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Good morning. According to a report published this week, illiteracy has reached a crisis point. The World Literacy Fund, who authored the report, estimates that almost 800 million people across the globe can't read or write properly, with the cost to the British economy for this year alone being around £81bn. In this modern age of austerity, everything is quantified and costed, including illiteracy. However, the impact of this crisis goes way beyond the economy. It has a distinctly personal dimension. If you're illiterate, you and your family will probably be trapped in a cycle of poverty. No matter how hard you work, if you can't read or count properly, you'll have limited career opportunities and a low income. The report is timely, especially with the new school year starting soon. Gone are the days when you could get by with just a basic knowledge of the Three Rs – reading, writing and arithmetic. We need to be not just literate, but functionally literate. Online banking, filling out job applications, and even using a smart phone, all require functional literacy. Most of us would feel frustrated if we had to ask for help with what others might see as pretty simple tasks, and yet for at least 6 million of us in the UK, it is a reality of life. Functional literacy is essential for faith communities too. All religions emphasise the importance of being able to read scripture, and for Sikhs, the Guru Granth Sahib was written in the everyday languages of medieval India to make it easier for people to understand. Sikhs don't have a priesthood system, and the focus is instead on developing a direct relationship with the Supreme Being by becoming familiar with the texts. In the words of the fourth Guru, Guru Ram Das, 'the scripture is the embodiment of the Guru and the Guru is the embodiment of the scripture; within scripture, nectar is contained'. Part of the joy of scripture is being able to examine and re-examine texts in order to discover new meanings for yourself. It is one thing to read a verse, and quite another to apply critical thinking to it. It also involves the humility of being able to respect other people's interpretations, even if those interpretations conflict with your own. That is the difference between literacy and functional literacy, the difference between being able to read and being able to put what you read into practice. There is obviously a long way to go in improving literacy levels in the UK, but rather than just focussing on its financial impact, we should take a holistic approach and emphasise all of its benefits, including the ability to think critically. I believe that by having that freedom to think for ourselves, functional literacy gives us the opportunity for deeper spiritual contemplation and reaching a better understanding about what life means to us. Now that is something that could never be quantified.