Most of us can barely remember the short period of time in our lives before we learnt to read and write. In the UK our high adult literacy rate often means that skills such as reading and writing are taken for granted.
However, despite our developed system of education, the National Literacy Trust estimates that around 5.2 million adults in England (or 16%) are “functionally illiterate”. According to the Trust, this means that although such adults do have a basic level of literacy, “Many areas of employment would not be open to them (…) and they may also struggle to support their children with reading and homework, or perform other everyday tasks”.
So, in a world where 17% of our adult population is still non-literate, this Sunday’s International Literacy Day gives us the perfect chance to recognise the importance of reading and writing skills, not only as links that help us to communicate with each other, but as vectors for personal empowerment and wider socio-economic development.
UNESCO has been celebrating International Literacy Day since the 1970s and sees it as an opportunity to remind the world that, “literacy is a human right and the foundation of all learning”. Indeed, by choosing “Literacies of the 21st century” as its theme, UNESCO aims to highlight “the need to realize ‘basic literacy skills for all’ as well as equip everyone with more advanced literacy skills as part of lifelong learning.”
So what does this mean in practice, and Malawi how can you get involved? UNESCO suggests several ways to help promote literacy in your local community: from donating old books to a local school and starting a reading club, to volunteering as a literacy teacher or becoming a mentor for a non-literate person.
If you’re thinking further afield, there’s also an abundance of opportunities to volunteer as a teacher in countries where literacy rates are far lower than those in more developed countries, and where your skills can really be put to good use. Lattitude volunteers in Ghana, for example, help to teach children from their early years through to secondary school level. Some volunteers even find that they have one or two adults in their classes, who never had the funds to go to school the first time round and are picking their education up from the beginning.
Also in Africa, our programmes in i are similarly grassroots in nature. Our volunteers in Malawi help to teach literacy alongside other subjects such as maths, geography and sport. As well as our longer core placements in Ghana and Malawi, Lattitude volunteers can now also help in these countries via our ICS structured programmes.
Whether you decide to help improve the education of other people abroad, or you choose to dedicate some of your free time to promoting literacy here in the UK, there is no doubt that you will be equipping someone with invaluable skills that will last a lifetime.
