Importance of Literacy and

Consequences of Illiteracy
By: Phoyphailinh Sourisak (Leah), 10
Citizenship

Introduction

Literacy is certainly one of the most

fundamental parts to both personal and
social development. It’s not simply just a
skill but it plays a significant role in our
lives. People should learn to adapt to
literacy during their infancy. It can be
difficult, tough and boring for children but
it is very beneficial towards them once
they’re all adults. As a matter of fact, one
of them can even be a billionaire!

History and development

During the old times, humans were not

using letters and write as
we do it today! Instead, they were using
symbols and cave paintings in order to
speak to one and another. That explains
how history involves many backstories
behind the paintings.
Once time has passed, soon they began
to invent alphabetical letters and then it
leads to modern age when we all
communicate formally.
It is safe to say that literacy has evolved
from ancient letters, it frankly does look
complex compares to the modern times,
considering the years they’ve went
through.
Soon, literacy has been developed as
time has passed. From cave paintings to
emails/messages and now you can even
read digital maps. Now that technology
has been invented, things are more
convenient for us and there are more
educational sources where people can
engage in academic activities!

In today’s world, 14% of the population

aren’t able to read, write or understand
 what has been spoken or written while
86% of the population are able to do so!
What may be the cause of illiteracy? Well,
it fundamentally has something to do with
the economy of the area. There might not
have enough schools, going through
poverty and some individuals might even
have learning disabilities!

Now what is literacy? Literacy is all about

the ability to read, write, and understand
written or spoken language effectively.
For basics, the key points include; writing,
reading, vocabulary, fluency, language,
knowledge building, so on and so forth...
Literacy helps individuals to be able to
understand, create and think critically
when facing problems. On the contrary,
illiteracy significantly displays challenges
towards individuals who are unable to
read or write. This can impact both the
community and individuals in many ways,
low literacy rate can reduce productivity
causing the economy to decline.
 Being literate:

‘’Once you learn how to read, your life will

forever be free’’
-Frederick Douglass

Generally, we all need to communicate in

order to be able to understand each
other, this also explains how literacy is
important and plays a fundamental part
in us, humans. It helps us to enhance our
communication skills which also leads to
the second point, more employment
opportunities. Communication is
extremely crucial in most occupations
meaning you’ll have to interact with
many, many people.
More in depth about the employment
opportunities, you must have an
academic success. How so? You must be
able to engage with educational materials
and can comprehend each materials as
well. This helps to motor your brain to
become more active and soon, your
memory function will be improved.
 Moreover, you must be skilled in thinking
critically. It involves being able to read
and analyze texts which will lead
individuals to thinking critically along with
enhancing problem-solving skills and that
is also beneficial for future/occupational
purposes.
Also, you can take an essay writing
competition as an example for a benefit.
Not only does it add more to your
portfolio, it can also build your knowledge
particularly about the subject. You have
now mastered that subject!
Literacy helps us to explore different
cultures too as each cultures has different
communicating styles, traditions and
cultural knowledge! This greatly helps
tourists to learn languages and be able to
connect or interact with the locals when
visiting various countries. People can also
explore different religions as each
religious texts has been spoken or written
in different languages, this leads to each
community gaining recognition and
 traditional appreciation from around the
world.
Lastly, for the benefits, literacy also
strengthens the memory function.
Literacy significantly enhances memory
as it involves the brain to process
analytical descriptions, causing the brain
to go active as you’ll need to understand
and remember this critical piece of
information.
A case scenario for this is, when taking an
examination. You’ll need to have a good
memory and the skill to hold pieces of
information firmly in order to answer the
questions along with passing the class.
Writing by hand is a form of physical
engagement which is a learning style for
some people. That helps in reinforcing
memory as well which is highly effective
for revision.

Singapore is a good example for a

country with high level of literacy and a
well-developed education system as
Singapore has well trained teachers along
 with early years of education, meaning
kids are exposed to education during their
early childhoods.

Being illiterate
“The person who deserves most pity is a
lonesome one on a rainy day who doesn't
know how to read.”
-Benjamin Franklin
While those were the positive aspects,
14% of the population in today’s world
defines people who are illiterate, meaning
they have little education, unable to read
or write due to limited educational
resources.
Illiteracy is indeed a global issue that
affects many countries, especially
countries that has high level of poverty.

Being illiterate severely led individuals to

limited job and educational opportunities
due to the individual’s unexperienced
past with occupation or proper education.
In addition to that, people with low
literacy will often face challenges such as
 finding high paying jobs, the right
education and an easy life. This can cause
a decline in the country’s economy as
well because the poverty issues have not
been solved or has come to a halt.

Secondly, illiteracy can lead to cultural

disconnection. With individuals not having
the able to read or write, they will not
have access to cultures, traditional and
historical texts / records!
Low literacy rates do have consequences
as communities or locals won’t be able to
spread a word of their culture’s identity
and maintain them.
Moreover, individuals are likely to miss
out on important meanings behind texts,
words or even paintings, leading to lack
of knowledge in historical views.

Thirdly, their problem-solving skills will be

very poor. Literacy is crucial when it
comes to this case. They will have
difficulties comprehending analytical
information, unable to properly make
decisions in which leads to a poor quality
of life. Problem-solving skills are
extremely fundamental towards us,
humans because life has a lot of times
where we will have to carefully make
decisions whatsoever. Thus, people with
low level of literacy will often face
troubles when it comes to cases like this.

To add on, individuals are most likely to

face criticism as they are unable to read
or write like other people. This causes the
individual’s self-esteem to decrease,
leading to social exclusion. These people
will feel embarrassment, shame and
discriminated as a result of when they are
viewed as ‘’much less capable of doing
such simple things that everyone should
be able to do’’.

Lastly, for example: Niger, a country

located in West Africa has a high rate of
illiteracy due to poverty, limited access to
education and faces lethal health
problems.
The causes of these problems are lack of
schools in the country. The country
severely suffers from shortage of schools
and lack access to basic educational
facilities or materials to provide to young
pupils.

Poverty also influences iliteracy in Niger.

Huge number of families are immensely
struggling to send their children to school
considering the costs of the uniforms,
materials, school fees, et cetera …
This limits the opportunities of the
children to gain general knowledge from
around the world.

In general, it can be said that Literacy

plays such a fundamental part in our
lives, not only it is a pathway to being
skilled in reading or writing, you can also
gain problem-solving skills, master in
analytical thinking, improve your memory
function, and learn more about the
outside world. To be extremely skilled in
any of those names that are given,
children should start training during the
early of their childhoods.

Literacy brings more occupational

opportunities to individuals along with
scholarships. Literacy can solve poverty,
achieve economic growth as well as a
developed intellect.
On the contrary, illiteracy can reduce an
individual’s chances on getting a proper /
well-paid job and most likely to struggle
with everyday tasks like reading maps,
signs or the instructions on medicines.
Understanding and analyzing texts or
documents can be immensely tough for
them given that, they have not gained
the experience in analyzing texts
properly.

Summary:

To sum it all up, people from around the

world shall raise awareness to assist
people who are limited to education and
 are facing lethal problems in their
country.
Literacy helps people to achieve an
academic success and to have their
dreams accomplished.
Illiteracy creates a decline in the
economy, lacks of knowledge about the
world or cultures, and creates social
exclusion for the individual.
Creating a comfortable environment and
not making citizens feel discriminated can
be a source of motivation for them to
seek help, push them and to keep trying.
For countries that have insufficient
numbers of schools, organizations should
take the issues into account and try to
assist the youths to get proper education.