Impact of Illiteracy on Societal Development: Causes and Consequences

Recent studies show that there is an increasing rate of illiteracy all over the world. A study conducted by WSI(World Statistics Institute) shows that over 27% of people are illiterate globaly. Another study by the same institute shows that the speed at which illiteracy rate ascends is 32%. These rates are quite important, as illiteracy has terrible effects on society. The most important effect of illiteracy on society is that, it works as an inhibitor. That is to say, the more illiterate people there are in a country, the harder it will be for the country to develop.

This fact could be clarified with an example: America(whose illiteracy rate is below 5%) and Canada(Illiteracy rate: around 8%) are developed countries, whereas countries, like Turkey and Iran(Illiteracy rates: 61% and 43% in order) are undeveloped countries. Illiteracy has got a kind of "genetic" effect. The children of illiterate people are more likely to be illiterate that those who aren't. Even if the parents don't want their children to be illiterate, their children, observing the parents, see that they somehow manage to live and adopt the idea that illiteracy isn't actually a bad thing.

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And since people develop most of their character during childhood, they choose to go with illiteracy. Another major effect of illiteracy is that, illiterate people believe in the said things easily. They do not investigate what was said or told to them. When looked at the pages of history, it can be seen that, while most uneducated people are slaves, guardians and assistants; people who are educated are mostly kings, quenns and sultans.

They are not slaves because they wanted, but because people superior to them -in terms of education- made them so. All these significant results of illiteracy affect society in a bad way.