People with different levels of literary struggle have different needs, which may differ greatly from those that the current literacy programs try to meet. Illiteracy is disproportionately high among the poor and minorities and beyond the dollar costs, individuals and society pay a hefty price when so many are not able to actively participate in social, political, and cultural affairs. The magnitude of the illiteracy problem requires a fully mobilized national plan capable of facing the challenges of outreach to the hard to reach illiterate population, for the track record of the existing literacy programs is weak. Outcome data is often unavailable, and the few existing data shows that the large majority of educationally disadvantaged adults are not being reached by programs and the percentage of people in programs do not manage to stay in them. lack of a legitimized department for literacy education in the educational system, the scarcity of research and development data, and short amount of financial funds are all variables that play a part in the struggle against illiteracy.
There is a profound relationship between poverty and illiteracy. Poverty can negatively affect a child’s cognitive development and his academic performance. Limited exposure to reading materials, poor health, a scarcity of food, housing instability and unsafe environments are all additional challenges that children living in poverty often encounter. According to the Heart of America foundation, sixty-one percent of families living in poverty do not have children’s books in their homes. Consequently, children living in poverty already have a fifty percent weaker vocabulary than their wealthier peers at the start of school.More often than not, teachers are not adequately trained to work with children living in poverty. Working with poverty-stricken children requires teachers to be involved in every aspect of their lives, both academic and personal. Due to their lack of experience with poverty, teachers often fail to acknowledge the influence that poverty can have on academic achievement. Students who are living in poverty are not always given the foundation they need to succeed in school; they often have ineffective study habits and a low level of self-discipline. As poverty-stricken students struggle in school, they begin to develop low self-esteem and feel as if they do not belong. To encourage poverty-stricken students, teachers should teach them good study habits and self-discipline, they should build close relationships with their students and instill in them a sense of well-being. In addition to this, there is a profound need to implement and maintain certain programs such as dropout prevention, tutoring, and extracurricular activities to promote student interest and improve academic achievement and attendance. Although some schools have higher levels of poverty than others, it is important that these programs are made available for all students.
