Global Literacy by the Numbers

As I progress with my research this summer, I’m finding the problem that One World Youth Project is addressing to be twofold: not only is the current education system failing to prepare youth to be successful in the globalized and interconnected 21st century, but the need for educational reform is difficult to communicate. The vast majority of the research on the current education systems is qualitative, and quantitative research only exists for outdated evaluation methods such as math and reading skills and standardized test scores. The few quantitative assessments of young adults’ global literacy that do exist are startling and discouraging in their results.

The National Geographic – Roper 2002 Global Geographic Literacy Survey questioned young adults ages 18-24 in nine countries (Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Sweden, and the U.S.) on their world geography knowledge contextualized in current global affairs. Some notable findings from this study include:

1)   Only about 20 percent of educated youth could identify Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq on a map.

2)   Only about 20 percent of citizens from the USA and Mexico have travelled abroad

3)   Only four in ten or fewer young adults in all countries surveyed correctly named China and India as the countries with more than one billion people.

4)   Despite the potentially serious nuclear consequences of the conflict over Kashmir, 64% of young Americans did not know that India and Pakistan are the two countries clashing over that region.

5)  Only 11% of young adults in the U.S. reported using the Internet to keep up with current events around the world.

Given 1) the lack of contemporary quantitative global knowledge assessments and 2) young adults’ inadequate global awareness worldwide, the need for large-scale curriculum reform and integrated cultural knowledge is both clear and urgent.