Today’s world is global, information-based, fast-paced and highly technological. If we, as individual human beings and collectively as societies, are going to survive and thrive now and in the future, we must be equipped with the necessary skills. Chief among these skills is literacy: to be able to read, write, understand and communicate with others.
literacy is the foundation of all skills and a prerequisite for economic development. life without literacy is life without hope, security and freedom. literacy skills are fundamental to informed decision-making, personal empowerment and active and passive participation in local and global social communities. literacy is useful at the individual level in inculcating humanistic etiquettes and manners. The human benefits from literature are related to factors such as the improved self-esteem, empowerment, creativity and critical reflection.
Education is one of the most powerful instruments known for reducing poverty and inequality and for laying the basis for a sustained economic growth. literacy has a wide range of advantages and benefits for economic, social and political development of a country. literacy programmes themselves may be designed and conducted so as to make the learners able enough to become authors of their own learning, developers of their own knowledge and partners in dialogues about limited situations in their lives. literacy programmes can contribute to broader socioeconomic processes of empowerment provided they take place in a supportive environment.
An educated and skilled workforce is one of the pillars of the knowledge-based economy and is the paramount ingredient in the economic, social and political stability and health of a nation. The positive relationship between economic development and literacy levels and the impact of investment in education on economic growth are well established. The transition of the world towards a knowledge-based economy is adding to the importance of human resources in general and of education in particular. Human resources are poised to commend an increasingly important role in the balance of world economics and, hence, political power. A recent OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) research has indicated that raising a country’s literacy score by 1 per cent leads to a rise in productivity of 2.5 per cent with a flow-on increase of 1.5 per cent in GDP (Gross Domestic Product).
A community cannot foster development without an educated population. literacy may also have social consequences that are important objectives for national policy planning. Particularly in developing countries, the gender dimension of illiteracy has been raised in this regard as the majority of illiterate or low-literate adults tend to be female in the poorest developing nations. Education can help change society by improving and strengthening skills, values, communications, mobility, personal prosperity and freedom. literacy possesses the empowering potential that can be translated into an increased political awareness and participation. It in return contributes to the quality of public policies and the democracy.
literacy serves as one of the most powerful tools a society has for reducing poverty and social/political instability. As per the Population Census of India 2011, the literacy rate of the country has shown an improvement of almost 9 per cent. It has gone up to 74.04 per cent in 2011 from 65.38 per cent in 2001, thus showing an increase of 9 per cent in the last 10 years. It consists of male literacy rate of 82.14 er cent and female literacy rate of 65.46 per cent. The global adult literacy rate in 2011, aged 15 and above, was 84 per cent. This means that in 2011, 774 million adults were illiterate. The UNESCO anticipates an increase in literacy rates by 2015 in virtually every region, except for Central and Eastern Europe, where literacy seems to be headed towards a drop of one-half a percentage point.
Speech, language and communication (SlC) skills are the first literacy skills and children who do not develop these skills suffer disadvantages that are compounded throughout their lives. Underpinning the current relationship between attitudes, behaviour and skills will embed the intrinsic motivation to read and learn and develop the disposition to lifelong learning. literacy is now frequently described as a multimodal experience, in which success is dependent on both skills and enjoyment. literacy today plays the important role that will enable an individual to create his own harmony between himself and the rapidly changing surroundings, especially with the present world. In a knowledge economy, education is the new currency, by which nations maintain economic competitiveness and global prosperity.
(The International literacy Day was observed on September 8 (Monday). Writer Dr Subhashree Das is a lecturer of English at the Dhenkanal Government College and she can be mailed at Subhashree.das1201@gmail.com)