The family, key to reducing illiteracy in the world
758 million adults and 115 million young people in the world they do not know how to read. These are the figures that are considered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO. And the family plays a fundamental role when it comes to making society aware of the importance of education.
The bulky number of illiterate adults responds to a time in the first half of the 20th century in which no importance was given to literacy within cooperation policies. However, UNESCO also warns that within these numbers there is also a large presence of young people.
Specifically, it states that there are 115 million young people between 15 and 24 years old who can not read or write. The territory where most presence has the illiterate of these ages is Africa. It is the forgotten continent as affirmed by this body, which encourages work to reduce this number and ensure a minimum level of culture on all continents.
Literacy: advances in the last decades
Since United Nations applaud the work that both your organization and other entities have done in recent decades. Thanks to this dedication to promote acculturation in the world. This work has made the number of illiterates has fallen by 25% between 1990 and 2015. UNESCO also expresses its joy at the amount of progress made since the International Literacy Day was established 50 years ago, especially in the field of education for women.
Two-thirds of the total number of illiterates in the world are women, a sample of the work that remains to be done. From the work with the woman, the literacy of the children is strengthened and the greater awareness of the role of education in cultures in which it is not settled.
Encourage reading at home
In fact, experts point to the importance of work at home to improve reading and communication skills in our children. We must instill in them that interest in reading since childhood. These are some ideas:
- Read out loud. It has been shown that reading aloud is the best way to give a child those tools he will need to be a good reader, listener and student. Reading together with the little ones is also a special moment for parents and it helps to strengthen the bond between parents and children.
- A moment of reading before going to sleep. The pre-school phase and the first part of Primary are very important for the child to acquire the habit of reading.
- The example of the parents. In order to achieve reading children it is very important that they see the parents read, because the child learns basically by imitation. You can organize times and reading spaces, shared readings or visits to the library. Experts recommend that children see parents read on paper, and not digitally, so they are aware that they are reading and not playing or surfing.
Damián Montero
