ILLITERACY

Illiteracy means inability to read and write. Illiteracy is a curse because it is illiteracy that lowers down human being to the level of best. Illiteracy is compared to darkness because it darkness individual’s vision, outlook, behavior and in a word, all aspects of line. It is the root cause of ignorance, superstition, backwardness, poverty and many more.

Poverty is the main cause of illiteracy and vice versa. Similarly, underdevelopment causes illiteracy as much the same way illiteracy is the cause of underdevelopment. There are other causes too. Over population, financial and resource constraints, people’s super station and negative attitude about education, lack of awareness etc, are responsible for illiteracy.

Illiteracy generates hundreds of problems. Because of illiteracy, people do not know how to earn well and how to spend well. As a result they can not come out of their poverty trap. Many do not have knowledge about food and nutrition. So they suffer from various kinds of diseases. In a word, illiteracy is the cause of poor socio-economic condition, high mortality rate, low life expectancy, child-labour and child marriage and high growth rate population.

Illiteracy frustrates all development programmes of the government. Again, in order to improve the poor condition of the illiterate people, govt. has to spend a huge some of money on different programmes. This affects other sectors and hinders long-term development of the country.

Population of a country is termed as its human resources. The educated and skilled manpower of a country is its great asset. But if the people are illiterate, they become a great burden for the country. Illiterate people cannot contribute much to social and economic development of the country.

As illiteracy is the root cause of all evils, it should be the number one agenda of govt. has taken various measures like making primary education free and compulsory, girls education upto higher secondary level free, and the highest allocation for education in our national budget, still the measures are inadequate. Govt. must ensure that the money is being utilized properly and effectively. Govt. need to set up more educational institutions, make reading materials cheap and available, and grantee employment after completing education. Again private sectors, NGOs academician and patrons of learning should come forward to spread the light of education in every house. We have also to make our people aware of the importance of education. Media can play a great role in this regard. Reducing of poverty is the most effective way of removing illiteracy from society. So govt. must work in co-ordination with others to fight poverty and increase illiteracy rate.

The present illiteracy rate is still high in our country. That is why we are lagging behind in all respect than many other nations. If we want to build a happy and prosperous nation, if we want to stand in honour and dignity among the nations of the world, and if we want to develop our living standard and living condition, we must remove illiteracy from the country.