Canada and China High in Literacy
After across-the-board gains between 1990 and 2000, the world literacy rate climbed from 76 per cent to about 82 per cent. Progress has slowed in the decade since. Several countries have plateaued, and only three – China, Indonesia and Iran – are expected to reach the international goal of cutting illiteracy rates in half by 2015.
Literacy rates in Canada are high – around 97 per cent – but there is a debate about what that measure really means. Ideas about literacy have shifted, and while measures once focused on a person’s ability to decipher characters and read text, the bar has been raised to consider economic productivity. In 2008, ABC Life Literacy Canada authored a report that raised concerns about whether Canadians, including those who have graduated high school, can read well enough to be comfortable with new written information or doing computer work. The report relied on Statistics Canada data that showed 48 per cent of adults age 16 and older didn’t have the literacy skills needed for the working world. The report noted that while many were new immigrants, native-born Canadians with high-school diplomas also had difficulties.
– Globe and Mail
