Too much has been going on in the world this week to recognise and mark World Literacy Day.
As politics, inflation and climate change disasters grab our attention, we tend to devote less time to continuing challenges in our societies.
It is hard to believe that in today’s world of 7 billion, more than 15 per cent is still illiterate, lacking in basic skills of reading, writing or arithmetic.
World Literacy Day, observed on September 8 every year, is meant to draw attention to this inadequacy. Launched by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), the event is intended to address issues of equality in access to literacy and create awareness and opportunities for everybody.
Literacy is defined as “the quality or state of being literate: educated…able to read and write”.
It may sound simple enough to those who take schools and education for granted, but literacy is in no way guaranteed, especially in today’s times when large populations are displaced by natural and human-made disasters.
The theme for the 2022 World Literacy Day is “transforming literacy learning spaces”. This is mainly in response to the pandemic which effectively redefined the way in which space is defined.
Classrooms were quickly replaced by any corner of a house and learning came on the screen instead of a teacher in the flesh.
Daunting as this change was for most, it is difficult to imagine that millions just lost complete access to education due to the lack of digital infrastructure and devices.
The learning space which was once even an informal thatched room in a remote village suddenly disappeared and many of those young learners are now lost to literacy, as bringing them back to schools will be an uphill task.
The ray of hope in all this is that education is now a grassroots project, with local communities everywhere taking responsibility for education.
There is a lot that one can do at a local level to help to raise literacy in the community. Individuals can help in education by gifting books or creating small community libraries. Small, bird feeder sized boxes can be found dotting public spaces like parks and beaches where everyone can borrow, replace or just sit and read a book, or even just look at pictures in a book.
Visiting disadvantaged communities and volunteering to read aloud, enacting a favourite scene or helping to draw or colour helps to spur interest in young learners who have not had formal education.
Even more effective is making children participate in the act of learning. It makes them feel responsible and have a sense of ownership, so that the little victories of getting a spelling or a math problem right will feel like a large step.
The fact that so many children and adults have been left behind in the race for literacy remains a cause for concern, but knowing that we can all do our bit to solve this issue remains a reason to hope.
Sandhya Rao Mehta
The writer is Assoc Prof, Department of
English, Language and Literature
Sultan Qaboos University
