The role of literacy in the Development of a Nation

To exalt further the role and importance of reading we shall borrow the words of Dechant, what he said of the western world decades ago, thus “as our culture becomes more complex, reading plays an increasing greater role in satisfying personal needs and in promoting social awareness and growth. Through reading we acquire many of our standards of behavior and morality; we may broaden our interests, our tastes, and our understanding of others. As Aldous Huxley points out, “Every man who knows how to read has it in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the ways in which he exists, to make his life full, significant and interesting,” (Dechant, 1977: 1). I can’t better explain the role of literacy and a culture of reading than the above quotations do. Common sense dictates that language is the main repository of our cultures; therefore, preserving our languages is to preserve our culture. But can our language be preserved if we cannot write and read? I do not think so? Accordingly, reading and writing plays a significant role in the preservation and development of our cultures for posterity. Worth noting is the fact that reading and writing are very relevant today, because whereas in the past our forebears used the fireplace to teach their children the mores and traditions of their people, today fireplaces are no longer used as classrooms for cultural lessons. As such, books in our languages on culture, mores, and traditions should replace fireplace stories; otherwise our children will lose their core identities in future. This is evidenced from the fact that a people who can neither write nor read its language is a lost people. At this point, I would like to applaud the recent cabinet decision to re-instate teaching in Kinyarwanda in lower primary classes in all subjects. More important also, is the fact that one of the yardsticks used in measuring the progress and development levels of countries is the degree of literacy of the population. As such, any country which takes development seriously must put literacy on top of its agenda. Much as we may agree with this blanket statement the new literacy Studies challenge the assumption that literacy in and itself leads to social and economic development, whether on the individual or the societal level and hence emphasizing a culture of reading and lifelong learning (Street, 1995, pp. 17-27). To many these two preceding sentences are confusing and contradicting each other (this is subject to further research). In my view, both theories are correct in their own right, but for the sake of this article, I will categorize readers into two groups: those who do not read because they cannot and those who can but do not. So, when we talk of adult literacy programs and education for all, we are addressing the first category of non-readers and God willing we shall reach a time, when the next generation of all Rwandans will be able to read and write. However, my big concern is the second category of people who are literate including even university graduates and do not see the importance of personal development through reading! The majority of our generation today, once someone finishes school or university, once they have completed their examinations…to hell with books and reading! The pain is that, when this category of people joins the labour force, they perform poorly and as such make less progress in their career because the exponential growth of knowledge usefulness in the development of their career passes them by! It’s no wonder therefore, that in the world of academia especially here in Rwanda we have some Professors and Doctors (this excludes you if you have published or in any way contributed to the pool of knowledge) whom you try to Google in and the search engine goes silent! The reason is every one’s guess…no publications, no research no paper presentations, in short they contribute less or no knowledge at all for the Google to download. Ironically, these are the custodians of knowledge, who will pass their expertise to the coming generations. To underscore, my point why reading is important and why people should develop a culture of reading at all levels, I will borrow from Ben Carson’s book The Gifted Hands. He says thus; “when you read, your mind must work by taking in letters and connecting them to form words. Words make themselves into thoughts and concepts. Developing good reading habits is something like being a champion weightlifter….always building up and preparing. It’s the same thing with intellectual feats. We develop our minds by reading, by thinking, then figuring out things for ourselves…” (Ben Carson, 1990, pp. 219). So if the majority of us neglect this brain replenishing activity in today’s world where the economies are becoming increasingly knowledge-intensive, our country is at a disadvantage. As literate non-readers we will not manage to cope with the pace of the development of knowledge, which is so essential in the knowledge-intensive world, so as to steer our country to greater heights of development. It’s against this argument that a reading culture needs to be given stronger emphasis in Rwandan schools and society at large. Because by neglecting this we put in jeopardy Rwanda’s progress towards one of the pillars of Vision 2020 - the achievement of knowledge based economy. Also, literacy plays a big role in good governance, because democracy requires the availability of informed public opinion. It’s therefore very difficult for governments, to build democratic institutions if the population can neither read nor write because reading is a major source of information from which opinions can be formed. Without informed public opinion the impact of civil society on governance will be minimal and democracy weak. Let us plant the culture of reading and books to be the integral part of our life styles. The notion that books are expensive is not justified, because we get disposable income to buy other essentials of life. Literacy and a culture of reading will lead to the rapid development of our nation, what literacy did for South East Asia can do for Rwanda. The writer is an Educationist and the founder of Rwanda Book Development Initiative.rwabodirwanda@yahoo.com