Illiteracy: A Global Problem

Fact: learning to read is the most important skill any child can acquire. Strangely, many societies and cultures do not stress the value of learning this important skill. Most people living in western societies assume that illiteracy is vacant from the civilized world because of the importance put on education and learning. Even America, the home of free education, falls culprit to illiteracy. According to the National Adult Literacy Survey, 42 million Americans are unable to read and 50 million Americans’ reading comprehension levels are so low that they are limited to a 4th or 5th grade reading level. Other studies show that illiteracy is closely related to unemployment, public assistance, crime and prison attendance.

So if illiteracy is so closely related to many other prominent social problems, why haven’t we tried to fix it? The answer to this question cannot be answered easily, but there are many possible solutions. First, we must change the way we teach children how to read. Secondly, we must encourage children to read at home, with their parents and by themselves. Finally, and maybe the most difficult, each society must reevaluate their values and norms that inhibit literacy. This basic formula for curing illiteracy can be adapted for most any country and society, ranging from the United States to struggling third world countries.

Since the 1930’s, schools in America having been teaching reading by ‘showing’ words then ‘telling’ the students the pronunciation of the word, giving this method the nickname, ‘show and tell’. The idea of this method is to build a large vocabulary of words the child knows. However, this method fails to effectively teach children the basic sounds and usages of each letter—phonics. Studies show that teaching intensive, systematic phonics proves more effective than the visual and memorization based ‘show and tell’ method, because students are able to dissect all sorts of words, even ones they do not know.

The second step in curing illiteracy involves persuading children to read inside and outside of the classroom, especially in their homes. Reading to a child throughout their early years is a proven way to help children learn to love to read. Establishing community based libraries, such as the ones created by Foundations for Learning, allows exposure to literature not found in the home and fosters life-long reading skills.

Finally, we must encourage change in our society’s values that inhibit learning to read. In America, we face a technology driven younger generation, but does this inhibit illiteracy? Yes and no. Most of today’s youth would probably say that playing video games offers more immediate entertainment than reading a book; some youth would probably say that they even prefer video games to books for this reason. At the same time, Amazon has produced the ‘Kindle’, which offers thousands of full-length books in the palm of your hand. So as for technology, we simply must be careful in how we use it and prevent it from replacing the valuable skill of reading. In other countries, reading education has been only extended to boys, leaving the girls, who will eventually rear the next generation, illiterate. This selective education does not benefit the society and leaves a remarkable gap between the value of female and male lives. Unfortunately, changing these values will take time and considerable effort.

Fact: the problem of illiteracy exists in all societies and it is up to us to change it, one step at a time.

Written by: Ami Benson