Did you know that Canada is the only developed country with no overall adult education program?
Education is a provincial concern and in B.C. most free adult education is delivered by dedicated volunteer tutors, with little or no formal training. In Williams Lake this service is called PAL—Partner Assisted Learning.
According to UNESCO, “Literacy is the ability to identify, understand and 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.”
As the Swedish economist, Jon Crispinsso, notes, “ without literacy there is no real democracy. You cannot be part of the modern society if you cannot read.”
All around us we see the effects of low literacy in everyday life. Lack of literacy affects all aspects of our life, from raising children to career choices; the mother who fails to correctly interpret the instructions on her child’s medicine, the man who cannot join his friends in the café because he can’t read the menu, the woman who cannot receive the medical help she needs because she does not have the ability to explain her problems. Literacy is also linked to economic success. It influences jobs, salaries, and ability to upgrade when necessary.
In many aspects of family life low literacy levels are a great handicap. What parent does not want to help with homework? Traditions of family are passed down to generations of children through the stories of grandparents and great-grandparents. Think how dismaying it must be to be unable to read the note from the teacher, the comments on the report, the carefully crafted story your child has written. Literacy development is strongly influenced by family environment, and parents’ educational background.
An article on TV tonight cautions mothers against overdosing their children on certain elements found in everyday food, but Mary knows she cannot read the label.
How can she protect her child? A middle aged man with health problems is living in dreadful conditions because he doesn’t know his rights under the Tenant’s Act. A woman of low average mentality does not realize that she can work part time without jeopardizing her assistance payments. Her pride at being able to do something worthwhile for herself, while helping others, is a delight to see.
People with low literacy levels cannot participate fully in the life of the community. All over our country, small towns in particular are dependent on volunteers to provide many of the services needed to support daily life in the community.
In Williams Lake alone, the number of services provided by active volunteers is quite staggering. Without literacy help, many of these services would not exist, or would be possible only with increased dependence on government funding, thereby further stretching the tax dollar.
The economy of our country largely depends on the thinking, literate individual, who participates in building a better future for all Canadians through increased involvement in the processes of government, through supporting the community in which he lives, by contributing his skills to the workplace.
Submitted for the Tribune's Reach A Reader edition.