The invention of counting

Periodical
Comparative Education
Volume
50
Year
2014
Issue number
3
Page range
266-281
Relates to study/studies
PIAAC Cycle 1

The invention of counting

The statistical measurement of literacy in nineteenth-century England

Abstract

This article examines the invention of counting literacy on a national basis in nineteenth-century Britain. Through an analysis of Registrar Generals' reports, it describes how the early statisticians wrestled with the implications of their new-found capacity to describe a nation's communications skills in a single table and how they were unable to escape their model of a society of isolated individuals divided into the literate and illiterate. The continuing influence of this approach is traced in the recent report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIACC).