Collide with the wall of writing

This text is part of the special booklet Beyond a Statistic

In the spring of 2020, many people, from all walks of life and of all ages, experienced a tremendous sense of incompetence. Because it was necessary to understand the rapid mutations of a virus, the evolving nature of health instructions, to quickly use new technological tools, including videoconferencing, in addition to helping children in the meanders of distance school. . So, imagine for a moment what it was like for those who have serious difficulties in reading and writing…

“No matter how much we talk about digital, IT or the Internet, all of this remains letters on a screen, says Daniel Baril, director general of the Institute for Cooperation in Adult Education (ICEA). What the pandemic has demonstrated is the need for adults to be competent in a variety of areas; we knew it for a long time, but we lived it in concentrate. Not to mention that, while educated people felt bombarded with information, even overwhelmed, at the height of the crisis, those at the bottom of the literacy scale often felt completely left to their own devices, according to Daniel Baril.

André Huberdeau, president of the Literacy Foundation, noted the same disarray among a good part of the population. “Our telephone lines [Info Alpha et Info Apprendre] did not stop ringing, remembers the one who has evolved in the business world for a long time. The pandemic has isolated everyone, and many people told us they received government documents that they did not understand. And we have to admit: it’s not easy for an adult to go to a school service center or a community group and admit their problem. A problem that affects not only the autonomy of individuals, but also the democracy of a society, as well as its economy.

High Vulnerability Index

In a study entitled “Overview of a high vulnerability index in several cities in Quebec”, unveiled by the Literacy Foundation last May and carried out by economist Pierre Langlois, the equation between the issues of literacy and income forms, according to its author, “a perfect social storm”. Lack of reading and writing skills hinders employability, salary progression, as well as educational and vocational training. Unsurprisingly, Quebec cities with the lowest level of literacy also rank among the poorest.

André Huberdeau has a hard time explaining why such findings do not alarm politicians more. The phenomenon has long been well documented, and above all quantified. According to the World Literacy Foundation, the cost of illiteracy in a developed country is 2% of its gross domestic product (GDP). In 2016, in Quebec, the bill climbed to $6.87 billion, and there is no indication that the amount will drop when the 2022 report comes. On the other hand, according to André Huberdeau, an increase in the literacy in the general population would have an impact of up to $4 billion per year on the province’s GDP.

For the moment, other figures speak for themselves, and they worry Daniel Baril just as much. Because there are still many, among people aged 16 to 65, to be at level 1 of literacy: their skills are so weak that they are unable to read to learn, understand and intervene in their daily lives. “They are often without a high school diploma,” laments the man who is also chairman of the board of directors of the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL). We are talking about 800,000 people, whereas in adult literacy services there are barely 10,000, and about the same number in popular literacy groups. »

Calculating the number of left-behinds is therefore simple, and not very encouraging. “If the state were to abandon more than 700,000 unemployed workers to their fate, that would be unacceptable,” says Daniel Baril. It seems that his only concern is to take care of young people in education, whereas for adults this is neither normal nor automatic. Of course, elected officials talk about it, actors in the world of work too, but from the point of view of performance, we are doing poorly. »

As for addressing this issue in the context of the Quebec election campaign, André Huberdeau would like to believe it, but he remains skeptical. “I know there are a million issues to be resolved, but during elections, literacy is unfortunately something that is not talked about. However, it is a real problem, for example in health. »

These two players in the community do not want to give in to defeatism, for example, highlighting the successes of Quebec, which is “among the most educated societies in the world, having made spectacular progress in just a few decades”, according to Daniel Baril. As for the Literacy Foundation, the equally spectacular progress of the Reading as a Gift program, launched in 1999, which allows children from underprivileged backgrounds to receive new books, testifies to a desire to promote literacy in all ways, including distributing more than 900,000 books since its inception, including nearly 140,000 in the past year. “I had the chance to offer some in classes, and I never tire of seeing the looks of the children who receive a book, who put their name inside; it belongs to them, and they are proud of it. It should be emphasized: it is often the very first new book that enters their home. It can trigger a taste for reading as well as a desire to go to the library. »

This is one initiative among others so that, as adults, they avoid hitting a wall. That of writing. Too many people are still hitting it, and society as a whole is paying the price.

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