Literacy in a digital world

Sep 17, 2017 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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“The world has changed since 1966- but our determination to provide every woman and man with the skills, capacities and opportunities to become everything they wish, in dignity and respect, remains as frim as ever. Literacy is a foundation to build a more sustainable future for all.” UNESCO Director General
On September 8, 2017, the world observed International Literacy Day. This year marks the 51st anniversary and the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) is celebrating under the banner-Literacy in a Digital World. Over five decades ago UNESCO officially designated September 8 International Literacy Day to actively mobilise the international community and to promote literacy as an instrument for empowering communities and societies.
On this day we celebrate and honour the efforts that have been made to increase literacy rates around the world. It is also a time to look at some of the current challenges and examine some of the innovative solutions to further boost literacy.
In Guyana, our Ministry of Education is committed to realigning our educational system so that it produces the skills necessary for economic transformation. This administration believes that every child must go to school and have provided boats, bicycles and busses in several school districts to ensure that children get to and stay in school. It is our mission and our obligation to make universal primary and secondary education a total reality.
In a charge to the 2014 graduating class of the Cyril Potter College of Education, His Excellency David Granger said “Guyana today, is a country of bright prospects but also of colossal complexity. A field of unprecedented opportunities lies before you.
The opportunity for engineers to build bridges and roads to open our vast hinterland and to develop schemes to exploit our hydro-electrical potential; the opportunity for geologists to develop our bauxite, diamond, gold, manganese and quarry resources; the opportunity for biologists, botanists, zoologists and agriculturists to expand food production; the opportunity to improve communication and human learning; the opportunity for manufacturers, shippers, builders to drive our economy at a faster rate.
Where will these scientists come from? These opportunities cannot be fully exploited and this country cannot be developed by chance or by conjecture. They cannot be achieved while a large part of the population is paralyzed by poverty. They cannot be achieved by the ignorant and the illiterate. The cannot be achieved while so many primary school children cannot qualify to enter secondary school or when thousands of children drop out of our primary and secondary schools every year….
They can be achieved only by people with a first-class education. They can be achieved only by the creation of an ‘education nation’ that brings all our people together in a knowledge society. They can be achieved only by combining our energies, integrating our communities and working together for the common good rather than pulling apart. Dark forces, poverty, oppression and hatred –threaten to pull us apart. An education nation ought to be one in which intelligence prevails over ignorance, cooperation over confrontation and national integration over communal disintegration.”
Education in Guyana especially in this digital age is an entitlement. Primary education has been compulsory in Guyana for over a century. Article 27 of the Constitution of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana states: “Every citizen has the right to free education from nursery to university…” Literacy and numeracy are as essential as food if one is to be successful in the digital world.
Literacy has the ability to raise family status, it is necessary to eradicate poverty, lower child mortality, control population growth and assist in attaining gender equality.
Literacy is a part of Sustainable Development Goal 4, which aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. The target is that by 2030 all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy (SDG Target4.6).
The Digital world
As the internet transforms our lives and the way we interact with media, those who are unable to access technology can be left out of important conversations. Data from the International Telecommunications Union shows that computer and internet usage amongst youth varies radically around the world and unsurprisingly, lower income nations tend to see much lower rates of access.
When at least a trillion dollars of our global economy relies on the internet, this lack of equal access means a lack of equal participation in the world. So it is timely that this year’s International Literacy Day theme is “Literacy in a Digital World.”
Traditionally, literacy has been considered a set of reading, writing and counting skills applied in a certain context. Digitally-mediated knowledge societies are changing what it means to be literate, calling for new and higher-level literacy skills. New technologies open opportunities to improve lives and connect globally, but they can also marginalize those who are illiterate and lack other essential skills needed to navigate them, it is estimated that some 750 million adults worldwide are not literate.
Cognizant of the digital challenge, our government has taken the necessary steps to facilitate the reform of the education sector, so as to produce the type for citizen required for the 21st century development of Guyana. We have taken steps to improve the teaching of science mathematics and language skills at the primary and secondary levels.
We are working to ensure that all secondary schools across the nation are equipped for the teaching of ICT-related subjects, and provided each qualified teacher with a laptop computer to facilitate the emphasis on ICT supported education in all schools. We are in a digital world, we will not be left out of the communication, education and information revolution that continues to transform world civilization.

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