Band 5+: Despite better access to education, many adults today still cannot read or write. In what ways are they disadvantaged? What can governments do to help them? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

In the modern era, although education has significant developed, a huge number of senior citizens recently suffer from illiteracy. From my perspective, there are many detrimental effects of this trend and this essay will discuss these disadvantages and it should be tackled by several effective measures taken by the governments.

To commence with, adults who cannot read or write may face considerable disadvantages in various aspects of life. Firstly, illiterate people have less opportunities to find jobs especially in the competitive market recently, due to the lack of sufficient of literacy skills. Without the ability to read or write, they are regularly blue-collar workers, and it is not easy to have promotion chances to get higher prospects. As a result, these individuals may have a lower income potential, which led to require them to more depend on social welfare systems. Another negative aspect of this trend is that adults who cannot read or write tend to rely on others for task, even if they are basic personal tasks such as reading mails, newspapers or managing finances and they also feel difficult to access and understand public services without others helping. These independence limited illiterate adults to have abilities to make informed decisions and challenges in completing necessary paperwork and forms. Therefore, they may have many struggles with the innovation of society nowadays.

However, there are several effective solutions to mitigate these situations. Firstly, governments should establish free or low-cost adult literacy courses or programs to offer an adequate education for every citizen of the countries. In other words, the governments should provide flexible learning schedules to accommodate working adults. Another crucial strategy is developing technology services which allow adults to access and use easily. By enhancing several educational apps and online resources tailored to adult learners. For example, a mobile app that teaches basic literacy skills through interactive games can be an effective tool for adult education.

In conclusion, although there are many detrimental effects which illiterate adults suffer from. However, it should be tackled by several effective measures taken by the governments.