They aren’t illiterate in nations that care a bit more about their children’s education. In Ukraine, for example, you must be able to write sentences and recite your multiplication tables up to 100 to be admitted into first grade.
I was functionally illiterate at the age of five despite considerable parental investment in my education, and considering that I had achieved a twelfth grade reading level by third grade, it certainly wasn’t for a lack of aptitude.
With sufficient training from an early age, I would not be surprised to hear that most five year olds can learn to write basic sentences, but I would be very surprised if most can be trained to follow written statements at the same conversational level they’re capable of by that age.
They aren’t illiterate in nations that care a bit more about their children’s education. In Ukraine, for example, you must be able to write sentences and recite your multiplication tables up to 100 to be admitted into first grade.
You mean you have to know 97x98 and so forth? . . . Wow, I’m not qualified to be a Ukrainian first-grader.
Do they have mandatory pre-first-grade education?
I was functionally illiterate at the age of five despite considerable parental investment in my education, and considering that I had achieved a twelfth grade reading level by third grade, it certainly wasn’t for a lack of aptitude.
With sufficient training from an early age, I would not be surprised to hear that most five year olds can learn to write basic sentences, but I would be very surprised if most can be trained to follow written statements at the same conversational level they’re capable of by that age.