Picture the pathos of a scenario where your children find great difficulty in, or are completely unable to, understand a bus timetable, browse the internet or even pore over the precautions on the back of a box of pills.
Such simple tasks as these prove onerous for those members of society who have been kept back in their education for a multitude of reasons. From the straitened circumstances of a family or single parent due to global issues affecting the economy at large such as the current COVID-19 crisis, to marital or relationship issues leading to a lack of financial support from one of the partners, domestic violence and so on, literacy problems in both adults and children negatively impact vulnerable individuals in so many ways in their daily lives.
In Malta and Gozo, children and adults facing literacy-related issues suffer extremely problematic consequences, not just due to their inability to practise the four key linguistic skills in both Maltese and English – that is, speaking, listening, reading and writing – but also in their helplessness when it comes to exploiting the tools which technology grants us for educational purposes and simply to perform everyday jobs.
Proficiency in digital literacy as well as the usage of the English language go hand-in-hand in today’s world – just ask native speakers of languages other than English how much they have invested in order to learn or gain greater confidence in and better usage of the world’s foremost international language.
Statistics relating to literacy in Malta reveal a picture which, while encouraging, can certainly be improved upon. Whereas literacy rates in females between the ages of 15 and 24 and the years of 2008 and 2012 registered an excellent 99.1%, with males faring slightly worse at 97.5%, adult literacy rates were seen to be lower in recent years, with 94.5% evidenced in 2018.
Although this last number has seen an increase of 7.6% from 86.9% in 1985, things are not always as rosy as they seem. The downside of a thriving Maltese economy, boosted over the last few years by the opening of a spate of financial and online gaming service related companies around the island, has by and large been the soaring rents that economically disadvantaged family units have had to contend with.
The broadening gap between the affluent and people in previously modest financial circumstances has, recently, led to a newly experienced poverty. Naturally, added complications such as cases of abuse and domestic violence exacerbate states of affairs such as these.
When parents struggle to put a roof over their family’s heads and food on their table, other important elements such as education and the provision of technology for their children fall by the wayside.
It is opportune, here, to mention the national literacy strategy launched by the Ministry of Education between 2014 and 2019. Whilst the ministry’s objective to this end should certainly be lauded, the nationwide programme was perhaps lacking in its failure to pinpoint the more helpless members of society. This is where FIDEM’s latest brainchild comes in.
In addition to the plethora of services that the FIDEM Charity Foundation offers to the vulnerable members of society, such as aid to various shelters, sponsorship of educational programmes and technological equipment, as well as the "Hear to Help" Helpline aimed at psychological support during the current COVID calamity, comes a new initiative.
We Connect targets those who, for some reason or another, occupy a fragile position in the Maltese social fabric. In time We Connect will offer them, amongst many other things, the opportunity to learn English from scratch online.
Giving these individuals the opportunity to acquire such an important skill will not only increase their self-confidence, but transform them into fully functioning members of society, rather than keeping them from progressing and exploiting their potential.
For instance, adults who improve their literacy skills will be able to encourage their children to read different material and write and design for various media, as well as performing easy tasks such as deciphering instructions and making sense of basic printed matter, including notices and signs.
In addition to this, it will allow the parents to translate the knowledge they acquire into greater employability during these uncertain times, aside from acting as a steppingstone to further their education.
Improved literacy skills will also permit people who occupy a fragile position in society to foster a greater appreciation for arts and culture.
Just like other initiatives that FIDEM has launched, We Connect centres around the fundamental notion that education promotes not only personal growth and self-development, but, ultimately, a sense of wellbeing and contentment – two elements which cannot be emphasised enough, especially in this volatile time period.