Difference Between Education and Literacy

The key difference between education and literacy is that the literacy basically refers to the ability to read and write whereas the education refers to the acquisition of knowledge.

While literacy is a key factor that helps to measure the education level in a country, these two terms are not interchangeable. Thus, although most people consider being literate and being educated as the same, there is a distinct difference between them.

CONTENTS

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Education
3. What is Literacy
4. Relationship Between Education and Literacy
5. Side by Side Comparison – Education vs Literacy in Tabular Form
6. Summary

What is Education?

Education is the acquisition of knowledge through a process of receiving or giving systematic instruction. Education is a basic human right and is one of the most important factors for the progress of a society.

The word education often refers to formal education, which takes place under the guidance of teachers or instructors in a structured environment. A student receives education at educational institutes such as schools or universities. Formal education has several categories such as primary, secondary and tertiary education. There are also stages in education such as primary school, secondary school, college, and university.

Since education is a basic human right, it is mandatory for children to receive education in a formal setting up to a certain age limit.

What is Literacy?

Literacy is basically one’s ability to read and write. However, this traditional definition of literacy is no longer valid for the modern world. Today the term literacy includes the ability to use numbers, language, images, computers, and other fundamental means to understand, communicate, and acquire useful knowledge. According to the UNESCO definition, literacy is the “ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts”.

In the modern world, literacy is a key skill in a person and the main indicator of the educational level of a country’s population. The past few decades have seen a rise in the literacy levels in countries all over the world.

The ability to understand the spoken word and read or decode written words is the key to literacy. One also has to have an awareness of speech sounds, word meanings, spelling patterns, grammar and word formation in order to become fully literate in a language.

What is the Relationship Between Education and Literacy?

• Literacy is a key factor that measures the education level in a country.
• Being literate helps a person to become educated as reading, and writing skills help him or her to acquire knowledge.

What is the Difference Between Education and Literacy?

Education is the acquisition of knowledge through a process of receiving or giving systematic instruction whereas literacy is the ability to use numbers, language, images, computers, and other fundamental means to understand, communicate, and acquire useful knowledge. Thus, literacy basically refers to the ability to read and write while education refers to the acquisition of knowledge. Although a literate person knows how to read, write and acquire useful information, he may not be educated. In a general sense, education generally refers to how a person applies the knowledge he has acquired.

Summary – Education vs Literacy

While literacy is a key factor that helps to measure the education level in a country, these two terms are not interchangeable. The fundamental difference between education and literacy is that literacy basically refers to the ability to read and write whereas education refers to the acquisition of knowledge.

Reference:

1. “Education.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 3 July 2018. Available here  
2.“Literacy.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 3 July 2018. Available here 

Image Courtesy:

1.’Literacy rate by country’By I, Andrew pmk, (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia
2.’773651/’by edsys (CC0) via pixabay