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Economic Woes: The Effect NZ’s Low Literacy Rates May Have on the Nation’s Economy
Historically, New Zealand has always ranked highly in international comparisons of literacy and numeracy rates amongst school-aged children.
But over the past decade or so, our national levels of literacy and numeracy are falling.
This growing decline is a worrying trend that could well have a negative impact on the country’s economy in the not-so-distant future.
Earlier this year The Education Hub published a research report that showed around 35.4 percent of teenagers aged 15 or younger are struggling to read and write to an adequate standard.
A statistic that looks likely to be impacted as we continue to realise the long-term impacts of the pandemic on the country’s school-aged children.
It is a well-observed fact that the flow-on effect of poor literacy and numeracy rates continue past a student’s graduation and well into adulthood. As it affects their career aspects and impacts any desire that they may have to go to university.
Everyone from all sectors of society should be offered the opportunity to pursue careers in fields like law or medicine, but if this trend of increased illiteracy continues in the nation’s youth, then those opportunities will quickly tighten.
It isn’t only opportunities for tertiary-level jobs that are affected, as students wanting to go into more practical fields such as plumbing or construction, still need to be able to read and write if they’re to be successful.
It may come as no surprise then that literacy rates often serve as the strongest indicator for the job prospects and socio-economic prospects for young people once they leave school.
At the worrying end of this comes the allure of crime or illegal ventures if children are finding that their pathways for legitimate employment are restricted.
It is estimated that roughly 60 percent of corrections inmates do not have an accreditation for literacy or numeracy at the NCEA Level 1 level. Indicating that that this issue of declining literacy rates can sadly lead our youth into pursuing a living based off of unlawful practices.
Once these inmates leave prison, they are going to continue to struggle to find a job as their lack of adequate literacy and numeracy skills to maintain a job is going to be coupled with having a criminal record, which will make attaining employment even harder.
A cycle that is all too familiar for those working in the justice system.
If we want to take this issue seriously then steps ought to be taken to ensure that our literacy and numeracy rates begin to increase.
By doing so we not only safeguard the nation’s most vulnerable children against a life of crime, but we also inject a big percentage of previously unskilled and illiterate workers into the nation’s economy.
The wider impact that this would have on both the nation’s economy and the general wellbeing of our children is immeasurable.
But whether these necessary steps are taken to fix this worrying issue is something that we will have to hope successive governments take seriously and confront head-on.