Literacy
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
Literacy means the ability to read and write. Being able to read and write is an important skill in modern societies. Usually, people learn how to read and write at school. People who can read and write are called literate; those who cannot are called illiterate.
According to the United Nations, illiteracy is not being able to write or read a simple sentence in any language. The UN estimated, that in 1998, about 16% of the world's population were illiterate.
Illiteracy is highest amongst the states of the Arab peninsula, and in Africa, around the Sahara. In those countries about 30% of men, and 40-50% of women are illiterate, by the UN definition. One of the causes of illiteracy is that someone who can manage to live without being able to read and write often does not have any reason to want to learn to read and write. Cultural factors also play a part, such as having a culture in which the oral tradition (communicating by speaking) is more important than writing. A tribe that mostly herds livestock, for example, may have no need to read or write.
There are two different kinds of illiteracy:
- Primary illiteracy: People with primary illiteracy have never learned how to read or write.
- Functional illiteracy: People who have learned some reading and writing, but for various reasons, are unable to understand what they read, or cannot write well enough to fill out a form.
In most other countries, the main problem is functional illiteracy. Functional illiteracy means that the people have at some time in their lives learned how to read and write. For reasons linked to their social environment or their habits they are however unable to understand simple written sentences.
