The US reportedly has more citizens who are illiterate than most all of its developed economy counterparts.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report on Adult Literacy Rates shows that 8.1% of US adults or 16 million people are functionally illiterate. This is amongst the highest rates of the 35 countries in the OECD.
This raises the issue of why in today's societies, we even have high illiteracy rates, especially in the Western world. After all it isn't efficient to have high illiteracy rates and is a drag on an economy, and being illiterate prevents people from getting jobs, so our socio-economic model should encourage high education standards.
Looking at the OECD figures, its not surprising that There is a big disparity between richer and poorer OECD areas, in that Chile and Turkey top the chart, but with the Israelis a surprising third, followed by the US, Spain and Belgium. Why Israel has such high illiteracy rates is a mystery to me, as they spend a lot of GDP on a universal education system, but perhaps the rates are skewed by immigrants from poorer less literate countries.
According to most reports the holders of the lowest world literacy rates are all African states (Mali, Benin, Central African Republic, Burkina Faso, South Sudan, Guinea, and Niger), oh and Afghanistan.
But perhaps its no surprise to anyone that according to UNESCO figures, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, aka North Korea has 100% adult literacy rates .... your not allowed to be illiterate in the land of the Kim's.
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| OECD Adult Literacy Rates ..... |
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report on Adult Literacy Rates shows that 8.1% of US adults or 16 million people are functionally illiterate. This is amongst the highest rates of the 35 countries in the OECD.
This raises the issue of why in today's societies, we even have high illiteracy rates, especially in the Western world. After all it isn't efficient to have high illiteracy rates and is a drag on an economy, and being illiterate prevents people from getting jobs, so our socio-economic model should encourage high education standards.
Looking at the OECD figures, its not surprising that There is a big disparity between richer and poorer OECD areas, in that Chile and Turkey top the chart, but with the Israelis a surprising third, followed by the US, Spain and Belgium. Why Israel has such high illiteracy rates is a mystery to me, as they spend a lot of GDP on a universal education system, but perhaps the rates are skewed by immigrants from poorer less literate countries.
According to most reports the holders of the lowest world literacy rates are all African states (Mali, Benin, Central African Republic, Burkina Faso, South Sudan, Guinea, and Niger), oh and Afghanistan.
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| Big Brother Educates You .... |
But perhaps its no surprise to anyone that according to UNESCO figures, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, aka North Korea has 100% adult literacy rates .... your not allowed to be illiterate in the land of the Kim's.
Judging by the twitter comments of the US President theres an illiterate in the Oval Office. Kim il fatty is not any better but then rules don't apply to him.
ReplyDeleteSome might say that .... but I couldn't possibly comment. Thanks for the comment.
DeleteDo you mean that you would never say that the current President is an illiterate ar**ole? I agree, I would never say that either.
DeleteWell we are agreed on that one then ... :)
Delete