Stop Illettrisme was born from an alarming yet often overlooked observation.
It all started at a research site of the L’Oréal group, where scientists were puzzled that their whiteboard was erased every evening despite the clear instruction: “do not erase.” One of the researchers speculated that the person in charge of cleaning might not know how to read. This hypothesis turned out to be correct. The researchers then decided to create a coding system so that the cleaning staff would know when to erase it or not.
This initiative reached the management of the L’Oréal group, which decided to expand the experiment across all its sites. They created BA-BA, now known as Stop Illettrisme.
The corporate world initially seems little affected by illiteracy: “HR managers tell us, ‘no, there is no illiteracy problem, otherwise we would know about it.’” However, Samira Djouadi observes that to date, 1.4 million people (or 4% of the population aged 18-65) are affected by illiteracy in France. And more than half of them are employed!
“They never sign their employment contract at the company and ask to take it home to read it quietly. But in fact, it’s not to read it quietly; it’s to have someone else read it to them and explain everything that is written,” explains Samira, noting that many tricks are used to avoid this “very taboo” subject.
Thanks to several training programs, Stop Illettrisme works within companies to help employees affected by illiteracy regain their confidence.
One of the most intensive training programs requires participants to be available for 3 hours a week for 1 year to learn the French language. “The highest level is CléA, which are the diplomas required for those applying for French nationality.”
According to president Samira Djouadi, employees then seek out further training, express themselves more naturally in public, and experience a genuine “sense of achievement.”
