Essay on world literacy day
Answers
September 8 was proclaimed as the International Literacy Day by UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in November 17, 1965. It was first celebrated on 1966. Its aim is to highlight the importance of literacy to individuals, communities and societies, now celebrations take place all around the world.
This annual celebration started following a recommendation of the World Conference of Minister of Education on the Eradication of Illiteracy that met in Tehran in September 1965. The Conference recommended that 8 September, the date of the inauguration of the Conference, be proclaimed International Literacy Day and be observed worldwide.
Each year the celebration is going on with the aim to sensitize and mobilize international public opinion and to elicit their interest preoccupations, since its first Vernal Conference in 1946. On this day, the Director – General of UNESCO address a message to the world, appealing to individuals , organizations and states, to demonstrate their support and solidarity for literacy and to promote non- formal education for all, particularly of those who have been excluded from the school system.
International Literacy Day is an occasion to give hope to the millions of women, men and children who cannot read or write even their own names. It is a timely reminder to the world about the importance of literacy for individuals, families, communities and whole societies.
“Literacy is not merely a cognitive skill of reading, writing and arithmetic, for literacy helps in the acquisition of leaning and life skills that, when strengthened by usage and application throughout people’s lives, lead to forms of individual, community and societal development that are sustainable,” UNESCO Director- General said in his message on the occasion of international Literacy Day 2006.
This concept of Education for all had global reception and even the World Bank deeply appreciated this programme. “Education is a liberating force as also an evolutionary force. Which enables the individual to rise from mere materiality to superior planes of intellectual and spiritual consciousness. Education is a dialogue between past, present and the future, so that the coming generations receive the accumulated lessons of the heritage and carry it forward”.
The United Nations defines illiteracy as the inability to read and write a simple sentence in any language. So, these literacy rates refer only to basic, no advanced, literacy.
2006 celebration’s theme is “Literacy sustains development”. It emphasizes that literacy is not only a positive outcome of development processes but also a lever of change and an instrument for achieving further social progress. The 2006 celebration was combined with UNESCO’s Literacy initiative for Empowerment (LIFE), launched on 2005, which seeks by 2015 to help reduce by half, the rate of adult illiteracy in the world. LIFE is being implemented in 35 countries with a literacy rate of less than 50 per cent or a population of more than 10 million illiterates and it is designed to further the goals of the UN Literacy Decade (2003-2012).
The United Nations Literacy Decade aims to extend the use of literacy to those who do not currently have access to it. Over 861 million adults are in that position, and over 113 million children are not in school and therefore not gaining access to literacy either. The Decade will focus on the needs of adults with the goal that people everywhere should be able to use literacy to communicate within their own community, in the wider society and beyond. Literacy efforts have so far failed to reach the poorest and most such populations. Under the banner of literacy for all: voice for all learning for all.
The outcome of the Decade will be locally sustainable literate environments. These environments will give people opportunities to express their ideals and views, engage in effective learning, participate in the written communication that characterizes democratic societies, and exchange knowledge with others. This will include increasingly the use of electronic media and information technologies, both as a means of self – expression and for accessing and assessing the vast stores of knowledge
International Literacy Day is celebrated on September 8 of every year this is to let the government and Virus Organisation established an equal to quality as a creation in November 17 1965 it was first celebrated on 1966