Sunday, July 22, 2018

Why is illiteracy as high as it is?


In 2010 after having taught more than 20 children, most of whom were classified as dyslexic, I did not agree with the more than 35 year old theory that children could not read because of ‘phonological awareness deficit’ (PAD). PAD simply means ‘unable to listen to spoken sounds’. 

I wrote extensively on this in my blog and in any blog that spoke about PAD as well as to professors who wrote about PAD being a cause of kids being unable to read. You may read some of my articles on this matter by searching for ‘Phonological awareness luqman’ and look for articles posted in 2010.
Out of the more than 20 professors I wrote to, only two professors engaged with me over a few emails and finally both of them said that I should write a thesis and submit my papers for evaluation.

Does it mean that PAD does not play a role in kids being unable to read in English? 

There are of course kids who cannot read because of PAD but surely it cannot be all 30% of kids leaving school as illiterates each year are kids with PAD. Only a small proportion of children classified as dyslexic will have this problem. 

You may read my post on the above at:

When I started writing on PAD in my blog I noticed many university students visiting my blog articles. After 2015 the theory about PAD being the major cause of children being unable to read has been debunked by new research reports.

Back in 2010 I also wrote extensively on my findings that a majority of kids (based on all the kids whom I had successfully taught) who were classified as dyslexic were in fact instructional casualties.

Emails to professors and my posts in LinkedIn (a social network) were questioned with ‘where is your data’, ‘where is the scientific evidence’, ‘you can’t say that what you had discovered from teaching about 50 kids to apply universally’ and many other comments. 

A few days ago I received an email from a teacher friend from Australia enclosing a Link to a website which is created from what I had written to the professors. 

These are the same professors who had disputed my findings. 
These are the same professors who had deleted my comments in ‘Children of the Code’ and their personal blog posts. 
These are the same professors whom I had written emails to in 2010 and again in 2015.


Malaysians should be the ones who should have done a research on both my findings but the Dean of our University Malaysia Sabah (UMS) was too busy to meet me for a discussion when I wrote a few emails to him in 2010. 

The above post is prompted by a report on Face Book that our YB Dr.Maszlee is looking into some matters brought to him on Dyslexia. 


  • I have written 2 emails and 3 messages to Dr. Maszlee since May 21 and am still awaiting a response.
  • I have also written two emails to YB Jen Lasimbang who has promised to contact me after her committee has been formed.
  • I am also waiting for a response from YB Teo Nie Ching our deputy education minister to whom I wrote an email and on messenger on 3.7.2018.
  • I had also written to YB VK Liew our minister in charge of law and hope I get to meet him soon.
  • Let us endeavour to reduce illiteracy if not eradicate it altogether.

Related posts from my blog:

1 comment:

Luqman Michel said...

I wrote the post above yesterday for posting today.Coincidentally I received an article in my in-box this morning. I made a comment in the comment section but have yet to see the comment published.

I had copied my comment and will post it in my next blog post.Look out for it.