Literacy
sustains development. That is the theme of this year’s International
Literacy Day. It recognizes that higher literacy rates are essential
to economic growth, poverty eradication, social participation and environmental
protection. It reminds us that literacy is the platform for developing
a society’s human resources.
Literacy begins with primary education, and achieving universal primary
schooling by 2015 is one of the Millennium Development Goals. Yet primary
education does not reach every child; there are more than 100 million
girls and boys who never enroll in school. Even for those who are enrolled,
the quality of primary schooling may be so poor that it leads to only
a fragile command of basic literacy skills. And while official statistics
put the number of illiterate adults at more than 770 million, that figure
does not include the millions more who are ill-equipped to deal with
everyday needs of learning, understanding and communicating.
Clearly, in many parts of the world, development has not yet delivered
one of its most important outcomes -- more literate and better educated
populations. At the same time, those societies are being robbed of the
crucial tool for development which literacy represents -- a tool that
enables people to take advantage of new learning opportunities, respond
to changing occupational demands, undertake greater responsibilities,
build their way out of poverty and protect themselves against disease
-- especially HIV/AIDS. Women and girls who are deprived of literacy
lack a vital weapon in freeing themselves from inequality and discrimination.
As we are reminded by the overall theme of the United Nations Literacy
Decade (2003-2012), literacy is freedom.
The precious gift of literacy can sustain development only if it is
itself sustained -- by post-literacy programmes, further opportunities
for education and training, and the creation of “literate environments”
in which literacy can thrive. On this International Literacy Day, let
us pledge to step up national and international efforts for improved
literacy levels worldwide. Let us give literacy a real chance to transform
individuals and societies around the world.
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