The Effects of Illiteracy

The Effects of Illiteracy Literacy is defined as the ability when reading, writing and working with basic numbers. On the other hand, illiteracy is fundamentally not being able to read or to comprehend written communication; in fact, illiterates cannot understand some opinions from other persons. People who are illiterate feel pressure from society and they start to feel emotions such as anxious and depressant because they cannot read or understand simple things, for example: read a newspaper, the inability to follow written instructions, read signs on the road, and so on.

There are two effects of illiteracy: illiteracy creates an obstacle to their development as well as a function on society and toward their self esteem. Illiteracy has become an impediment for those people who want to improve in their lives, which include a social development or I could say “social function”. According to the Deputy Minister of Education of Lesotho, Mrs. Malijane Maqelepo says that illiteracy is an obstacle that prevents people from participating in their country’s growth. Lena) But as we know, the growth of a country comes from the people who contribute with it and, of course, these people are not illiterates they had an adequate education when they were kids. Illiterates are concerned about this because it formed a basis for their general knowledge, and the consequence of not having a good education is that they cannot apply for a job that involves either read or write or both of them, normally both. Likewise, an illiterate wants to attribute to his country its development. Countries with a high illiteracy rate are more likely to be disadvantaged.

If a populace is not literate, it cannot be involved in high tech jobs. New careers such the sciences, mathematics, and technology are primarily established in countries that have literate populations. Therefore, illiteracy does not encourage positive social change, personal growth, or the preservation and development of language and culture. However, illiteracy not just affects the social development but self esteem. Self esteem can be affected by this issue to a point that the illiterate person may feel there is no hope of ever becoming literate, and in fact, they feel as a failure in the life.

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The self esteem in illiteracy has certain characteristics that lead to an attitude, which in sometimes the person can feel depressant and anxious for becoming a literate; as a result, its basic comprehension skills begin to decay and it makes difficult to gain or to develop skills such as writing and reading. Self-esteem is intrinsically tied to illiteracy. For instance, a qualitative study of the perspectives of adults with low literacy skills revealed how much patients feared that their poor reading skills would be exposed. “I don't tell anybody or say anything (about my illiteracy)”, said one. “They might think I'm a bad person. (Brez) These pressures can tempt them to feel unacceptable for society so they do not have an emotional safety; as a result, their sense of control and personal responsibility cannot take it when given power and control, plus they do not have that confidence to deal with it. In addition, being literate can improve self-esteem, individual empowerment and the improvement of livelihood. In conclusion, illiteracy can be regarded as one of the most important problem on society because prevents the development of a person who wants to progress with its life, but not just that, it decays the self-esteem of them.

So it has to be eradicated, likewise, illiterate people will not feel such a useless and will have the confidence to interact with people and give opinions of what had told to them because sometimes they get confused with some things; as a consequence, they are lost in what they have to think or to say. Works-cited list: * Brez S, Taylor M. Assessing literacy for patient teaching: perspectives of adults with low literacy skills. J Adv Nurs. 1997; 25:1040-7. * Lena. “Illiteracy is an obstacle – Maqelepo. ” 06 September, 2002 http://www. gov. ls/articles/2002/Illeteracy%20An%20Obstacle%20-%20Maqelepo. htm.

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