London: Reading Recession

Mayday Report: One million Londoners, one in six of the adult population, are illiterate. The root of this problem lies in the early education, or lack of it, in London and across the UK. We know that children from poorer backgrounds are more likely to be illiterate. Figures to be released by the National Literacy Trust reveal that one in three children has not a single book of their own, a figure that has risen from one in four. Those children are two-and-a-half times more likely to fall behind with reading than their peers.

This illiteracy endemic is partly due to the lack of attention the government is paying to the youth and the schooling system. The schooling system in Finland, which has the highest average results in science and reading in the whole of the developed world, is in stark contrast to the system used in the UK and US. This national issue is becoming apparent and a cause for concern, however the state of literacy will continue declining if the UK government does not create a change in the style in which they educate. Perhaps they could copy successful schooling nations such as South Korea, Finland, China, Canada, New Zealand or Japan to prevent this crisis. The UK is ranked 20th in the world education rankings which is poor as it is a highly developed nation.

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in the UK has been tackling this issue by running weekly classes educating Ahmadi children for free in inner city neighbourhoods. The Community has produced many scholars and intellectuals such as the first Muslim Nobel Prize laureate, Proffessor Abdus Salam, who himself was a devout member and scholar of the Ahmadiyya Community.

The Community understands the importance of the education of its children and believes the responsibility continues outside the classroom, therefore creating a sub-organisation named Atfal-ul-Ahmadiyya (Children-of-Ahmadiyya) so that special attention can be shown to our youth developing their mental faculties and nurturing useful citizens.

The founder of this organisation within the Ahmadiyya Community, His Holiness Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmood Ahmad, summed up the importance of children in society’s future, stating:

“A Nation cannot be reformed without the reformation of its youth.”

Hopefully the UK will understand that this issue will not disappear and will worsen if serious measures are not taken to prevent this crisis. We pray that the British government and its people can deal with this situation and create a change from the grassroots as well as national level.



Zubair Ahmed - Founder of THE AHMADIYYA POST