International Literacy Day is celebrated each year on September 8 to highlight the importance of literacy to individuals, communities and societies. Worldwide, an estimated 860 million adults, of whom nearly two-thirds are women, do not know how to read or write and more than 100 million children lack access to education. As literacy is so closely linked to all aspects of life, it is almost impossible to imagine a life without these skills. International Literacy Day therefore focuses attention on literacy issues and the need to raise public awareness and support for literacy.
Literacy is a cause for celebration since there are now close to four billion literate people in the world. However, literacy for all – children, youth and adults - is still an unaccomplished goal and an ever moving target. A combination of ambitious goals, insufficient and parallel efforts, inadequate resources and strategies, and continued underestimation of the magnitude and complexity of the task accounts for this unmet goal. Lessons learnt over recent decades show that meeting the goal of universal literacy calls not only for more effective efforts but also for renewed political will and for doing things differently at all levels - locally, nationally and internationally.
Hello Chinwe, I was doing a search on literacy development in Nigeria, and came across your blog. I wonder if you know of any organisations in Abuja involved in literacy develoment/activities. I would really like to get in touch with them, as it is an area of interest for me.Please do not hesitate to email me on kiitanogun@hotmail.com
ReplyDelete