Jonaki - An mLearning Tool to Reduce Illiteracy in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a densely populated country with a high rate of illiteracy. The largest group that contributes to this high rate is from the adult population. Due to the widespread acceptance of mobile phones, developing mobile phone based adult literacy learning tools may help the country with literacy issues. This paper introduces one such mobile application called "Jonaki" a simple yet powerful self-learning mobile application to teach people how to read and write Bengali. With the help of audio and video, the application creates a friendly learning environment for the illiterates. With the help of surveys on mobile phone usage by people with zero level education, the user interface of the application is made an easy one. If utilized by the government and the mobile operators, Jonaki may drastically reduce illiteracy in Bangladesh within a short span of time.