Illiteracy in information age

We can simply not examine the cultural challenges posed by globalisation without indicating the state of illiteracy, knowledge, information, learning, reading and professional training in the Islamic world; a state that calls for serious worrying and pragmatic solutions.

I have earlier indicated that the tools of globalisation include multi-national corporations and international bodies. And indeed, since the practical inception of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 1995, accompanied by its free-market policies across the globe, it has opened the wide doors of competitions among countries, and multi-national corporations to the detriment of poor countries and societies.

Globalisation is run on the shoulders of knowledge, information, science and technology. Incidentally, the basic problem facing all developing countries, including the Muslim ones, is educational and cultural. Globalisation imposes serious conditions relating to knowledge and information on all countries and societies.

Statistics indicate that the level of illiteracy in the Muslim world averagely is about 40 per cent.  But some individual countries have 65 per cent as the average level of illiteracy.   This is disastrous.

The basic question that comes up is; how can Muslim countries compete with a country like Japan which succeeded in eliminating illiteracy fifty (50) years ago? How can the Muslim world compete with Europe and America which have one to two per cent  average level of illiteracy? The disparity is just too wide.

It is lamentable to state that a lot of people in the Muslim world do not have any good attitude towards reading and the book market is on consistent decline. What is the difference between a person who cannot read and a person who can read but does not read? That is the stark reality. A real cultural challenge indeed!!!

The writer is a Theologian/Educationist