Literacy is commonly defined as the ability to read and write. It is also the ability to comprehend things around us. 

Aside from the language subjects, all other subject matters requires literacy in order for the students to understand the things that they are learning and how they are going to use it in real life situations, how they will apply what they learned inside the classroom and how will they translate and decode things in their environment.

It is very important not just in the language subject solely, but also to other subject areas. In college or tertiary education, a student should be able to competently and expertly know reading and writing, because in higher educations, jargons are being used in the specific study.