The power of literacy
It is a glorious dry season— a hot day in March in Trinidad.
A girl stands under the broad shade of a tree on uneven roots, looking out. Before her, a semi-circle of people seated on folding chairs and picnic sheets look at her expectantly. She feels the crisp leaves underfoot and breathes in the earth, floating blooms, fine gold dust. The paper in her hand shakes. Her palms are sweaty. Every time she feels a thud of fear, she thinks, no need for shame anymore.
I understand what the letters mean on my page. They are no longer squiggles. I wrote them.
She remembers the moment when she told the man she loved that she was no longer going to take his beatings, the surprise on his face, the spitting rage when he asked her, ready to hit her if felt she was better than him now she could read, telling her she had to choose between him and ALTA. She chose ALTA, picked up her four-year-old and walked out without anything but an ability to read and write and in a year set up shop as a hairdresser. In the past two years, she was able to WRITE down the names of clients, make appointments, fill out the forms that once made her sweat, get a bank account, pass a driving test sign a contract to rent a place. Reading gave her that. She passed through secondary school not knowing how to read or write, copying letters.
Her mother couldn’t read or help.
Its time. She reads, tells people her story, feels herself expand with you, feels a pride she never felt before at the applause.
Paula Lucie Smith, the founder of ALTA, which has taught 20,000 adults in over 50 centres over three decades, says the girl could have easily fallen into the underground if she hadn’t chosen ALTA.
This country is drowning in illiteracy. The pandemic and immigration have made it worse.
One in two people in Trinidad and Tobago could be functionally illiterate. (a 95 study and Lucie Smith doesn’t think its changed. In fact, with the influx of refugees, its worse).
And if those figures are scary, consider this. The Ministry of Education revealed in 2022 that in 26 secondary schools most students scored less than 30 per cent in SEA. In one school, 154 of the 165 Form One intake scored less than 30 per cent.
The biggest lash to society (crime, cycles of poverty) comes from people who feel excluded from society and not part of you.
Lucie Smith says: “To function in our world, you must be literate in church, school, shops, banks— everything that makes you a part of society.”
Not being able to get what others can get—jobs, material comfort, education, safety, opportunity leads to exclusion, frustration, rage. And guns.
Lucie Smith says: “Not being able to read or write goes with powerlessness. There is a tremendous power the instant you have a gun in your hands—it overrides all powerlessness.”
Do we want people to take that route? Over 100 people are already shot dead, mostly in gangs in low-income areas and it’s still March.
She add: “In the world’s prisons, the literacy rate is low. Prisoners feel powerless, without options in and out of prison. What are their chances of getting a legitimate job if they are not literate? I’ve had students who say, ‘I couldn’t read, so I decided to drop out of society.’ And women generally have even less power, which puts them in a greater imbalance of power that can lead to domestic violence, which is also why we see so much of it.”
ALTA is working with the Ministry of Education regroups to rehabilitate children and offered schools a brilliant online resource called ALTA online that allows students who can’t read or write to repeat exercises, to learn in private without feeling shame, without dropping out, in their own time, till they get it right. It is an excellent supplement for the school system for children struggling with literacy.
Lucie-Smith says: “ALTA online is a fraction of the cost of extra lessons and can help anyone from any income group.
ALTA depends on corporate funding. If you’re the head of a corporate business and you’re despairing over crime, over a country that is losing yet another generation to illiteracy, donate. If you’re a citizen, donate what you can. ALTA can assign a child to you so you can monitor the child’s progress.
Help give children the option of a pen over a gun. Donate to ALTA, contact 708 1990, 624 2582 or email altapos.tt@gmail.com.