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According to the Literacy Report released by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)
About one in 20 adults in the U.S. is not literate in English
11 million Americans lack the skills to handle many everyday tasks
30 million adults may not be able to make sense of a simple pamphlet
Adults with ability to perform challenging and complex reading tasks made an average yearly salary of $50,700 in 2003. That is $28,000 more than those who lacked basic skills.
Literacy statistics and juvenile court
85 percent of all juveniles who interface with the juvenile court system are functionally illiterate.
More than 60 percent of all prison inmates are functionally illiterate.
Penal institution records show that inmates have a 16% chance of returning to prison if they receive literacy help, as opposed to 70% who receive no help. This equates to taxpayer costs of $25,000 per year per inmate and nearly double that amount for juvenile offenders.
Illiteracy and crime are closely related. The Department of Justice states, "The link between academic failure and delinquency, violence, and crime is welded to reading failure." Over 70% of inmates in America's prisons cannot read above a fourth grade level.
Many of the USA ills are directly related to illiteracy. Just a few statistics:
Literacy is learned. Illiteracy is passed along by parents who cannot read or write.
One child in four grows up not knowing how to read.
43% of adults at Level 1 literacy skills live in poverty compared to only 4% of those at Level 5
3 out of 4 food stamp recipients perform in the lowest 2 literacy levels
90% of welfare recipients are high school dropouts
16 to 19 year old girls at the poverty level and below, with below average skills, are 6 times more likely to have out-of-wedlock children than their reading counterparts.
Low literary costs $73 million per year in terms of direct health care costs. A recent study by Pfizer put the cost much higher.
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U.S.A Illiterate people are missing out on 237 billion dollars total each year in money that they could be earning if they knew how to read. - The total amount of money being spent on illiteracy by the federal government is at more than ten billion dollars each year, which grows steadily.
Source: Education Portal (September 2007)
Literacy and basic education levels of South Africans aged 15 and over Level of education 2001
Full general education (Grade 9 and more)
14. 3 million (54%) 13.1 million (50%) 15.8 million (52%)
Less than full general education (less than Grade 9)
12.2 million (46%) 13.2 million (50%) 14.6 million (48%)
Less than grade 7 7.4 million (28%) 8.5 million (32%) 9.6 million (32%)
No schooling 2.9 million (11%) 4.2 million (16%) 4.7 million (16%)
Source: Centre for Adult Education University of KwaZulu-Natal
French National Statistics Institute
The IVQ survey conducted by INSEE1 in 2004-2005
focused on the population between 18 and 65
living in metropolitan France, which amounts to roughly 40 million people. See the results.
Illiteracy: a word that we would prefer to no longer use, yet… 860 million men and women in the world are deprived of the most basic skills, and must deal with the inability to read and write. Industrialized countries with mandatory schooling are not spared.
To refer to this situation, affecting every age group, and to distinguish it from that of people who
never attended school, France has chosen the term «illiteracy». A harsh word that provokes shock and
indignation but that is still necessary today so that those who face it are not neglected, since they tend
to hide this condition so often associated with failure.
Illiteracy is a glaring problem that remains invisible.
Source: PDF from the French National Statistics Institute
Illiteracy has direct impact on human health, says UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s in message for International Literacy Day as he calls for more investment to boost reading skills
14/August/2008
One in five adults -- some 774 million -- is illiterate, and thus lives with no access to the vast global store of written communication. Seventy-five million children are not in school and millions more young people leave school without a level of literacy adequate for productive and active participation in society. These would be devastating numbers at any time, for individuals and societies alike; that they occur in the context of today’s information society should drive home the urgency of efforts to promote literacy throughout the world.
The theme of this year’s observance of International Literacy Day, “Literacy and Health”, is meant to draw more attention to the links between the two. Illiteracy has a direct impact on human health. It prevents people from being able to read the instructions on a medicine bottle. It means that people are less likely to know facts about AIDS, malaria and other infectious diseases. And because two thirds of those who are illiterate are women and girls, who often bear the burden of caring for sick members of their families, it means that they will be less likely to know about prevention and support services, and how to use life-saving medicines and other treatments.
To increase literacy skills, well-defined policies and increased investment will be essential. Literacy is indispensable for achieving the Millennium Development Goals targeting maternal health and combating HIV and malaria, and for addressing some of the world’s most important public health challenges. On this International Literacy Day, let us all -- Governments, the United Nations family, donors and civil society -- translate this commitment into more vigorous action. Literacy for all will benefit us all.
Source: UN news
Wow, great articles, thanks for sharing!
Tuesday, 7 October 2008, 12:43 pm
Press Release: United Nations
Global Progress In Literacy Masks Sharp Regional Gaps, UN Report Finds New York, Oct 6 2008 6:10PM
Global literacy rates continue to rise but some regions are still lagging sharply behind in the campaign to ensure that everyone can read and write, a United Nations report released today finds.
The report, from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), says the world literacy rate should reach almost 87 per cent by 2015. The number of illiterate adults has also fallen by nearly 100 million in the past 15 years.
But the report – released at the halfway mark of the UN Literacy Decade (2003-2012) – notes that certain regions, particularly South and West Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, are struggling to keep up with progress elsewhere and called for new strategies to improve literacy rates in those parts of the world.
“As we begin the second half of the United Nations Literacy Decade, the international community must seek new ways to work with marginalized populations for whom traditional approaches have proved ineffective,” said UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura.
While the period of 2000-2006 pushed the global adult literacy rate up from 76 per cent to 83.6 per cent, UNESCO said such figures mask considerable regional disparities.
For instance, 75 per cent of the 774 million illiterate adults live in only 15 countries – including Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India and Nigeria. And in some sub-Saharan African countries, the number of non-literate adults has increased in recent years by approximately 30 million.
The literacy gender gap also remains almost unchanged, with 63 per cent of illiterate adults at the end of 1994 being women compared to 64 per cent in 2006.
Under such circumstances, three quarters of the 127 countries for which projections were calculated will miss the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving adult illiteracy rates by 2015.
Several initiatives have been undertaken by the UN agency to boost the promotion of literacy, including three plans to improve the management and adaptability of literacy programmes and a series of regional and sub-regional conferences in 2007 and 2008 which gave new momentum to policy focus on literacy.
The other recommendations in the report include the need to boast national government and donor organization funding, while improving the delivery of literacy programmes, notably by adapting teaching methods to diverse contexts and demands.
Meanwhile, a lunch will be held tomorrow with the participation of First Lady of the United States Laura Bush, UNESCO’s Honorary Ambassador for the UN Literacy Decade, marking the launch of a new publication entitled The Global Literacy Challenge.
In Seoul, a UNESCO conference – “Building Equitable and Sustainable Societies in Asia and Pacific: the Challenge of Adult Learning” – will be held from today until 8 October to review key issues in adult learning and propose strategies to renew policies and action.
Today in Paris also marked the signing of a memorandum of understanding for a strategic partnership between UNESCO and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), which aims to undertake joint activities in Latin America and the Caribbean in areas including capacity building for the achievement of Education for All (EFA).