Towards 100 per cent literacy

The Education Ministry is to launch on an ambitious programme to achieve a 100 per cent literacy rate in Sri Lanka by 2010. According to the Education Minister Susil Premjayantha steps are already under way by the Informal Education Unit of his Ministry to draw in both young and old into this programme.

Presently Sri Lanka has a literacy rate of 91 per cent and ranks as the country with one of the highest literacy rates in Asia. Then why one would ask are we languishing behind other Asian counterparts in almost all spheres? To seek an answer to this it is pertinent to dwell on how we define the term ‘literacy rate’.

If it is a yardstick of one’s ability to read and write only, then we have been misleading ourselves all these years vis-a-vis our literacy rate. This is because all these years we have been giving a literal interpretation to the term ‘literacy rate’ as defined by one’s competence in language.

For, in today’s context literacy is measured on a wider parameter and necessarily encompasses a myriad of indicators among them proficencies that open the doors to employment opportunities and skill acquisitions catering to the modern day demands and their application in the development sphere.

In that context it would not be out of place to describe the term literacy as that which permits putting to productive use one’s knowledge and training to meet present demands. It is on this aspect that the Minister should focus his attention and redefine ‘literacy’ from its prevailing concept. We are not aware the contours of the programme that is envisaged to make us a 100 per cent literate State.

However, it has to be emphasised that English be given prominence in the Minister’s blueprint, for it is the key that unlocks the door to all other vistas in today’s runaway advancements in the world to ensure we as a country do not lag behind.

Have we neglected this most vital aspect so much so that even those skilled and talented among us are unable to advance further due to the lack of knowledge of English? We should heed the comment on Sri Lanka made by former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yu who took his country to the heights of development on the foundation of an English educated population, after learning from the negatives wrought from the ethnic based divisions in our own country.

While absorbing the values of our rich civilisation we cannot afford to rest on the laurels of our past grandeurs if the country is to move forward.

Hence the foremost task before the Education Minister should be to overhaul the present school curriculum and adopt it to take on a global outlook if we are to call ourselves a truly literate State.