Reading in Decline in Acapulco

(Acapulco, NA 13 November) A survey conducted by Novedades Acapulco concludes that literacy is on the decline. In all of Mexico, the average number of books read, per capita, is slightly less than one per year, compared with an average of more than 20 books per person per year in Europe and elsewhere in North America. The figure for Acapulco has dropped well below the worrisome average for Mexico as a whole. Locally, the youth vastly prefer video games and television to reading. Education professionals lament the loss of vocabulary and the ability to express ideas articulately, with a corresponding drop in the ability to learn and support the economic development so badly needed in the poorer regions of the country, like Guerrero. According to several professionals interviewed by the newspaper, the lack of reading prevents technological advancement, but perhaps more importantly, the development of spiritual, intellectual and cultural values. When asked why they do not read any more than they do, many young people responded that it is boring, and that they just do not have the time to sit down and do it. In a related story, it was reported that over 20,000 students drop out of school in Guerrero each year, mainly because of economic pressures to find some sort of work.