For over 40 years now, UNESCO has been celebrating INTERNATIONAL LITERACY DAY by reminding the international community that literacy is a human right and the foundation of all learning. We would like to use the opportunity to call on all organizations, civil society and the private sector to increase its support of literacy. Sponsor a child TODAY! Kids are the world.
Why is literacy important?
Literacy is a human right, a tool of personal empowerment and a means for social and human development. Educational opportunities depend on literacy. Literacy is at the heart of basic education for all, and essential for eradicating poverty, reducing child mortality, curbing population growth, achieving gender equality and ensuring sustainable development, peace and democracy.
A good quality basic education equips pupils with literacy skills for life and further learning; literate parents are more likely to send their children to school; literate people are better able to access continuing educational opportunities; and literate societies are better geared to meet pressing development.
When a woman is literate, may take decisions that can dramatically change her life for the better. Two-thirds of the 796 million illiterate adults worldwide are women. This is a reflection of unequal access to education.
Education is a basic human right and an absolute prerequisite to the achievement of internationally agreed development goals. Illiteracy keeps women marginalized and constitutes a major obstacle to reducing extreme poverty in the world, based on the technology, where as reading, writing and arithmetic necessary for the enjoyment of fundamental rights and opportunities.
In the last decade, the gender gap in education declined in many countries. Gender equality in literacy has also improved, but all too slowly. Need to do much more.
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