This manual describes a system for the international collection of annual statistics on literacy programs. The main elements of the system that are discussed are the questionnaires to be administered and the instruction to be followed when collecting essential data on literacy programs at the international, national, and local or project levels. Individual chapters discuss data collection at each of these levels. Appendixes provide additional information on how to use the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), some examples of graphs and completed forms, and a list of participants at the 1978 UNESCO Meeting on Statistics for Literacy Programmes. A bibliography and a key word index are also included. (RL)