Written by Ahanah Bhatnagar, BSWN Intern
International Literacy Day is celebrated annually on the 8th of September and was implemented by The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in 1966. It aims to bring attention to the importance of literacy for individuals regardless of age, gender and community.
Around a quarter of the countries in the world have adult literacy rates below 79 per cent. Nineteen of these countries are from Sub-Saharan Africa and the South and West of Asian regions, where literacy rates are below 55 per cent (United Nations, 2016). While the UK has a 99 per cent literacy rate, this also means that one in every hundred people have difficulties with reading and writing abilities (United Nations, 2016). The National Literacy Trust (2011) identifies that 1 in 6 adults in England has very poor literacy skills, which is around 16.4 per cent of the population, affecting 7.1 million people.
Although the UK performs well in literacy when compared to other nations at an international scale, there is a national literacy divide amongst ethnic groups in the UK. Research by the UK government demonstrates that most ethnic minority groups perform well during their education from a young age. For example, Chinese, Indian and other Asian students perform better than their white counterparts, and Mixed-ethnicity students’ scores are similar. Regarding reading and writing literacy skills, all ethnic minority groups outperform white students apart from Pakistani pupils in writing skills. Equally, Bangladeshi students performed similarly to white students in reading (Ethnicity Facts and Figures, 2021). However, the gap between white and Minority ethnic groups grows with age. Data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) found that most Black, Asian and minoritized people who are British adults performed significantly worse than their white counterparts in literacy, problem-solving and numeracy skills (OECD, 2012). White British participants' average scores were 276 whereas Asian, Black and other minoritised groups were between 255 and 240. This racial divide grows as children get older and leave formal education, affecting the employment of minority groups and their successes during their chosen careers.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, UNESCO has tried to incorporate ‘literacy in the digital world’ during international literacy day to focus on the literacy skills needed for users to successfully navigate in a society that is heavily reliant on modern technologies. Literacy is vital for recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic and every individual should be included as the pandemic has broadened existing inequalities in the learning of children, teenagers, and adults. Digital inequalities are associated with inequalities including gender, age, race and educational level. This shapes people's access to technologies, uses of technologies and the outcomes of their technology use (Hargittai, 2008). When reimagining literacies in the modern age, inequalities and systemic divides must be considered to ensure an inclusive path towards obtaining global literacy.
There are a number of campaigns and organisations in Bristol which aim to combat illiteracy and digital exclusion. For example, Bristol City Council launched a new scheme in February this year in South Bristol to reduce digital poverty in the city. The Council has been providing recycled laptops to those most in need, to help tackle the digital divide – made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. Working with Bristol Waste and partners across the city, the Digital Inclusion pilot scheme is aiming to recycle and re-distribute 3,600 council laptops.
Digilocal is an independent registered charity (Reg: 1185746) for the public benefit, to advance the education of young people in the UK from groups that are under-represented within the technology industry, in particular but not exclusively by supporting free technology clubs.
Ablaze are another organisation in Bristol who believe every child has the right to the support they need to be functionally literate when they leave primary school. They want Bristol to be a city that reads to its children and fosters a lifelong love of reading, from an early age, and to achieve this they have established a Reading Buddy programme which puts trained volunteers into primary schools to buddy a pupil for a year. They are also working with Bristol City Council’s Reading City initiative, which is setting up ‘cloakroom libraries’ in children’s centres and early years settings to encourage young children and their parents to share books together and provide a space for volunteers to read with children.
The pandemic is a constant reminder of how important literacy is for individual people and our communities. Aside from the economic aspects of literacy, the ability for an individual to communicate and understand information is empowering and gives them a sense of independence, opens doors to improve their lives by increasing their abilities.