Literacy: Gateway to a World of Exploits

Biale Zua

doi:10.7575/aiac.ijels.v.9n.1p.96

Abstract

The importance of literacy to the personal development of an individual and existence of any nation cannot be overemphasized. Literacy is the foundation for meaningful development of any nation. It is not a single entity but an interconnection of several fields―education, health, agriculture, and more. For example, a literate individual can have access to information relating to her career or business. However, not every individual in the society is literate enough to contribute to national development. Thus, strong literacy skills are necessary to function in today’s contemporary society. This research examines literacy across African countries with a view of determining countries with high literacy rates. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa have low literacy rates with gender and regional disparity. Therefore, sub-Saharan Africa national governments need to develop strong literacy skills in their countries to participate effectively in the globalized society.

Highlights

Literacy plays an indispensable role in the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4: “Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning”
This paper examines adult literacy as distinct from children’s literacy across African countries
In 2017, statistics showed that the adult literacy rate in sub-Saharan Africa was 65 percent (UNESCO, 2018)

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Literacy plays an indispensable role in the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4: “Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning”. In 2017, statistics showed that the adult literacy rate in sub-Saharan Africa was 65 percent (UNESCO, 2018) This means that one third of the African population aged fifteen years and above could neither read nor write (Shiundu, 2018). This means that the number of people above fifteen years old who can read and write in these countries is very low (Table 3) Factors responsible for these disparities range from the importance placed on education and literacy by the government to the type of non-formal literacy programs adopted by individual countries. This is a sharp contrast with global adult literacy rate in 2016 which was relatively high at 86 percent (UNESCO Institute of Statistics, 2017).

76 Senegal

Findings

CONCLUSION