Literacy builds confidence, critical thinking and opportunity, giving girls the foundation to shape their futures
IN my early twenties, I left Malaysia to study in the United Kingdom. It was my first time living so far from home.
I still remember my first few seminars. Students spoke with ease, referring to books and ideas that were unfamiliar to me. I listened more than I spoke.
Later, I went back and read, and slowly things began to make sense – reading helped me find my footing.
My work later took me to different communities in Malaysia, India and Nepal. Once again, I found myself in unfamiliar spaces, listening to people speak about their lives and their experiences with education.
The ability to read, question and make connections helped me to understand what I was seeing and take part in those conversations.
Looking back, I realise how much of that journey was made possible through literacy. But not every girl is given that same foundation.
I remember one girl in “Projek BacaBaca”, a reading programme based at the School of Education, who rarely spoke during the early sessions. She avoided reading aloud and kept her answers short, worried about getting them wrong.
Over time, as her reading improved, something changed. She began to sit up straighter, started volunteering answers and smiled more. With each paragraph she learned to read, her confidence grew. Her world had not physically changed but her place within it had.
She is not alone. In Malaysia, almost every child goes to school, yet many still struggle to read with confidence and understanding. They move from year to year, present in the classroom but are unable to fully participate in learning.
For girls, this can shape how they see themselves, what they believe they are capable of and whether they feel that education truly belongs to them.
This is how inequality begins, not always through the absence of schooling, but through the absence of literacy. And this foundation matters even more today.
When I first began using artificial intelligence tools in my work, I was struck by how easily one could accept what was presented without question. Literacy allows us to pause, evaluate and decide what is meaningful. It allows us to remain active participants in a world increasingly shaped by information and technology.
When we speak about women’s rights, we often focus on leadership, representation and equal pay. These are important goals but they are also built on opportunities that begin much earlier.
They begin with whether a girl is given the chance to become a reader. Reading does more than help a child perform well in school; it gives her independence, allows her to make sense of the world, form her own views and imagine a future beyond what she sees around her.
It gave me the ability to move across countries, across cultures and now across digital spaces that did not exist when I was young.
As we observe International Women’s Day and speak about rights, justice and action, we must remember where those rights begin.
Literacy made it possible for me to cross borders and it continues to shape how I move through the world today. Every girl deserves that same freedom – not only to go somewhere but to know she can.
Hema Letchamanan is a senior lecturer and programme director of Postgraduate Taught Programmes at the School of Education, Taylor’s University. She is passionate about literacy and access to quality education for marginalised communities. Comments: [email protected]
