United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Increasing Literacy Rates Globally Literacy is popularly understood as an ability to read and write in at least one method of writing, an understanding reflected by mainstream dictionaries. Literacy has always been a big topic for developing nations. As improving literacy rates means the country can afford better social welfare. It also means the population is getting more educated, and the country can attempt to transit from a developing economy (focuses on subsistence primary industry such as farming) to a developed economy (focuses on secondary or tertiary industry such as manufacturing and service industries). UNESCO has been in the forefront of literacy for over 5 decades. In 1965, World Conference of Ministers on the Eradication of Illiteracy in Tehran, Iran. The concept of functional literacy is introduced with literacy as a means for development and not just an end in itself. In 1990, UN announces this year as International Literacy Year and the critical role of literacy is highlighted at the World Conference on Education for All in Jomtien, Thailand, and in The Framework for Action to Meet Basic Learning Needs adopted by the conference. In 2015, The Incheon Declaration adopted at the World Education Forum held in Incheon, republic of Korea, encapsulates the commitment to Education 2030 to provide inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all and recognizes the important role of literacy. At the 70th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015, Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. At the heart of the Agenda are 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 4, which covers education. Listed on the right is SDG 4: Although significant changes and improvements have been made to make the status quo better, there are still so many challenges and obstacles in the way until we reach SDG 4. The United Nations suggested United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in 2017, 262 million or 18% of all 6 to 17 year olds are out of school. Although the number is very daunting, we are seeing an improvement, since the school age for children attending primary and secondary schools are dropping. This is also true about school completion rates. But if we look at literacy rates in another way: More than 617 million children and adolescents are not achieving minimum proficiency levels (MPLs) in reading and mathematics, according to new estimates from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). It is true that the children might not be illiterate in the case if this data, but the global standard for minimum MPL would be considered easy by the majority of us who are privileged enough to enjoy comfortable education. Minimum MPL for reading is defined as “they read and comprehend most of written words, particularly familiar ones, and extract explicit information from sentences.” While the minimum MPL for mathematics if defined as “Students demonstrate skills in number sense and computation, shape recognition and spatial orientation.” To promote literacy rates, and to aim for the targets set by SDG 4, UNESCO has taken the following approaches: - Building strong foundations through early childhood care and education - Providing quality basic education for all children - Scaling-up functional literacy levels for youth and adults who lack basic literacy skills - Developing literate environments We should also note that there is inequality in literacy rates, especially in developing nations. Women has lower literacy rates in traditional societies and girls in rural contexts are still suffering from this issue and therefore does not have sufficient schooling. Soe areas or groups of people within countries are also prioritised in receiving education. Points worth considering: - What is the literacy rate of your country? What is its trend? Is the UN or UNESCO currently involved in your country to actively improve the literacy rate or the quality of education? Is your country clear on their education policy? What is it? Should the UN or UNESCO do more on improving literacy rates globally? Are there inequalities in education levels or literacy rates in your country? Is it severe? Useful links: - http://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/meeting-commitments-arecountries-on-track-achieve-sdg4.pdf http://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/fs46-more-than-half-children-notlearning-en-2017.pdf https://en.unesco.org/themes/literacy-all/five-decades https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/development-agenda/ Major countries involved: - Any developed country which values education, e.g. United States of America, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, etc. Any developing nations with poor literacy rates, e.g. Kenya, Uganda, etc.
