Literacy: A Tool for Growth

By Mozafer Rajabali

Literacy is a very important socio-economic factor for the development of any human being, because it provides everyone a level playing field to communicate and become a global entrepreneur. Literacy is defined as the ability to read and write, and the ability to read and write in itself is a matter of debate. What remains essential though, is the fact that the increase of literacy rates brings about economic development, which is defined as betterment in the general standard of living.

Measuring literacy in the developing world is somewhat difficult, because there are a number of challenges a developing country faces. In most circumstances the literacy rate is usually a hypothesized guess based on whatever information that has been previously collected. The lack of intent to collect valuable data on literacy also signals that it is not as important as it should be for majority of third world countries. The matter of the fact is - literacy is worse off than the numbers tell us because of lack of resources.

Literacy is important because it is associated to education. Education, being a merit good has social benefits that have to be exploited by each and every community. One of the major factors stunting economic growth and development in less developed countries (LDCs) is the inability to control population growth. As per the Malthusian catastrophe, if population isn’t controlled it will grow exponentially and food will at the same time grow linearly. This will result in a catastrophe where the results are famine, drought and major rural-urban divisions. In poor families, the need to procreate is there because the children can then act as assistants in the daily chores and provide essential manpower usually for family businesses – while at the same time taking their chances on any surviving children. It is in the most blatant terms, a situation of Darwin’s survival of the fittest. Therefore, by teaching people to read and write, not only will they learn about birth control – but they will also be able to value essential human rights for each and every single child.

What a lot of people fail to realize is that literacy creates certain independence for the literate person. It instills in the person some pride over themselves and brings about a great deal of self-esteem. As a result of this new independence, there is a new drive and determination within the person – and thus entrepreneurship is born.

Literacy lies hand in hand with growth and development, because it is a branch of education, which is a merit good that should be a social requirement in any context. It is important because it will provide a number of people with access to an entrepreneurial spirit. If provided with the necessary needs, poor people can flourish under pressure because of their entrepreneurial spirit! A prominent example is that of Muhammad Yunus’ Grameen Bank, which mainly provides single mothers with children microloans and has an amazing success rate at the moment. Yunus discusses about his achievements through the bank in a book called “Banker to the Poor”. One of the things Yunus outlines very well is the need to put in place an institution for these poor people that is run by people who genuinely and sincerely want to help. It is this same spirit that can help pull majority of the poverty stricken world out of the poverty cycle, yet it is almost nonexistent in a number of developing countries.

The modern era has quite easily created a much smaller and compact world, where global communications is in the midst of its reign. If an entrepreneurial spirit is put into place in developing countries, our communication systems can provide the world with a much-needed boost socially and economically. It can help build and diversify our global markets for the future. At present, what we need is to create that spirit of helping those below us and not always looking to pursue lives of those who are above us economically. By pulling the people below us, up to a reasonable level – not only will it bring happiness to their families, but to you too. It will bring unbound satisfaction as Pierre Charding puts it “the most satisfying thing in life is to have been able to give a large part of oneself to others.”

Mozafer Rajabali is a student who wants potential to be recognized in the most deprived of countries.