Dr. Parveen Kumar
According to United Nations, Literacy is a basic human right. It is central to the creation of inclusive, sustainable and peaceful societies. Former President of United States Mr. Bill Clinton in 1994 had very aptly said that, ‘Literacy is not a luxury; it is a right and a responsibility. If our world is to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century, we must harness the energy and creativity of all our citizens.’ The world today is focused on meeting the targets as envisaged in Sustainable Development Goals SDG 2030. The theme for the year 2024 gives us an opportunity to join efforts to accelerate progress towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030, especially SDG 4 on quality education and SDG 16 on Peace, justice and strong institutions. While doing so, it will also be ensured that the reciprocal relations between literacy and other areas of development get fulfilled.
Literacy is critical to economic development of a nation as well as well being of individual and community. A high literacy rate of a country gets reflected in various other human development indices. Literacy has traditionally been thought of as reading and writing, but it is more than that. What exactly is literacy? Miriam-Webster Dictionary defines literacy as ‘the quality or state of being literate: educated…able to read and write.’ It is the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Alberta Education defines literacy as the ability, confidence and willingness to engage with language to acquire, construct and communicate meaning in all aspects of daily living. Literacy skills refer to all the skills needed for reading and writing. They include such things as awareness of the sounds of language, awareness of print, and the relationship between letters and sounds. Other literacy skills include vocabulary, spelling, and comprehension. Given the importance of literacy in creating just and fair societies, Sep. 08 every year is being celebrated as International Literacy Day all across the globe.
History of International Literacy Day (ILD): This world celebrates ‘International Literacy Day’ every year on September 8. This day was declared as the International Literacy Day by United Nations Educational Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in its 14th General Conference which was held on October 26, 1966. Since 1967, International Literacy Day (ILD) celebrations have taken place annually around the world to remind 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.
Theme of ILD for 2024: This year this Global Day is celebrated with the theme ‘Promoting multilingual education: Literacy for mutual understanding and peace’. The theme very well emphasizes the importance of using multilingual education to foster mutual understanding, social cohesion, and peace. It highlights the cognitive, pedagogical, and socio-economic benefits of adopting a first language-based, multilingual approach to literacy development and education. The New Education Policy NEP 2020 has also placed multilingualism at the heart of its vision for inclusive education by advocating for a multilingual curriculum that incorporates mother tongue instruction, English and other Foreign Languages. The purpose of multilingual education programme is to develop appropriate cognitive and reasoning skills enabling children to operate equally in their native, state and national languages, starting in mother tongue with transition to second and third languages.
Literacy Rate Statistics:
Globally countries like Luxembourg, Andorra, Green land, Uzbekistan have 100% literacy rate. The global literacy rate for all people aged 15 and above is 86.3%. If we see it gender wise, the male literacy rate is 90.0% and for females it is 82.7%. Burkina Faso with a literacy rate of 12.8% is the country with the lowest literacy rate in the world. Not just developing or under-developed countries but many developed countries are also facing the problem of illiteracy. China had a literacy rate of 99% for adult males while the same for women was 96% in the year 2022. India had an adult male literacy rate of 83% while women aged 15 and older had a total literacy rate of 69% in 2022. Kerala is the only state in India with 100% literacy rate. Bihar is the state with lowest literacy rate. The top ten states in India in terms of education are Kerala, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Maharashtra, Uttrakhand, Karnataka, Haryana and Gujarat. The data by UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) states despite the steady rise in literacy over the past 50 years, there are still 754 millions illiterate adults around the world most of whom are women. Post independence the country has made remarkable progress in improving the literacy rate. The Indian literacy rate has jumped from about 40% in 1940 to about 74% now. Literacy and Development: Many factors contribute to the development of a Nation and literacy is the most important of them. Literacy provides a platform to the individuals for their personal development only after which they can contribute towards the development of nation. Literacy is an essential tool for the empowerment of citizens. Literacy is directly related to development. When people will be more educated they will gain more knowledge and understand best things for them. The human capital will increase as a result the GDP of that country will increase. Literacy is the foundation of community and economic development. When everyone can read, whole communities thrive.
The Corona pandemic a few years back further deteriorated the literacy levels all over the globe. To contain the spread of the pandemic and given the highly infectious nature of the virus, many governments were forced to shut down their educational institutions. Schools were closed down in more than 190 countries. Studies reveal that it disrupted the education of 1.27 billion children and youth. It also affected 63 million primary and secondary teachers in about 165 countries. During Covid-19, in many countries, adult literacy programmes were absent in the initial education response plans, so the majority of adult literacy programmes that did exist were suspended with just a few courses continuing virtually, through TV and radio, or in open air spaces. But, the literacy cannot wait for anything.
The day reminds us of the importance of literacy for individuals, communities and nations and also highlights the necessary requirements to help build more literate societies around the world. As the ILD 2024 is celebrated around the world, Let us make it platform for all of us including our teachers and adult literacy educators to reflect on and discuss how the multilingualism can be made a road to human progress and the means through which every man, women and child can contribute to mutual understanding and realizing peace all across the globe. The day also gives us an opportunity to come up with innovative and effective pedagogies and teaching methodologies that can be used in youth and adult literacy programmes to promote multilingualism.
(The author writes on agriculture and social issues)