The first International Literacy
Day was celebrated in 1967 and this tradition has been held annually for 50 years.
The idea of celebrating International Literacy Day was first discussed during
the World Conference of Ministers of Education in Tehran, Iran on September 8
to 19 with the objective to end illiteracy.
While the UNESCO has noted positive
trends of growing literacy rates among children, the drop in the illiteracy
rate has not matched the increase in population. Between 2001 and 2011, the
population above the age of 7 grew by 18.65 crore but the decrease in the
number of illiterates is just 3.11 crore.
2015 UNESCO report said that in
terms of absolute numbers, India – with 28.7 crore illiterates – was the
country with the largest number of adults without basic literacy skills in
2010-11 compared to 2000-01 when it had 30.4 crore illiterates.
According to UNESCO, “literacy is
now understood as a means of identification understanding, interpretation,
creation and communication in an increasingly digital, text meditated,
information rich and fast changing world”. According to UN’s International Telecommunications
Union suggest that, in 2016, 53% of the world’s population does not have access
to Internet. Nearly two billion people did not use Mobile phones and almost a
half billion lived outside areas with mobile connectivity.
Despite the significant literacy
progress made in the past decades, the world was still home to 758 Million illiterate
adults and 263 Million out of school children of primary and secondary school
age in 2014.
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