Anyone with low literacy skills has undoubtedly struggled during the pandemic given the vast amount of new information and new terminology which has been made available.
Carol Cottrill, executive director of Laubach Literacy New Brunswick, says COVID-19 has changed the scope of what people need to know and the type of skills they need to cope through a pandemic.
“The government forms you had to fill out for CERB and understanding payback terms and all of those things. Even some new words which came out from COVID pose challenges. For example, mRNA what does that mean? What does a novel coronavirus mean?
Those were a lot of new words for everyone and if you think you already have low literacy skills, that’s going to be that much more difficult to understand.”
Cottrill adds many of the terms now being used weren’t even part of our vocabulary two years ago.
Amid the pandemic at Laubach Literacy, she adds tutors and learners have figured out new ways to continue learning via platforms such as Zoom.
