MIGUEL ALFONSO CASTELLANO ONTIVEROSCAE (ESSAY pag 163)

METHODS SCHOOLS SHOULD USE TO IMPROVE LITERACY STANDARDS

It has been estimated that 80% those currently leaving secondary school do not

meet basic literacy standards. All the evidence suggest that this happens either

because schools dont provide an early detection of their own students’ problems

with regard to literacy standards or because the lack of means suffered by schools.

Therefore, this is a problem that demands urgent action because it could have

severe effects on the education of the future generations. There are many practical

steps that schools could take to tackle this issue.

One approach schools could take is to providing e-book readers to pupils and

promoting e-learning, so the access to education would be better for young people.

Also, the Internet allows children to access a great range of books. However, this

project depends on the financial aid schools could get from the government, and it

would imply to invest a very large part of the budget for education.

An alternative approach would be a timely detection of those students who have

problems with literacy by setting literacy test at an early age. Also, schools could

organize regional writing competitions aiming to know in detail the level of

literacy of the students at every age. It is always important to diagnose a problem

at the appropiate time.

In conclusion, an improved system to test the literacy standards of every student

could be the best way to avoid this issue because it warns you about the problem

in time and it is also cheaper than introducing new technologies in the schools.

This is the strategy I would recommend schools adopt.

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