The US-led International Security Assistance Force training mission in Afghanistan predicts that only about 50 percent of Afghan military forces will be able read and write at the 1st grade level by January 2012, according to a Department of Defense report mandated by lawmakers. ISAF "estimates that the 1st grade literacy level of enlisted soldiers and policeman [together known as the ANSF] will rise from 14 percent to over 50 percent in the next ten months," states the congressionally mandated report, which covers progress in Afghanistan from the beginning of October 2010 through the end of March 2011. That means that the illiteracy rate among the ANSF recruits is expected to drop from 86 percent to 50 percent by January 2012, ten months from the end of March 2011.