Literacy, << LIHT uhr uh see, >> is the ability to read and write. People who cannot read and write are called illiterate. The term literacy also refers to the possession of enough reading and writing ability to function in society. People are called functionally illiterate if they cannot read or write well enough to carry out activities that are common in the social settings they encounter. Such activities may include employment, schoolwork, voting, or worship.
There are different ways to measure literacy. In one method, people are considered literate if they have completed a certain number of years in school. In another, people’s skills are tested to determine whether they are literate or illiterate. The various measures of literacy, however, are not exact and cannot be easily compared.
The spread of literacy in the West.
Before the 1400’s, the vast majority of people in Europe were illiterate. Most people never had an opportunity to learn to read because there were few schools, and books were scarce and often expensive. Although some people at every level of society could read, most literate people belonged to the upper classes. Illiterate people relied on literate people to read and write for them.
From the 1400’s to the 1900’s, literacy spread at an uneven rate. Such factors as age, gender, geography, ethnic group, and social class often determined who became literate. Literacy levels varied widely from region to region, even within one country. But certain social and technological changes occurred after 1400 that made literacy possible for more people.
In the 1440’s, the German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg became the first European to print a book from movable type. As a result, reading material was eventually mass-produced in Europe and inexpensive books became more widely available. One of the first books printed in Europe was the Bible. During the 1500’s, the Protestant Reformation and Roman Catholic Counter Reformation spurred people’s desire to read the Bible for themselves. Scholars translated the Bible into German, English, and several other languages. Many religious leaders taught that every person should learn to read in order to study the Scriptures.
With the spread of commerce and industry during the 1700’s and 1800’s, large numbers of people migrated to cities to take jobs. Increasingly, people had to read instructions and perform other tasks that required literacy. During the 1800’s, printers developed new technologies in mass-production printing. As people moved into cities, they found a widening range of printed materials. In addition, governments began to value educated citizens, and systems of public schooling expanded. By the late 1800’s, formal education had become fairly common, and many children were being taught to read in school. As a result of these developments, more people had the opportunity and motivation to learn to read and write, causing the literacy rate to rise rapidly after 1700.
Illiteracy in the United States.
People who are literate make up about 99 percent of the adult population of the United States. However, this figure includes some people who can be assumed to be functionally illiterate. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that about 4 percent of people living in the United States who are 25 years old or older have less than a ninth-grade education.
An international study conducted in the mid-2010’s found that many Americans lacked the literacy skills to carry out everyday tasks. For example, the survey estimated that 4 percent of Americans aged 16 to 65 lacked the degree of literacy needed to find and understand a single piece of information given in short digital or print texts. It also estimated that 15 percent of adults could not find and understand a single piece of information, or enter personal information, in such everyday documents as charts, graphs, and forms.
Many states, concerned that high schools have allowed functionally illiterate students to graduate, have enacted minimum competency requirements for literacy. Some states now require high school students to pass tests in reading and writing before they graduate. In a number of states, high school students must demonstrate that they are literate enough to read a newspaper advertisement, complete a job application, and perform similar tasks.
Several organizations in the United States work to improve literacy. The National Institute for Literacy, an agency of the federal government, develops tools and provides guidance to improve reading instruction for children, youth, and adults. Other organizations, including ProLiteracy Worldwide, recruit and train large numbers of volunteers to teach reading and writing skills.
Literacy in Canada.
Canada does not collect direct statistics on literacy. Rather, a government survey asks each person the highest grade completed in school, and that information is used to estimate the nation’s literacy rate. In the late 2010’s, the survey revealed that about 8 percent of all Canadians between the ages of 25 and 64 had less than a high school education. Some of these people can be assumed to be functionally illiterate. According to some estimates, about 1 percent of Canada’s adult population is totally illiterate.
The Canadian government’s National Literacy Secretariat, part of Human Resources and Social Development Canada, teaches people basic literacy skills and trains them for jobs. The government also cooperates with a number of private literacy agencies. Literacy programs face an extra challenge in Canada because the country has two official languages, English and French.
Literacy in other countries.
During the 1900’s, especially after 1960, developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America began to recognize that economic and social progress may depend in part on having a literate population. In most cases, a country’s citizens must be able to read before the country can modernize its methods of government, industry, farming, and health care.
Many countries have implemented literacy programs that rely on volunteer teachers. In the 1960’s, the People’s Republic of China recruited about 30 million volunteer teachers with the slogan “You Who Can Read, Teach an Illiterate.” In 1961, Cuba temporarily closed its schools and sent its teachers to rural areas to instruct illiterate people. In one year, this campaign increased the country’s literacy rate from 75 percent to about 96 percent. Other countries that have reported progress against illiteracy include Brazil, Ghana, Mexico, Tanzania, Turkey, and Venezuela.
The world literacy rate has risen since 1900. In 1950, about 55 percent of the world’s population was literate. By the late 2010’s, 85 percent was literate. Still, many developed countries have large numbers of functionally illiterate citizens. Most of the world’s illiterate people are women because women have fewer educational opportunities than men in many countries.
See also Reading (Reading and society) ; Writing system .
