Literacy Matters More Than Ever

Hi everyone!

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word literacy? Reading and writing are what many people think. Yes, reading and writing are literacy, but literacy is more than that. From the time we are born till our last breath, we need literacy to do things. 

Knowing how to open up a bank account or paying credit card bills is financial literacy. Understanding information about health issues or knowing where to go when you have, for example, COVID-19, you need health literacy. Understanding the use of technology and navigating information online is digital literacy.

“Literacy is more than just reading and writing.”

Talking to people, reading maps, newspapers, reading labels, and playing word games are examples of literacy activities. That means literacy is important in our everyday lives, careers and to improve our quality of life. Literacy Matters more than ever, especially during this COVID-19 pandemic. For me, literacy is happiness that I get with all the learning efforts I make to make my life happy. 

“Literacy is the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning to enable an individual to achieve his or her goals, to develop his or her knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in the wider society.”– UNESCO

Did you know there are 773 million youth and adults that are illiterate in the world? There are 617 million children and adolescents who do not have minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics. (Source: UNESCO)

Every year, International Literacy Day is celebrated on September 8th. It is celebrated to remind us of the importance of literacy around the world. There is a theme every year and this year the theme is “Literacy teaching and learning in the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.”

People who don’t have basic literacy skills are more likely to be discriminated, their life will be more challenging, and they will miss many opportunities. Literacy is a fundamental human right. No one should be deprived of basic literacy.

What do you think? Please click here to do a Literacy Matters Survey. I will share the results after some time.

Here’s a list of some useful literacy resources:

Literacy activities to prepare kids for back to school

Literacy Month Calendar

Activities to do this month 

Play Trivia

ABC Life Literacy

International literacy prizes

Support Literacy

United Nations