Examining Global Literacy

Literacy doesn’t just help with reading and writing, says an article examining global literacy. It also improves social and civil participation, personal empowerment, self-esteem and informed decision-making.

With statistics showing that over 900 million children and adults can’t read and write on the planet, of whom two-thirds are women, there is still a ways to go.

The author and previous elementary school teacher of the article “International Literacy Day: What Recent Youth Literacy Data Tell Us” says that through teaching she came to know the joy of reading with kids and the extreme difficulty for those who couldn’t.

In examining global literacy, for developing countries, in particular, knowing how to read and write are the most important factors in creating sustainable development while empowering people on an individual level, she says.

When it comes to US figures, with Latinos as the largest minority segment, a 2015 LA Times article called “Literacy Gap Between Latino and White Toddlers Starts Early, Study Shows” quoted research saying, compared to white children, four-fifths of Mexican-American toddlers were three to five months behind in oral language and pre-literacy skills.

Although, according to the article, it showed that Hispanic kids develop social skills equal to others and are being raised in a loving manner, for various reasons, such as that many Hispanic parents believe that schools can do a better job in educating their kids academically, Hispanic kids don’t always receive adequate literacy skills at home. Compared to 60 percent of white mothers, only about 18 percent of Mexican-American moms read to their kids on a daily basis.

There is a way to help build Latino parent involvement, however, and it’s getting done through a family outreach program called The Latino Family Literacy Project that offers a variety of award-winning literacy programs for different ages. By guiding teachers through a short, but thorough, workshop in their area or through an online webinar, its proven literacy programs educate parents on the advantages of reading with their children a short time each day using bilingual books. One day, hopefully, illiteracy everywhere will be a thing of the past.