Illiteracy can be seen as lack of
any or enough education; therefore it is a curse for any society to have a large percentage of its youths as
illiterates, so it would not be out of place to
state that illiteracy is one of the major problem affecting the youths
negatively today. The following are the major factors that breed
illiteracy in our society:
Economic conditions: or in the
lay mans language poverty; it is a major
root cause of illiteracy in our society, this is so because it is almost
impossible to study and acquire education with an empty stomach, the question
to ask further is how can a family that cannot afford what to eat send their
children to school? People in this very edge of the poverty line would have no
option but to continue living on menial jobs in order to survive. They end up
being vulnerable in engaging in crime and immorality.
Cultural influences: as it is
commonly said “charity begins at home”; this cultural definition being talked
about here is the kind of study habits which are established in most of our
homes. Indeed the home is the best place to develop liking, yearning and hunger
for learning new things. If kids don’t get any interest at home from their
parents and those around them, they would not likely develop the desire to
study, and be serious about going to school.
Mindset about education: this is
more of an individual’s choice; some people choose to forgo education because
of beliefs and principles that have been inculcated in them either by parents,
religion and those around them. While most people practice the tradition that
women should have only religious education, with only men being allowed to take
advantage of going to school, thereby making most women
stay at home,, which leads to increase in illiteracy.
Lack of qualified teachers:
without qualified teachers the society continues to produce illiterates, some
areas are so remote where well qualified teachers are usually not available.
In these areas you would find high
illiteracy rate, because of having little experience in teaching, the teachers
in these areas cannot give quality output thereby denying students proper
education.
Preference for work over
education: usually if the youths have enjoyed the earning from their hard work,
they would just forego or forget the need for education. There are so many
reasons why some would work at an early age, but majority of them is because of
lack of financial resources, thereby making them prefer menial jobs rather than
facing piles of books.
Lack of education results in lack of opportunities which in turn results
to low socio economic status for those who are illiterates in our society,
this makes our society become stuck in
a circle of poverty that becomes
difficult to break out.
Illiteracy works as an inhibitor
to the development of our society, that is to say the more illiterates we have
in our society the harder it will be for the society to develop.
There are no problems that cannot
be broken down, if it’s for the benefit of the young generation and
posterity, I urge that parents and
religious bodies should be enlightened on the need for developing literacy
among youths in order to produce a healthy and literate society.
Youths should be encouraged to go
to school rather than depending only on menial jobs; this can only be achieved
through the provision of education at a low or no cost, and also adult
education should also be encouraged.
Youths should be enlightened on
the need to seek education in our society, they should be convinced that only
the educated can contribute more meaningfully in the society and the whole world
at large.
We also urge people who are
financially sufficient to sacrifice their resources (scholarship) in order to
help youths with financial challenges but who are interested in their pursuit
for education.
We also urge the government to
provide us with educational facilities and instructional materials to make
learning interesting and not a boring task.
If this is worked out, our
society will be out of the curse of illiteracy and it would surely progress,
education should be our number one priority.
No comments:
Post a Comment