Women are still behind men though the adult literacy rate has increased in the country, said a study conducted by Dhaka Ahsania Mission (Dam) yesterday.

According to the study titled 'Assessment of Literacy Status in Bangladesh 2005', the adult literacy rate was 41.5 percent last year.

Of the literate, 47 percent were male and 36.7 percent were female showing a sharp rise of adult literacy rate which was 38.8 percent in 2002.

Similar to gender disparity in literacy, rural- urban difference is also big as the study covering eight geographical strata and 3629 households shows adult literacy rate in rural areas was 36.7 percent while it was 55.7 percent in urban areas.

The study was revealed at a seminar at Cirdap auditorium in the city.

Dam President Kazi Rafiqul Alam chaired the seminar where former adviser to caretaker government Kazi Fazlur Rahman was present as chief guest.

The study considering the age of over 11 years as adult found that 45.3 percent of the adult population have reading skill.

The school attendance rate is 81 percent.

The study also revealed that the parents' literacy has a great bearing upon the level of literacy of their offspring.

The chance of being non-literate for a child is about 50 percent even if its one parent is literate.

The study recommended reforms at secondary and improvement at primary education system.

Wolfgang Vollmann, country representative of Unesco, said there exist confusions in respect of literacy rate in Bangladesh.

In 2000, it was officially claimed that the literacy rate had reached 65 percent which was not accepted by many, he added.

"In this context, Unesco launched the study with a view to have a dependable foundation on which various planning exercises could be successfully pursued," Wolfgang said.

"As the government halted adult education programme in 2001 and closed the directorate of non-formal

education, the pace of adult literacy rate has slowed down," said Prof Nurul Islam, an educationist, adding adult education should be continued beside primary or basic education and it should be work-oriented.

He also demanded of the government to restart the directorate of non-formal education.

President of Education for All programme in Nigeria Amina Ibrahim, Associate Director of Dam Prof Ali Akbar, former Vice-chancellor of Jahangirnagar University Prof Kazi Saleh Ahmed and Dam Director (Research) Prof Amanullah Mia also spoke on the occasion.