Illiteracy is not a problem that only poor countries face in their struggle to improve the quality of life of their people. The reasons why illiteracy exists are often not limited to a lack of educational resources, but include social and cultural triggers that prevent vulnerable people from acquiring indispensable life skills.

According to the 2011 census, “overall, there are about 24,000 people who could not read and write, the bulk of whom were older than 50. They represent six per cent of the population above 10 years of age”. But this problem also affects younger people. For instance, there are three per cent of the 30 to 39 age group who are considered illiterate.

Although attending school until the age of 16 is mandatory in Malta, we still have too many people who are functional illiterates. They may have gone to school for years, but they read and write so poorly that it is hard for them to lead a normal life.

This is an alarming fact. Can such people be rescued from becoming victims of the scourge of illiteracy?

According to Monika Troster of the German Institute of Adult education: “If one hasn’t learned reading in the first two school years, there’s no more chance to really make up for it.”

This view may sound too pessimistic, but it is a sad fact that “for most literacy programmes, the success rates in teaching adults to read is about 30 to 50 per cent”.

Some educational experts say adults can’t learn to read and write unless their reading programme confronts the whole complex of social problems that illiterates often face: low income, cultural differences, poor housing, or other community-related issues. Schools and teachers often feel frustrated as most of the time they cannot do much to help in the circumstances.

Students from difficult backgrounds feel like they have been written off as no one attends to their problems anymore. In some cases, a teacher makes a deal with a student: if you don’t disturb me. I won’t disturb you. Resources are overextended making it difficult to start teaching pupils reading in secondary school.

So many educators would agree that we need to refocus entirely on literacy by ensuring that our primary schools are more effective in reaching out to pupils who start off with a disadvantage in their education because they come from a difficult social background. For some people illiteracy is often a way of life, not simply an inability to read.

One of the first things that may need to be done is to train primary school teachers in the skills required to engage as many of their pupils as possible in the learning process. Primary schools teachers may have to be given a higher status in their profession as their ability to engage pupils who are reluctant to learn is a critical success factor in the battle against illiteracy.

Adult education in basic reading and writing skills also needs to be enhanced, even if the success rates may be discouraging. For instance, adult students need to learn by reading ‘grown-up’ material like newspapers, magazines and specially-designed weeklies for adult learners, rather than children’s books. This is important for their self-esteem.

For many adults learning to read takes a lot of sweat. It is a matter of breaking ingrained patterns and self-images that are hardwired in sections of our society.

We need to break the vicious circle that makes illiteracy endemic in sections of our society.