to generate accurate and up-to-data on the status of adult literacy with a view of using that information to expand and strengthen literacy programmes, and also plan for general national development. Underlying this is the fact literacy is fundamental to socio-economic development and poverty alleviation. The specific objectives were:
Determine the magnitude, levels and distribution of adult literacy for persons aged 15 and above.
Obtain comprehensive data and information on adult literacy from literacy providers and stakeholders both in the private and public sectors.
Identify issues of concern, which need to be addressed in the promotion of adult literacy.
About 18,000 households were sampled for the survey and out of that, 15,696 were occupied in 4,782 in urban and 10,914 in rural areas. Out of the occupied households, 15,504 were successfully interviewed, which gave a response rate of 98.8 per cent. In addition, eight adult education centers or classes in each district were sampled and their teachers of managers interviewed to generate information on the perspective of the service providers.
The study used various instruments to collect the data. Four questionnaires were developed for the survey and targeted the following: households, individuals, institutions providing literacy, and literacy (assessment) tests. The survey was conducted in English, Kiswahili and 18 other local languages, which provided the respondents with the opportunity to respond in a language that they were quite comfortable with. Significantly, 70 per cent of the respondents took the literacy assessments tests in either English or Kiswahili. To arrive at the adult literacy levels, two methods were used: self reporting (one's ability to read and write) and actual testing (assessment of literacy skills) of the population.
Unlike previous surveys that relied on self confessions, this time round, tests were administered to examine the respondents' mastery levels in literacy and numeracy.
The competency levels in either literacy or numeracy were graded on a scale of one to five, with those who attained.
Levels Four and Five being considered as having the desirable levels of mastery of the skills, those who attained Levels.
Three, Four and Five were considered to have attained the minimum mastery level.
Sample survey data [ssd]
Population residing in households across the country
Version
2013
Scope
The scope of the National Adults Literacy Survey includes:
- Household: Gender, Age, Marital status, Religion, Tribe, school/centre attendance, educational attainment, disability and employment;
- Individual: Awareness of, participation and attendance in, adult education programmes, Self-assessment of literacy and numeracy skills, Purposes for reading, writing and computational skills, Sustainability of literacy skills, reading attitudes, and work requirements, Employment and occupation and Language and migration status;
- Institutional: Enrolment by gender for the past five years, Number of instructors by gender for the past five years, Institution's background information, Policies and programmes, Assessment of learners, Views of teachers, Teaching staff remuneration and welfare, Institutional infrastructure, Special learning needs, Language of instruction, and Monitoring and evaluation systems;
- Literacy self-assessment: Reading, Writing and Computation (numeracy).
Coverage
The sample for the KNALS covered the population residing in households across the country
All members of the household selected aged 15 years and above were eligible for inclusion in the literacy survey. However, only one eligible member from each household was selected during the administration of individual questionnaire and test items.
Producers and sponsors
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Kenya National Bureau of Statistics | Ministry of Planning and National Development |
| Department of Adult Education | Ministry of Education |
| Name |
|---|
| Government of Kenya |
| Minnistry of Education |
| Canadian International Development Agency |
| Department for International Development |
| United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization |
Sampling
A probability sample of about 18,000 households was selected for the survey to allow for separate estimates for key indicators for each of the provinces and districts in the country and for urban and rural areas separately.
The survey utilised a two-stage sample design. The first stage involved selecting clusters from the national master sample maintained by KNBS.A total of 1,200 clusters comprising 377 urban and 823 rural were selected from this master frame.
The second stage of selection involved the systematic sampling of households from a list of all households. Fifteen households were sampled from each of the sampled clusters. The household listing was updated recently while preparing for the Kenya Integrated and Household Budget Survey (KIHBS). Selection of clusters and households for the survey was done by KNBS experts in Nairobi and the sample lists were given to survey supervisors. All members of the household selected aged 15 years and above were eligible for inclusion in the literacy survey.
A total of 17,892 households were sampled of which 15,695 (4,781 urban and 10,914 rural) were occupied at the time of the survey and therefore eligible for interviews. Some of the sampled households could not be accessed because they were no longer inhabited thus contributing to a large extent to the recorded shortfall. Out of a total of 15,695 households occupied at the time of the survey, 15,504 were successfully interviewed yielding a response rate of 98.8 percent. Rural households realized a 99.7 percent response rate compared to a response rate of 96.6 percent in urban areas. Members of households aged 15 years and above were eligible for the individual interviews. Of the total 15,695 respondents identified, 15,473 were successfully interviewed, giving an individual response rate of 98.6 percent. Response rates are higher in rural areas compared to the response rates in urban areas. Response rates for the literacy assessment test were lower than those for the individual interviews. Out of15, 695 eligible respondents, 14,761 took the literacy test giving a response rate of 94.0 percent (91.3 percent urban and 95.3 percent rural).
Survey instrument
Four questionnsires are included: a household questionnaire, an individual questionnaire, an institutional questionnaire and a literacy assessment instrument.
