International Literacy Day

For those of you who love books and reading, September is sure to be a special month. This is the month of book fairs, book exhibitions, book launches and everything else to do with books. In other words, this is the Month of Literacy.

The book-related events of this month will get under way tomorrow (September 8) with the International Literacy Day. This event will be celebrated not only in Sri Lanka, but also around the world with UNESCO and its partner organisations spearheading the ceremonies.

This year's theme for the day is 'Literacy is the best remedy' and will focus on the important relationship between literacy and health. This is also the theme for the 2007-2008 biennium of the United Nations Literacy Decade.

Some of the world's most important public health concerns will be highlighted through this event. UNESCO, along with its partner organisations, is focusing on the significance of literacy for healthy societies, with a strong emphasis on epidemics and communicable diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.

One of the main events in this regard to take place at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France will be the Round Table on Literacy and Health which is due tomorrow. Another event to take place at the same venue on the same day will be the UNESCO Literacy Prizes Award Ceremony.

Some of the other awards which would be presented in connection with the day are the UNESCO International Reading Association Literacy Prize funded by the International Reading Association (founded in 1979 to reward the services of institutions, organisations or individuals displaying outstanding merit and achieving particularly effective results in the fight for literacy); UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy which was established in 2005 through the generosity of the Chinese government to recognise the activities of outstanding individuals, governments, governmental agencies and non-governmental organisations working in literacy, serving rural adults and out-of-school youth, particularly women and girls; and UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize, created in 1989 through the generosity of the Korean government to reward the activities of governments or governmental agencies and non-governmental organisations displaying merit and achieving particularly effective results in contributing to the promotion of literacy.

To raise public awareness of the extraordinary value of the written word and of the necessity to promote a literate society, some world-famous writers would be supporting UNESCO through the Writers for Literacy Initiative.

September 8 was declared International Literacy Day by UNESCO on November 17, 1965. It was first celebrated on 1966.

Its aim is to highlight the importance of literacy to individuals, communities and societies. On International Literacy Day each year, UNESCO reminds the international community of the status of literacy and adult learning around the world.

Over 774 million adults lack minimum literacy skills; one in five adults is still not literate and two-thirds of them are women; 72.1 million children do not attend school and many more attend irregularly or drop out.

According to UNESCO's "Global Monitoring Report on Education for All (2006)", South and West Asia has the lowest regional adult literacy rate (58.6%), followed by sub-Saharan Africa (59.7%), and the Arab States (62.7%).

Countries with the lowest literacy rates in the world are Burkina Faso (12.8%), Niger (14.4%) and Mali (19%). The report shows a clear connection between illiteracy and countries in severe poverty, and between illiteracy and prejudice against women.