Archive for Critical Literacy

In a bid to raise the literacy level of students across Jamaica and in turn national literacy standards, the Ministry of Education is planning to refocus its efforts on a number of initiatives geared towards a national literacy thrust. Speaking during the first in a series of round-table discussions on literacy held Friday, March 28, 2008, at the Ministry of Education in Kingston, Andrew Holness, education minister, said he was aware that the nation faced serious issues as it relates to literacy at all levels of society.

“In recent times, we have seen where even at the level of adult literacy we are having major problems with persons accessing employment,” he said. Holness said there was also a direct link between illiteracy and violence in schools as many students are often frustrated at the fact that they are unable to understand and access what is being taught. “This is by virtue of them just simply not being able to read and write,” he said. Read more in The Jamaica Gleaner online.

 Although Swaziland has a literacy rate of more than 80 percent — relatively high compared to other countries in the region — this figure is misleading, according to the IRA-affiliated Swaziland Reading Association, because the ability to read does not necessarily translate into critical thinking. Visit the IRIN News.org website for information about an effort to reinforce the link between reading and critical thinking in this southern African nation.

The effort to improve educational opportunities for the women of Burkina Faso required a lot more groundwork than anyone expected. It has also borne unexpected fruit. Learn about the effects on one society of bringing literacy to its most marginalized members: visit the UNESCO Literacy Portal.

This year, for the first time in the history of the Riyadh International Book Fair, women authors were allowed to meet their fans. The unannounced book-signings by poet Fawziyah Abu Khaled and novelist Ala’a Al-Hathlol drew crowds of admirers, but not everyone in attendance was there to cheer the two women. Find more of this story in the Arab News (Saudi Arabia).

by Michael R. Parker

Last night I heard the President of the United States of America, the land of the free, the home of the brave, with liberty and justice for all, call for once again a constitutional ban on gay marriage.

Last night I heard one of the board members of my school district tell principals how my life "style" is a choice, a bad choice.

Off a dirty backstreet in a far-flung suburb of Kabul, past a washing line of ragged clothes and up a dingy stairwell, is a carefully hidden upstairs room. Inside, teenage girls in headscarves sit crosslegged on the floor, faces twisted in concentration, doing something once strictly forbidden for female Afghans; learning to read and write. Read more in the Belfast Telegraph (Northern Ireland).