Scientific literacy is a thing, too. Think about all the people unable to take the simple precautions to avoid Covid, or who are still in climate change denial -- if they'd developed science literacy in middle school, things would be different now.
We take it as understood that math and reading power are good to have your whole life. Now think: do you know how colds work so you can avoid Covid? That is science -- you need to understand that too. Do you know enough about the Earth to understand the idea of climate change and do the right thing there? Then you have "science literacy": enough knowledge about science to make good choices.
If you don't, then you will make bad choices. Many adults do (ugh!).
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