Reading Skills Are Key to a Better Future

This is just a text you can read and understand while over 475 million children of school age all over the world can’t, and maybe will never be able to read. The counting started only in 2015.
Does 475 million make you think about the urgency of solving the global education crisis? Once in a while, it gets combined with other major crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and wreaks havoc on the lives of school-age children. Those children who cannot attain basic education and important skills fail to fulfill their potential. They would end up doing household tasks, helping their families on farms and agriculture work, or getting married in childhood.

It is irrational how in some places is acceptable that a girl can work as a child laborer, but she is denied the right to get an education (SDG 4) and join the labor force as an adult.
According to UNICEF data, around the world, 129 million girls are out of school. Girls in many countries usually face gender discrimination when they don’t get the same access to education as boys do.

The education crisis feeds on several factors namely, poverty, gender inequality, health issues, safety concerns, social norms barriers, etc. While living in poor settings, the lack of education leaves children in a poorer situation regarding their abilities to solve various issues in the future.

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By 2030, it is estimated that the number of school-age children who will fail to learn how to read, is going to be over one billion. That’s a scary number for only 15 years of counting. The world in its current state cannot afford to lose the potential of 1 billion people. Just reading skills are enough to provide a way out of poverty.

Different levels of reading

Reading for entertainment – the level of reading children start to pick up when they are read on by someone else or at elementary school. It’s about recognizing words and connecting them to their meaning.

Reading for information – the reader understands not only words but also the ideas included in the text and possibly connects those with other information and shares those ideas with others.

Reading for understanding – as the name implies the reader at this stage understands and digests all the information and hidden meanings in the text.

Reading for mastering skills – the reader reads more than just one text or book on a certain topic to gain an overall understanding of the said topic.

To achieve all these levels of reading, thinking, writing, communicating, and implementing ideas one should first master reading skills. Do you have an innovative idea or project that contributes to SDG4? Submit it to the Citizen Entrepreneurship Competition 2022.
Don’t miss the chance to take the free online entrepreneurship training and gain the entrepreneurial needed to solve various issues while creating strong and sustainable communities.

Read also: Satish Kumar Teaches Sustainable Holistic Education

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