The UNESCO-coordinated International Literacy Day (ILD) is being observed by UN agencies today (September 8) with the purpose of ‘reminding the public of the importance of literacy as a matter of dignity and human rights, and to advance the literacy agenda towards a more literate and sustainable society.’
Despite progress made, literacy challenges persist due the following disturbing facts put up by UNESCO.
773 million adults and young people lack basic literacy skills
617 million children and adolescents are not achieving minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics
During the initial phase of the pandemic, schools were closed disrupting the education of 62.3 per cent of the world’s student population of 1.09 billion
According to UNESCO, ILD-2020 has the focus on the theme “Literacy teaching and learning in the COVID-19 crisis and beyond” to remind the emergent roles of educators and changing pedagogies.
“The recent Covid-19 crisis has been a stark reminder of the existing gap between policy discourse and reality: a gap that already existed in the pre-Covid-19 era and is negatively affecting the learning of youth and adults who have no or low literacy skills and therefore tend to face multiple disadvantages,” informs UNESCO. While stressing the need for effectively positioning youth and adult literacy learning in global and national responses and in strategies for the recovery and resilience-building phase of the present crisis
It has been urged to reflect on and discuss how innovative and effective pedagogies and teaching methodologies can be used in youth and adult literacy programmes to face the pandemic and beyond.
UNESCO has decided to ‘ initiate a collective global discussion to re-imagine the literacy teaching and learning of youth and adults in the post-Covid-19 era towards the achievement of the SDG4.’
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