At the end of WWII, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) was established to promote peace and goodwill across the globe, and to prevent another world war. The founding nations of UNESCO believed education would provide the means to achieve world peace. The result was a UN agreement that every child had the right to basic education and literacy.
And so began the global humanitarian march toward basic education and literacy. It sparked what has since become a costly, and seemingly endless, debate about what it means to be literate. It raises questions such as: What defines literacy? What is the acceptable minimum standard of literacy? What are the benchmarks of capability that determine what should be taught in schools?
What defines literacy?
According to most dictionaries, to be ‘literate’ means to be able to read and write, to be educated, or to be knowledgeable in a particular area. According to UNESCO, ‘A literate person is one who can, with understanding, both read and write a short simple statement on his or her everyday life’ (UNESCO 1958).
But to what extent? Would being able to recognise and write your name suffice? Would marking an X on a piece of paper qualify as a signature, and therefore denote literacy? Is ‘good enough’, good enough? Or should we expect more – such as the ability to use words well? Should we look to the great philosophers and scholars of the past, to the work of Plato or Shakespeare, or to a time when rhetoric – the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing – was taught and admired?
These are difficult questions. How do we know we are literate? What is good enough?
How do we know we are literate?
Perhaps a more perplexing question is this: to what extent must one be literate to be considered qualified to teach others to become literate?
Until the 1980s Australian teachers completed college courses or were experts in another discipline before they embarked on a teaching career. Today, potential teachers acquire their degrees from universities. For many, attendance means logging on to a computer, and face-to-face communication, robust debate with peers and interaction with lecturers are no longer required.
It’s all quiet on the educational front.
Perhaps universities have helped achieve the aim of the UN agreement that every child has the right to basic education and literacy. Perhaps they have also unwittingly submitted the nation to the peace of utter silence.
Copyright © Cheryl Lacey 2018
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Cheryl Lacey is an educationist and advocate of agitating change in Australian education to face global challenges facing Australia and Australians.
If you would like to learn more about the outcomes achieved by educational leaders and teams who have worked with me, contact me at cheryl@cheryllacey.com or visit www.cheryllacey.com
