Abstract
The author argues that literacy and access to books are pre-conditions of liberty defined as the freedom of personal and social fulfilment, but historically political and social élites have feared the growth of literate populaces and have tried to direct education for literacy into channels where it would restrain rather than stimulate free thought. Generally there has been such neglect of education for literacy that today a third of the world population of 3,000 million is illiterate and the illiterates increase by 200 million every decade. Campaigns are not keeping pace with the population explosion. This is illustrated by literacy campaigns in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain in the churches, the artisan education movement, and the influence of Tom Paine, the Benthamites and eventually the School Boards. The second half of the paper discusses the present world problem, Unesco and national campaigns, the menacing scale of the problem, wastage of effort by failure to prevent relapse to illiteracy. Education for literacy is not a thing apart but with the literature that serves it must be related to each country's social and industrial structure and become functionally meaningful. Such restructuring cannot be achieved without a literate population nor can national literacy be achieved and maintained except as part of the total social, industrial and political development.
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