This article aims to examine pervious literacy surveys and the change of the definition of literacy among international organizations, and to show what sort of surveys are necessary today. A literacy survey should be based on the expansion of the concept of literacy and its plurality, focusing on the ability to read and write. Its object is to clarify the number of low literate people, their backgrounds and opportunities to learn. Though any national literacy survey has not been conducted, recent local surveys show that there are not a few people who need learning literacy, which has developed as a liberation movement, and stressed the importance of learners’ participation in the management of classes, mutual learning related to their living conditions and comprehension of the relationship between themselves and society. A new literacy survey should assess the ability to communicate including using ICT and physical expression, inquire into the factors which define low literacy, and find opportunities of learning literacy, analyzing the needs of low literate people in detail, whose data are more important than the average mark of people at large.

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