As a child, Carmen Scicluna Bianco was shy to read aloud in class because she knew other children would make fun of the way she struggled to string letters into words.

So she remained quiet and, even though her facilitator told her she was bright, she found this hard to believe, especially after she repeated a year.

The fact her parents could not afford to send her to private lessons did not help.

Scholastic years rolled past and, at the age of 17, Carmen left school with no qualifications.

Although she could read and write Maltese to some extent, she struggled with English.

You just have to believe in yourself and ignore what others say

But a lot changed over the past few years and Carmen, now 24, shed her shy shell and is proud to speak up and tell everyone: “I believe in myself.”

She figured out two important things: it is never too late to learn and, secondly, she has the power to work at improving her own life.

The 2011 census showed more than 3,000 people aged between 10 and 39 cannot read and write a simple sentence in either language.

At the beginning of summer the Education Minister rolled out the National Literacy Strategy 2014-2019 that will pave the way for a more student-centric approach.

The census figures might seem shocking to many but Carmen is not surprised because she knows many who, like her, left school with less than basic literacy skills.

But how can it happen in this day and age? How do people go through 11 years of compulsory schooling and not learn how to write and read fluently?

Looking back, Carmen sees that she first started lagging behind in Year 2 when a teacher labelled her as “stupid”, even refusing to correct her homework. Shy to speak up at home, she kept everything to herself.

That year she repeated, losing her friends and becoming even more of an introvert. She was assigned a facilitator who encouraged her to work hard.

But in her class there were a group of disruptive pupils who made it difficult to concentrate and who bullied her by teasing.

Then, one teacher saw her potential and urged her to take up drama to overcome shyness.

This helped a lot. She started to look around, seeing others succeed and realised that, with hard work, she could make it.

So when she left school, aged 17, and started working and earning money she decided to save up to attend courses where she could learn away from the bullying and distractions.

Carmen is currently studying computing and learning English at the Jesuit-run Paulo Freire Institute in Żejtun: “I download BBC notes and listen to them on my mobile to improve my communication skills,” she said, adding that this was helping her take on more responsibilities at the hotel where she works.

Carmen knows other young women in her situation and encourages them to study and believe in themselves.

She also has a message for employers and urges them to support workers who want to study.

“What I know, through experience, is that it’s not right to blame individuals for not learning. You never know what that person went through or their family’s financial situation,” she said.

Vincent Magri, executive director at Paulo Freire Institute, agrees.

“We must be careful not to pin the blame on individuals but we need to analyse the system,” he said.

Through his experience he finds that contributing factors to illiteracy include the lack of a culture that appreciates formal learning and social problems that weigh down on children in a way that affects their performance at school.

‘There are a lot of opportunities’

Throughout his adult life Joey* worked hard to ensure his colleagues did not realise he could barely read and write.

“Whenever I needed to write something at work I’d manage to bluff my way through by copying parts from other documents. I was too shy to show I didn’t know how,” the 52-year-old maintenance man said, adding he did not want his identity revealed, because he still believed he would be made fun of.

Joey left school when he was 16 and immediately started working. As he got married and had children it became even harder to leave his job to study. The older he grew, the more ashamed he felt to speak up.

But a few years ago he started attending classes at the Paulo Freire Institute. Now he can read and write and is already feeling the difference at work.

“Now at least I gained confidence. Today I know that if you don’t learn you will struggle in life. I encourage people to learn.

“There are a lot of opportunities out there. You just have to believe in yourself and ignore what others say.”

* Names have been changed to protect the person’s identity.