Why Literacy
Literacy is a Right
750 Million People in the World are Illiterate
At the World Literacy Foundation, we believe in literacy as the foundation of lifelong learning and education. People who cannot read or write experience difficulties with simple everyday tasks such as reading the label of a medicine bottle, filling in a job application or understanding a traffic sign. When we help someone to acquire literacy skills, we are empowering them to access to better opportunities in life to break the poverty cycle.
The Stats are Bleak
750 million adults
– two-thirds of whom are women – still lack basic reading and writing skills.
About 258 million children
and youth are out of school.
6 out of 10 children
and adolescents are not learning a minimum in reading and math.
People with poor literacy skills
are more than 2x as likely to be unemployed.
The Impact of Illiteracy
Economic Impact
- Illiteracy and low levels of literacy have estimated to cost the global economy approximately 1.19 trillion annually.
- More than two billion adults worldwide don’t have the essential literacy skills employers need. Unemployment causes lost productivity which slows economic growth.
- When a high proportion of the adult population has poor literacy skills, many positions remain vacant as insufficient individuals are adequately skilled to fulfill those roles.
Social Impact
- Functionally illiterate parents often prioritize work before education and have lower expectations regarding schooling. This leads to a cycle of disadvantage through generations.
- People completely or functional illiterate face the prospect of poor health outcomes, welfare dependency, gender inequality, and a lack of social cohesion.
- There are currently 5.5 million more out-of-school girls than boys, worldwide.5 In the long term, this widens the gender gap.
Health Impact
- Studies have shown the mother´s literacy level is closely related to child health and survival.
- People with low levels of literacy are more likely to experience adverse health outcomes, have poor health literacy, and practice poor health behaviors.
- Literacy significantly enhances a person’s ability to access, understand and apply health information to make accurate decisions.
Early Intervention is Key
Research confirms that a child’s early years brain development shapes the adults they become, the success they achieve and the contributions they make to the economy and society.
The World Literacy Foundation focusses on early intervention so that every child has the strongest chance to reach their full potential.
Our work includes educating new parents to support their children in their learning, providing regular reading groups, and distributing books and other literacy resources to young children who may lack access to them.
