International Literacy Day
Encyclopedia
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
on November 17, 1965. It was first celebrated in 1966. Its aim is to highlight the importance of literacy
Literacy
Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...
to individuals, communities and societies. On International Literacy Day each year, UNESCO reminds the international community of the status of literacy and adult learning globally. Celebrations take place around the world.
Some 776 million adults lack minimum literacy skills; one in five adults is still not literate and two-thirds of them are women; 75 million children are out-of-school and many more attend irregularly or drop out.
According to UNESCO’s "Global Monitoring Report on Education for All (2008)", South
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
and West Asia has the lowest regional adult literacy rate (58.6%), followed by sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa as a geographical term refers to the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara. A political definition of Sub-Saharan Africa, instead, covers all African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara...
(59.7%), and the Arab States (62.7%). Countries with the lowest literacy rates in the world are Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...
(12.8%), Niger
Niger
Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...
(14.4%) and Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
(19%). The report shows a clear connection between illiteracy and countries in severe poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
, and between illiteracy and prejudice against women.
The celebration's theme for 2007 and 2008 was “Literacy and Health”. This was also the thematic emphasis of the 2007-2008 biennium of the United Nations Literacy Decade. In particular, International Literacy Day 2008 had a strong emphasis on Literacy and Epidemics with a focus on communicable diseases such as HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria, some of the world's forefront public health concerns.
To raise public awareness of the extraordinary value of the written word and of the necessity to promote a literate society, the following writers are supporting UNESCO through the Writers for Literacy Initiative : Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Eleanor Atwood, is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C...
, Paul Auster
Paul Auster
Paul Benjamin Auster is an American author known for works blending absurdism, existentialism, crime fiction and the search for identity and personal meaning in works such as The New York Trilogy , Moon Palace , The Music of Chance , The Book of Illusions and The Brooklyn Follies...
, Philippe Claudel
Philippe Claudel
Philippe Claudel , is a French writer and film director.Claudel was born in Dombasle-sur-Meurthe, Meurthe-et-Moselle. In addition to his writing, Claudel is a Professor of Literature at the University of Nancy....
, Paulo Coelho
Paulo Coelho
Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist.-Biography:Paulo Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He attended a Jesuit school. As a teenager, Coelho wanted to become a writer. Upon telling his mother this, she responded with "My dear, your father is an engineer. He's a logical,...
, Philippe Delerm
Philippe Delerm
Philippe Delerm is a French writer, whose collection of short stories La Première gorgée de bière et autres plaisirs minuscules has sold more than one million copies in France.-Writing career:...
, Fatou Diome
Fatou Diome
Fatou Diome is a Senegalese writer, known for her bestselling novel The Belly of the Atlantic published in 2001. Her work explores immigrant life in France, and the relationship between France and Africa. Fatou Diome currently lives in Strasbourg, France.-Biography:Fatou Diome was born in Niodior...
, Chahdortt Djavann, Nadine Gordimer, Amitav Ghosh
Amitav Ghosh
Amitav Ghosh , is a Bengali Indian author best known for his work in the English language.-Life:Ghosh was born in Calcutta on July 11, 1956, to Lieutenant Colonel Shailendra Chandra Ghosh, a retired officer of the pre-independence Indian Army, and was educated at The Doon School; St...
, Marc Levy
Marc Levy
Marc Levy is a French novelist.Levy was born in Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine. At the age of 18, he joined the French Red Cross where he spent six years. In parallel, he studied management and computers at Paris-Dauphine University.In 1983, he created a company specializing in computer...
, Alberto Manguel
Alberto Manguel
Alberto Manguel is a Canadian Argentine-born writer, translator, and editor. He is the author of numerous non-fiction books such as The Dictionary of Imaginary Places , A History of Reading , The Library at Night and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey: A Biography ; and novels such as News...
, Anna Moi, Scott Momaday, Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved...
