Literacy & EducationTHE BEAUTIFUL THING ABOUT LEARNING IS THAT NO ONE CAN TAKE IT AWAY FROM YOU. –B.B. K ING

What is Literacy?

LETS GET TO THE WORDS OF IT.

A Snapshot.• Over ‘30’ Literacy Types recognized.

• Top Four– Basic Reading & Writing Skills– Information Literacy– Numeracy Literacy– Computer / Technological Literacy

• Two Primary Literacy Segments– Basic Reading & Writing Literacy– Functional Literacy

The State of Literacy: The Problem.

OUR WORLD.

More than 793 million adults around the

world cannot read.

Females account for 2 of 3 illiterate adults, making

gender equality even harder to achieve.

In countries with literacy below 40%, per capital

income is estimated at $600 per year.

Illiteracy costs the global economy more than $1 trillion a year through lost job opportunities and the costs of

unemployment and ill health…

… costs China $136 billion per year.

… costs United States $300 billion per year.

… costs Sudan $486 million per year.

… costs Bandgladesh $1.4 billion per year.

The State of Literacy: The Problem.

OUR NATION.

An estimated 32 million adults, of 1 in 7, are

challenged with lowliteracy rates.

The US Department of Education found,

41% to 44% of U.S. adults in the lowest level on the literacy scale are living in poverty.

An estimated 63% of Prison Inmates score in the

lowestlevels of literacy.

The average literacy score of native-born adults ranked 10th of 17

high-income countries.

There have been no improvements in literacy rates since 1993.

The State of Literacy: The Problem.

OUR COUNTY. OUR CITY. OUR L IVES.

53 % of Los Angeles working-age population, or 3.8 million

people, have low literacy skills.

166,000 of Long Beach adults are estimated to have below-working

standard literacy rates.

This equals 1 in 3 adults.

Last year, Long Beach unified experienced a drop-out rate

of 14.7%, or nearly 1,000

students.

Lack of writing & math preparation into California’s

higher education costs the state up to $14 billion a year.

Solving Illiteracy: The Solution.

OUR WORLD.

An African Explorer & Words.Bringing Books to over 33 poor African countries.

Kingsley Holgate, African AdventuresFunded by Rotary Foundation

• African Explorer, Kingsley Holgate

• Partnership with 16 US & African Rotary Clubs.

• Distributed ‘mobile libraries’ of 19 containers with 950,000 books around Rim of African Countries.

• Containers converted into classrooms, medical clinics, libraries.

Job Skills for the unskilled.Providing opportunities to address India’s educational quality.

EduBridgeIndia, Funded by the Acumen Fund

• Over 180 million unskilled students in India.

• India faces critical shortages in skilled labor, despite 2 million monthly job seekers.

• For 90 USD, students enter placement program catering to students with diplomas.

• Program guarantees job placement.

• Students will typically be first formally employees in family and earn salaries up to 110 USD per month.

Solving Illiteracy: The Solution.

OUR NATION.

Dolly Parton: Bringing words to youth.Partnership with Rotary to help bring over 40,000,000 books to children internationally.

Imagination LibraryDolly Parton Foundation

• Rotary Club sponsorship has brought the program to over 300 communities.

• Each month, Imagination Library mails an age-appropriate book to the children in the program.

• 85% of families in program read to their children every day.

• There are over 700,000 children enrolled in the ‘Imagination Library’ today.

An online portal for learning.Providing free access to education for literacy challenged Americans.

USA LearnsU.S. Department of Education

• Promotes programs helping adults get basic skills they need.

• Major areas are Basic Education, Secondary Education and ESL skills.

• Provides stories and challenges for participants to work through to build skills.

• Some topics include from Going Places, Money, Housing, Health and Working.

Solving Illiteracy: The Solution.

OUR COUNTY. OUR CITY. OUR L IVES.

Rotary helps young readers in local schools.Provided over 150,000 library books to students in local schools.

Reading by NineRotary Long Beach

• Since 1999, Long Beach Rotary has provided over 150,000 books to local students and 62 school elementary school libraries.

• Over 275,000 has been contributed by Long Beach Rotary to the Reading by Nine Program.

• Volunteers regularly visit local Long Beach schools to read books to children that were provided by the donations cited.

Learning together: A family literacy program.Providing Long Beach families the opportunity to learn.

Toyota Family Literacy Program, Long Beach, CA

• Enables adults with children 1 to 8 to enroll in education alongside their children.

• A variety of programs provide opportunities for dedicated, interactive and vocational adult education.

• Adults in program: 73% of participants are at or below the poverty level, 61% have not passed 9th grade.

• Children in program: 91% improvement in grades, in comparison with classmates

• 90% program retention rate (compared to 50% drop-out rate nationally).

• Noted as flagship model for Adult Literacy Program.

Achieving Literacy: The Opportunity.

OUR RESPONSIBIL ITY.

What is next…?