Message-ID: <01be2458$9fd040e0$5e9f4d0c@johnpozz> Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 11:17:46 -0500 From: John Pozzi <mailto:jpozzi@WORLDNET.ATT.NET> Subject: Re: Illiteracy linked to poverty To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
Dear Kerry,As Shareholders in the Global Resource Bank we can afford to do it ourselves.
Regards, John
-----Original Message----- From: Kerry Miller <mailto:kerryo@NS.SYMPATICO.CA> To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU <DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU> Date: Wednesday, December 09, 1998 6:01 PM Subject: Illiteracy linked to poverty
>http://www.unicef.org/sowc99
>
> Nearly a billion people will enter the 21st century
> unable to read a book or sign their names and two
> thirds of them are women. And they will live, as now,
> in more desperate poverty and poorer health than
> those who can. They are the world’s functional
> illiterates -- and their numbers are growing.
> The total includes more than 130 million school age
> children, 73 million of them girls, who are growing up
> in the developing world without access to basic
> education. Millions of others languish in substandard
> schools where little learning takes place.
>
> [...Ours] is a broad vision of education: as a human
> right and a force for social change; as the single most
> vital element in combating poverty, empowering
> women, safe-guarding children from exploitative and
> hazardous labour and sexual exploitation, promoting
> human rights and democracy, protecting the
> environment and controlling population growth. And
> as a path towards international peace and security.
>
>==========
>http://www5.mercurycenter.com/premium/world/docs/fordig09.htm
>
>Illiteracy linked to vast poverty in UNICEF study
>
>One billion people -- nearly a sixth of humanity -- will enter the 21st
century >doomed to poverty because they are unable to read a book, write their names
or >master other skills necessary to hold a job, UNICEF reported Tuesday at the
>United Nations. ``The consequences of illiteracy are profound -- and even
>potentially life-threatening. For millions and millions of children,
education >is literally a matter of life and death,'' UNICEF Executive Director Carol
>Bellamy wrote in the agency's annual report on illiteracy, ``The State of
the >World's Children 1999.''
>
>[...] Even in many industrialized countries, 15 percent to 20 percent are
>functionally illiterate, unable to understand a job application, much less
>operate a computer or develop other skills necessary to survive in the
>competitive global economy.
>
>==========
>
>Naturally, the report is framed in terms of "finding and keeping a job," as
>this is the only language the North understands. (And teaching, as just
another >job, simply isnt competitive in the marketplace. It's too bad we can't
afford >to *do it ourselves*, isnt it? )
>
>kerry