Importance of Promoting Literacy

From pictographic signs or an alphabet we can receive written information or communicate information to others. If someone does not know the writing code of their cultural and social context, they are illiterate. Consequently, literacy is the process of learning some written code. In a nutshell, it comes down to knowing read and write, implying a basic door to knowledge.

History shows that being outside this group implies allowing manipulation and abuse of rights. Unfortunately we live in societies that prioritize knowledge and that at the same time repress and belittle those who do not have access. Although one can argue that it is wrong to generalize, this is a reality that cannot be hidden despite the innocence and awareness that you can express yourself on an individual level.

Non-literacy is a serious social problem

For a person to know an alphabet, it is necessary that he can access a education system regulated. There are several methods for the little ones to manage a reading-writing system. All of them are activated during the first years of school education. This learning is absolutely essential to start in other more advanced and complex knowledge.

If for whatever reason an individual is not literate, he will become someone who cannot integrate into the larger society in which he lives. In other words, knowing how to read and write is the first step to start a learning process and to be part of a community. This reality can be known and for this a very specific parameter has been established, the literacy rate. It is a social indicator that determines the prosperity and human development of a nation.

If in a nation its inhabitants had all kinds of raw materials but were not literate, the The consequences of this situation would be very serious: pockets of marginalization and poverty, social conflicts, unemployment etc

The literacy rate of a country refers to the percentage of the population older than 15 years who have been literate and, therefore, who can read and write. Along with health and per capita income, the percentage of literate people make up the fundamental part of the Human Development Index or HDI.

According to UNESCO data from 2010, there are three levels of literacy rates: a group of countries that is around 100% (for example, Cuba, Norway, Russia, Spain or Mexico), those countries that have a rate below 90% (such as Peru, Turkey, Saudi Arabia or El Salvador) and those countries with a rate below 80% (such as Nicaragua, Guatemala, Tanzania or Morocco).

Blind people and the braille system

For centuries blind people could not access knowledge for an obvious reason: they did not have a reading-writing system at their disposal. With the invention of the braille system beginning In the 19th century, the blind had the possibility of accessing information, knowledge and culture in general.

Fotolia. Marine / Maud