The household questionnaire was used during the survey to list all members in the selected households. Basic information on the characteristics of each household member listed was collected using this questionnaire. Based on this basic information, all eligible members of the household were identified and one selected randomly on whom the individual questionnaire and assessment test were administered. The household questionnaire, therefore, collected information relating to the following aspects: gender, age, marital status, religion, tribe, school/centre attendance, educational attainment, disability and employment for all household members aged five years and above.
The individual questionnaire was administered to the selected household members aged 15 years and above in all the households and collected the following information:
- Awareness of, participation and attendance in, adult education programmes;
- Self-assessment of literacy and numeracy skills;
- Purposes for reading, writing and computational skills;
- Sustainability of literacy skills, reading attitudes, and work requirements;
- Employment and occupation;
- Language and migration status.
The institutional questionnaire, administered to sampled adult education centres, collected information on issues relating to the provision of adult education. The questions covered the following aspects:
- Enrolment by gender for the past five years;
- Number of instructors by gender for the past five years;
- Institution’s background information;
- Policies and programmes;
- Assessment of learners;
- Views of teachers;
- Teaching staff remuneration and welfare;
- Institutional infrastructure;
- Special learning needs;
- Language of instruction;
- Monitoring and evaluation systems.
The KNALS, apart from collecting information leading to establishing literacy levels on self-assessment, also administered a literacy assessment test to all selected respondents. The literacy levels obtained, therefore, provided information about literacy such as whether the respondents could read and understand instructions or read and make use of the information provided. Unlike past literacy surveys where respondents who had attended school up to a particular level were assumed to be literate, in this survey all respondents irrespective of their attained educational levels were subjected to the same literacy test. The KNALS thus measured literacy through direct assessment of men and women aged 15 years and above which focused on three skills: reading, writing and computation (numeracy).
Data collection
| Start | End |
|---|---|
| 2006-06-08 | 2006-08-08 |
A total of 26 interviewing teams carried out the data collection during the main survey. Each team was composed of one supervisor, an average of four research assistants and one driver except for the Teso, Maragoli, Turkana and Pokot teams that had only two research assistants per team. Data was collected over a two month period from June 8 to August 8, 2006.
The supervisors were expected to liaise with the district statistical officers to get access to cluster files and to liaise with district adult education officers to identify and fill in the institutional questionnaire, edit all questionnaires and moderate the tests through remarking a sample of the literacy assessment instruments to ensure quality.
Data processing
Data processing involved recording of all questionnaires received by cluster number, data entry and verification. Complete field edited questionnaires were sent to KNBS offices at the Nyayo House (Nairobi) for data capture and further editing. Data processing thus consisted of re-editing, recoding particularly the labour module, data entry, verification and data cleaning. After cleaning, the data was weighted to conform to the known population parameters. A team of 14 data entry clerks and two supervisors was engaged for 60 days. The following data processing programmes were used: CSPro (Census and Survey Processing System), SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) and RUMM software for analysing assessment and attitude questionnaire data based on Rasch analysis technique.
Access policy
Kenya NADA
Kenya NADA
http://statistics.knbs.or.ke/nada/index.php/catalog/58
Cost: None
Data Access
| Name | Affiliation | URL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kenya National Bureau of Statistics | Ministry of Planning National Development and Vision 2030 | www.knbs.or.ke | directorgeneral@knbs.or.ke |
| Is signing of a confidentiality declaration required? | Confidentiality declaration text |
|---|---|
| yes | Before being granted access to the dataset, all users have to formally agree: 1. To make no copies of any files or portions of files to which s/he is granted access except those authorized by the data depositor. 2. Not to use any technique in an attempt to learn the identity of any person, establishment, or sampling unit not identified on public use data files. 3. To hold in strictest confidence the identification of any establishment or individual that may be inadvertently revealed in any documents or discussion, or analysis. Such inadvertent identification revealed in her/his analysis will be immediately brought to the attention of the data depositor. |
Use of the dataset must be acknowledged using a citation which would include:
- the Identification of the Primary Investigator
- the title of the survey (including country, acronym and year of implementation)
- the survey reference number
- the source and date of download.
Example,
Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Planning and National Development; Kenya Department of Adult Education, Ministry of Education. Kenya National Adults Literacy Survey (NALS) 2006, Ref. KEN_2006_NALS_v01_M. Dataset downloaded from [url] on [date].
Disclaimer and copyrights
The user of the data acknowledges that the original collector of the data, the authorized distributor of the data bear no responsibility for use of the data or for interpretations or inferences based upon such uses.
(c) 2006, Kenya National Bureau of Statistics
Contacts
| Name | Affiliation | URL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Director General | Kenya National Bureau of Statistics | directorgeneral@knbs.or.ke | www.knbs.or.ke |
Metadata production
DDI_KEN_2006_NALS_v01_M
| Name | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Kenya National Bureau of Statistics | Ministry of Planning National Development and Vision 2030 | Data Collection and Documentation of Survey |
2006-03-22
Metadata version
Version 1 (March 2006)
Version 02 (August 2016). Edited version based on Version 01 DDI (DDI-KEN-KNBS-KNALS-2006) that was done by Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.