Band 6+: Even with improved access to education, a significant number of adults today remain illiterate. What challenges do adults who cannot read or write face? What steps can governments take to support illiterate adults? Explain your viewpoint with reasons and include appropriate examples based on your knowledge or experiences.

There is little doubt that even with improved access to education, a large number of adults today have to deal with illiteracy. This trend can pose many challenges to adults who can not read or write. However, several solutions that governments can take to support illiterate adults will be outlined in this essay.

Illiterate people encounter a range of challenges such as losing employment opportunities. Nowadays, many firms require qualifications and certain skills like reading reports or writing articles, which can be an obstacle for those who did not have proper education backgrounds. Even if they get the jobs, these people can hardly get promotions as there are more competitors with more potential for the positions. As a result, this can lead to the lack of opportunity for illiterate people to be employed and have a stable placement in the workplace. Moreover, reading and writing skills issues can cause economic disadvantages. In some developing countries dealing with illiteracy are likely to have a high rate of poverty. As a result, the countries will be more dependent on social welfare systems.

However, there are a number of policies which governments and those in power can introduce to alleviate the problem. First, the government must invest more for education, especially to programmes teaching for illiterate people. Non-fee schools, classes, and courses for non-reader and non-writer can be approved by the government to reduce the proportions of illiteracy. For example, illiterate adults can attend extra classes to learn the alphabet and writing skills in the evening after they finish all the day-works. As a result, this solution can bring both advantages for the directly influenced people and for the education major as a whole. Otherwise, the government can make more occupation opportunities for illiterate people by collaborating with companies and organizations as they can support these people by giving them suitable positions and training them for free. This solution can handle the lack of labour for some countries and also fulfil the chance to have work for illiterate people.

In conclusion, although illiterate people have to deal with a myriad of obstacles like unemployment or having mental health problems, the governments can conduct policies to support these people such as free learning and collaborating with other firms.