, Erik Orsenna
Érik Orsenna
Érik Orsenna is the pen-name of Érik Arnoult , a French politician and novelist. After studying philosophy and political science at the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris , Orsenna specialized in economics at the London School of Economics...
, Gisèle Pineau
Gisele Pineau
Gisèle Pineau is a French novelist, writer and former psychiatric nurse. Although born in Paris, her origins are Guadeloupean and she has written several books on the difficulties and torments of her childhood as a black person growing up in Parisian society.In particular, she focuses on racism...
, El Tayeb Salih, Francisco Jose Sionil, Wole Soyinka
Wole Soyinka
Akinwande Oluwole "Wole" Soyinka is a Nigerian writer, poet and playwright. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, where he was recognised as a man "who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence", and became the first African in Africa and...
, Amy Tan
Amy Tan
Amy Tan is an American writer whose works explore mother-daughter relationships. Her most well-known work is The Joy Luck Club, which has been translated into 35 languages...
, Miklós Vámos
Miklós Vámos
]Miklós Vámos originally Tibor Vámos, is a Hungarian writer, novelist, screenwriter, translator and talkshow host, who has published 33 books.-Biography:...
, Abdourahman Waberi
Abdourahman Waberi
Abdourahman A. Waberi is novelist, essayist, poet, academic and short-story writer.Abdourahman Waberi was born in Djibouti City in 1965. He went to France in 1985 to study English literature. Waberi worked as a literary consultant for Editions Le Serpent à plumes, Paris, and as a literary critic...
, Wei Wei
Wei Wei
Wei Wei , originally known as Hong Jie , was a poet, a prose writer, a literary report writer, a journalist, a vice-editor-in-chief and the editor of various newspapers in China and a propagandist. His works are noted for their themes of patriotism, communism, and nationalism...
, Banana Yoshimoto
Banana Yoshimoto
is the pen name of Mahoko Yoshimoto , a Japanese contemporary writer. She writes her name in hiragana.-Biography:Yoshimoto, daughter of Takaaki Yoshimoto, was born in Tokyo on July 24, 1964...
. Not only writers contribute to raising awareness to the problem of illiteracy. Next to the writers engagement, there are various companies and charity organizations that support the fight against illiteracy. Some supporters of International Literacy Day include the Global Development Research Center, Montblanc
Montblanc (pens)
Montblanc International GmbH is a German manufacturer of writing instruments, watches and accessories, often identified by their "White Star" logo.-History:...
, the National Institute for Literacy, and Rotary International
Rotary International
Rotary International is an organization of service clubs known as Rotary Clubs located all over the world. The stated purpose of the organization is to bring together business and professional leaders to provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help...
. Mohammad Abdul Rub, an Indian Child writer celebrates his birthday on this day.
World Literacy Day also signifys the recognition of the country to strive towards total and complete literacy for the nation.
See also
- LiteracyLiteracyLiteracy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...
- List of countries by literacy rate
- UNESCO Confucius Prize for LiteracyUNESCO Confucius Prize for LiteracyThe UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy recognizes the activities of outstanding individuals, governments or governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations working in literacy serving rural adults and out-of-school youth, particularly women and girls...
- UNESCO King Sejong Literacy PrizeUNESCO King Sejong Literacy PrizeThe UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize was created by the Government of the Republic of Korea in 1989.The Prize honours the outstanding contribution made to literacy by Sejong the Great who created the Korean alphabet Hangul....
- PIMR
External links
- International Literacy Day official site
- UNESCO's Literacy Portal
- UNESCO Effective Literacy Practice Database
- Gestures not enough to teach the world, by Larry ElliottLarry ElliottLarry Elliott is a British journalist and author focusing on economic issues. He is currently Economics editor at The Guardian, and has published four books on related issues, often in partnership with Dan Atkinson.-Education:Elliott was educated at St...
and Victoria Brittain, September 8, 2000, The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...