Order Number |
KNHG675432 |
Type of Project |
ESSAY |
Writer Level |
PHD VERIFIED |
Format |
APA |
Academic Sources |
10 |
Page Count |
3-12 PAGES |
Introduction
Illiteracy is the inability to read and write at an adequate level of proficiency that is critical for communication. Illiterate adults are unable to use printed and written information to function in the society so as to achieve one’s goals and also to develop one’s potential.[Order Now]
According to an international nonprofit ProLiteracy in 2003, there are 36 million adults in the United States alone. This potential includes a broad range of information-processing skills that one can use daily in school and at the community as a whole. Adult illiteracy has become a societal problem because illiterate people can never fully utilize writing and reading skills to make use of their fully potential in the world.
The thesis statement of adult illiteracy involves reasons why it identified as a societal problem; the solutions proposed to solve this problem and the statistical information of adult literacy as the global societal problem.
Different types of society exist. These types of illiteracy are technological illiteracy, mathematical illiteracy, visual illiteracy, school illiteracy, community illiteracy and personal illiteracy. All these types of illiteracy are caused by various reasons. These reasons are summarized in the following discussion.
Causes of Adult Illiteracy
People are usually mistaken about illiteracy. School illiteracy is overvalued to the extent that many adults have started to believe the act of reading and writing are the only important things in school. It is this type of reasoning that make many adults less interested in wanting to gain more knowledge and see things beyond the negative images. This has become one of the main reasons why adult illiteracy has increased in the world over the last few years.
Another reason for adult illiteracy is the misuse of groups. Some people tend to agree with the argument that can make one believe that he or she is weak as a reader and he or she won’t be able to achieve literacy even after finishing school. This type of thinking lowers someone’s self-esteem and self-confidence meaning that the person will not bother to seek literacy help. People’s reading attitude are influential in literacy behaviors.
According to McKenna in 2001, reading attitudes are influenced by factors such as a person’s social experiences with reading, one’s personal experiences, the cultural norms about reading, cultural norms and the learner’s preferences about reading. Attitude is associated with unwillingness to read. Every learning experience that a child has in school will at some point determine how that child will determine to learn.
The learners who have had negative experiences in school will come to view school and learning in total as a bad experience that. This disengagement spreads over to adults.
An adult learner who has negative perceptions about school would not want to be associated with it. These learners never get interested in educational process because they don’t see it as valuable. He or she may graduate with a degree or diploma but with very minimal skills. In the long term, these attitudes lead to adult literacy.
Adult illiteracy can also be caused by the background of the family. If a child is born in a family that does not value education or where the family members cannot read or write, the child will think that literacy is not very important and therefore he or she won’t bother.
As classwork becomes harder for this type of learner, he or she will drop out of school quickly due to lack of motivation from the parents. This type of learner will become an adult with poor skills, and this habit will be passed to their children. Most parents have that willingness to help their children and show them the importance of illiteracy, but they are unable to because of lack of necessary skills.
Another leading cause of education is high population growth. Population growth can affect the quality of education and the budget allocation. Most families that have more than the standard number of family members will terminate the education of some members to let other members continue with education. The family members whose education is terminated will find some other way to look after the family.
This would mean that they will look for employment opportunities which don’t require any form of skilled labor. In the third world countries, there are cases where the budget allocation does not cover for proper education facilities due to high population growth. A populous environment, therefore, encourages adult illiteracy. (Top 10 causes of illiteracy in the world, 2016).
Economic condition is also one of the main causes of illiteracy in the world. Hard economic conditions subject people to poverty. It is very hard to concentrate on a class if a learner is hungry.
Poor people engage in providing cheap labor so that they can sustain themselves. The few monies that they get from working is not enough to pay for education. Poverty is a key factor that causes illiteracy in adult people in the world.
Adult illiteracy is one the major societal problems in the world. It interferes with the economic and social development of a country.[Order Now]
In a modern country, the success of a country is determined by the level of education that its people have because of it these people that elect the people who form the government. If these people are not educated and enlightened, then there is a possibility of them being exploited. For this reason, adult illiteracy is very critical in ensuring that the democratic institutions function properly.
This societal problem of adult illiteracy is spread among many different communities in the world. In India, for example, young people join the workforce at a tender age instead of going to school to gain an education. Over 60% of the population in this country depend on agriculture for survival.
Parents usually consider the male children as workers from an early stage and expect them to give helping hands in farming fields. Parents are reluctant to take children to school to gain education because they will be deprived of the workforce that these children provide.
The educated children are unfit for farming because they prefer to live in cities away from rural homes where farming usually takes place. If these children who are subjected to labor, would be left to get training in their field of choice, then there is a possibility that adult illiteracy would reduce and these children will make their lives better.
Literacy programs should, therefore, be linked with work and the life of people so that they act as a tool for developing rural areas.
The audio-visual platforms are very useful in spreading the awareness about education among the illiterate people. Televisions, for example, have family programs that are centered on, family planning, child welfare, education that are educative. Radio is also a useful tool in designing programs that are very useful in educating the illiterate the importance of education.
Various educational institutions have begun correspondence courses which do not always require regular attendance. This type of learning is designed for students who may have discontinued their formal education due to different factors. These courses have benefitted the people who perceive education as a life-long activity, and they may want to refresh their knowledge about a particular discipline or even to acquire new knowledge. The idea of distance learning is welcomed by these people.