Illiteracy​—A Worldwide Problem

By Awake! correspondent in Nigeria

ALMAZ lives in Ethiopia. When her daughter fell sick, the doctor prescribed a bottle of medicine. But Almaz was not able to read the correct dosage​—how much should she give, and when? Fortunately, a neighbor could read the prescription. The medicine was properly given, and the child recovered.

Ramu is a farmer in India. When the time came for his daughter to marry, he decided to mortgage his land to borrow money from a local moneylender. Since he could neither read nor write, he used his thumbprint to sign a document that he did not understand. Some months later Ramu discovered that the document was a sales agreement​—his land now belonged to someone else.

Michael worked on a large farm in the United States. His supervisor told him to give the cattle a food supplement. Michael found two bags lying in the shed, but he could not read the writing on them. He chose the wrong one. Several days later, the cattle were dead. Michael had fed them poison. He was immediately fired.

Illiteracy​—the inability to read and write—​cost Michael his job. It cost his employer a herd of prime beef cattle. It cost Ramu his land. It could have cost Almaz her baby.

According to UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization), more than a quarter of the world’s adult population​—over 960 million men and women—​can neither read nor write.a In developing nations, 1 in every 3 adults is illiterate. Like Almaz, Ramu, and Michael, these millions are unable to decipher a street sign, a newspaper, or a passage from the Bible. They are denied access to the vast storehouse of information found in magazines and books. They cannot write a letter or fill out a simple form. Most cannot even sign their name. Unable to compete for jobs where basic reading and writing are required, many remain unemployed, their talents untapped, their abilities undeveloped.

These figures do not include the legions of adults who are functionally illiterate​—able to read and write at an elementary level but not well enough to handle the more complex reading and writing tasks of everyday life. In the United States alone, functionally illiterate adults number 27 million.

And what of children? Although figures are incomplete, since surveys have not been conducted in all countries, the United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that 100 million school-​age children worldwide will never enter a classroom. Another 100 million will not complete even a basic education. In fact, the UN Department of Public Information claims that in the rural areas of the developing world, only half the children receive more than four years of primary education. And in some industrialized nations, many children spend far more time in front of television than they do in school.

Illiterate children generally grow into illiterate adults. What contributes to this global problem? What can be done to help an adult who cannot read or write? These questions will be considered in the next article.

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More than a quarter of the world’s adult population can neither read nor write