[originaltext] More than fifty years ago, the United Nations declared that l

More than fifty years ago, the United Nations declared that literacy is a basic human right. It’s very important for improving the lives of individuals. However, it is estimated that 880 million adults around the world are illiterate, that is, they are unable to read or write. A majority of them are women. More than 110 million school age children in the world do not attend school. Many others complete school or fail to finish their studies without learning to read or write. Many countries depend on the efforts of people who offer their time to help illiterate individuals. For example, John Mogger became concerned about the problem of illiteracy three years ago, so he started teaching five prisoners in Brazil. In his teaching, he developed a system with this group of prisoners. He says his way of teaching can help anyone learn how to read and write with about thirty hours of study. To learn his system, people must first know how to write letters of the alphabet and learn which sounds they represent. The system divides letters into three groups. The first group, of letters can be written between two lines. The second can be written between two lines but part of the letter is above the top line. The third group has letters that are partly written below the lower line. John Mugger taught his students to write simple words from the letters. In this way, his students learned more than seven hundred words. Many of them can now write to family members. They also can read newspapers and magazines.