Literacy, a tool of empowerment

FIFTY years ago on September 8, 1966, International Literacy Day (ILD) was celebrated for the first time by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to promote literacy as an instrument to empower individuals, communities, and nations.

The anniversary celebration with the theme “Reading the Past, Writing the Future” honors the past five decades of national and global efforts and progress to raise literacy rates all over the world, and how the gains have helped achieve better health, better job opportunities, and safer and more stable societies.

“The world has changed since 1966, but our determination to provide every woman and man with skills, capabilities, and opportunities to become everything they wish, in dignity and respect, remains as firm as ever. Literacy is a foundation to build a more sustainable future for all,” UNESCO says.

At UNESCO headquarters in Paris today, there will be a conference and the awarding of Literacy Prizes to people with outstanding solutions that can drive literacy towards achieving the 2030 education agenda. The Global Alliance for Literacy will be launched, a new initiative to make all major stakeholders work together to promote literacy as foundation for lifelong learning.

Literacy is the ability to read for knowledge and write coherently and think critically about the written word. It includes the ability to understand all forms of communications, be it body language, pictures, video, or sound. New technologies offer fresh opportunities for literacy. Literacy contributes to wide variety of goals like eradicating poverty, lowering child mortality, curbing population growth, achieving gender equality, and ensuring sustainable development.

Literacy is Goal 4 of the 17-point UN Agenda for Sustainable Development, which followed the Millennium Development Goals. Goal 4 aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” The target is that by 2030 all youth and a substantial proportion of adults achieve literacy and numeracy. Developing literacy skills in the early years is crucial to a child’s success in school and later in life.

While there are nearly four billion literate people worldwide, UNESCO notes the need for more efforts because 774 million adults still lack the minimum literacy skills. One in five adults is still not literate and twothirds of them are women; about 75 million children are out-of-school and many more attend irregularly or drop out.

The Philippines has one of highest literacy rates in Asia-Pacific. The 2010 census year showed an increase in Filipinos’ literacy rate – 97.5% or 69.8 million of 71.5 million persons aged 10 and above were literate, 5.2% higher than the 92.3% in 2000. The National Capital Region has highest literacy rate at 99.7%.