Literacy may be growing, but are we?

Around the globe, one of the defining factors, which categorise first and third world countries, is literacy levels.

But is this a good enough judge? Do literacy levels also determine whether populations are intelligent and educated, or are these three aspects entirely different?

To really analyse this, a person must first understand what is the meaning of these terms.

Literate: This is the ability of a person to read, write and understand the basic words, phrases, and sentences that a person needs to get by on a daily basis.

Intelligent: The mental capacity of a person to apply themselves either academically or practically, while understanding the processes behind the task.

Educated: Means that a person has undergone some type of higher level education. This does not necessarily mean that a person has received education at a University, but rather that the person can tackle questions and concerns that requires some type of background knowledge of the subject.

From this a person can see, that while these three aspects are in fact different, they are however related.

To achieve literacy, a person must have a certain degree of intelligence. Yet at the same time, a person will be unable to become educated without being both literate and intelligent. Furthermore, a person can not judge their level of intelligence, without testing it by attempting to achieve a certain degree of education.

Yet here comes that question again. Is literacy a good judge of how developed a country really is?

The harsh truth is- no, it is not. A literate person can not simply pick up an astrophysics book, read it and suddenly become a professor in the subject.

Thus we can see that while literacy levels may tell you that a majority of the people in the country can cope in the modern world, it does not really show a person whether the population of a country is intelligent or educated, other than to most basic degree.

In South Africa, we have a growing literacy level. However, while more people are becoming more literate, the same can not be said about the level of education in the country.

With this in mind, the world has to open its eyes to the fact that if we continue to judge growth and concentrate on bettering the world’s literacy levels, then we will find ourselves in a decaying world. A world in which the population will be able to see what is wrong, but no-one will really be able to do anything about it.

The key to growth is a combination of the three. We must be literate to understand the world we live in, while being educated so that we think rationally and realistically when faced with problems, but we must still have the intelligence to make our own decisions.