Literacy taking hold for Canadian kids, but more work is needed for our adults
Last Monday, April 2, was International Children’s’ Book Day, and thanks to the efforts of provincial organizations such as Decoda Literary Solutions, a subsidiary of Literacy B.C., the profile of literacy has been raised.
And thanks also to local organizations such as the South Island’s three 1,000x5 projects, which have collected and distributed 250,000 children’s books in the past 10 years.
So for a few days, at least, the issue of literacy was back in the news.
Many studies emphasize an undeniable fact: Literacy begins at home, but in Canada, the system of public education is also more successful in promoting literacy than in the majority of other comparable countries.
The number of Canadian children from newborn to 14 was last estimated at 5.5 million (about 16.2 per cent of the total national population). Many children attend pre-schools from age three onward and, although entry ages vary province to province, all children living in Canada attend school, or more accurately, are enrolled in a school of some kind from the year in which they turn five.
With all its kids having access to school, Canada does well on international testing programs such as the PISA assessment run by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In Canada, on the 2015 PISA, the average performance in reading of 15-year-olds was 527 points, compared with an average of 493 points in other OECD countries.
The percentage of low performers in reading (below proficiency Level 2) is one of the lowest among PISA-participating countries and economies (10.7 per cent, ranked 66th out of 69). That’s beyond good because it bodes well not only for literacy in Canada but for Canada’s cultural and political future.
The same applies to a brighter future for democratic governance around the world, as the number of children who previously have had no access to education and to literacy decreases.
Worldwide, about 60 million kids still don’t go to elementary school, and while that sounds like an enormous number, there are about 1.9 billion children in the world under the age of 15, so only about three per cent do not have access to schools of any kind.
Increased literacy will eventually do the same for the international political landscape as it did in the 16th century for the religious landscape.
Many studies identify the relationship between the emergence of literacy and the eventual decline of authoritarian regimes, which depended on repression of the written word.
Two Harvard professors, in a paper called The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism, identify the close correlation between dictatorships and the suppression or outright denial of “political rights and civil liberties, including freedom of the press, freedom of association and freedom to criticize the government without reprisal.”
In any democratic election, some issues will be important to the future of a country. Literacy provides the opportunity to develop the skills of critical analysis of the issues — especially the ability to subject what is written and what we read to rules of logic and evidence.
The spoken word can get by on bluster and familiar rhetorical devices such as repetition of a phrase, but the thoughtful and well-developed written argument must be spare, logical and well-constructed. It must make sense upon reflection and, simply because it is written, will bear careful examination more than once.
So the good news about increased levels of education and literacy, even in emerging countries, bodes well for the ability of generations to come to demand wise government. Much of the praise for that goes to organizations such as the Global Partnership for Education.
GPE is a partnership and funding platform that aims to strengthen education systems in developing countries in order to dramatically increase the number of children who are in school and learning.
But the news is less encouraging, at least for the next while, when adult literacy rates, even here in Canada, are considered.
The most recent Canadian results on the International Adult Literacy Survey, as quoted by the Conference Board of Canada, includes some troubling findings: • Four out of 10 Canadian adults have literacy skills too low to be fully competent in most jobs in our modern economy. • Canadian adults with low literacy skills have fewer opportunities because they are outside the mainstream education system.
Literacy B.C. goes so far as to suggest that about 40 per cent of adults in B.C. — and more than 35 per cent of working-age people — do not have the degree of literacy skills they need to function and thrive in the modern economy.
So even as literacy takes hold with the next generation, there is still work to be done in the adult world.