INTERNATIONAL LITERACY DAY
On 26th October 1966 at 14th session of UNESCO’s(United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) General Conference, 8 September was declared as “INTERNATIONAL LITERACY DAY”. Then, it was celebrated for the first time in 1967. The main reason for celebrating this day is to highlight the importance of literacy.
There are still about 774 million illiterate adults around the world and 2/3 of them are women. Now there is a question, why being literate is so important? Well, first lets understand the meaning of literacy. Literacy means the ability to READ and WRITE. Now, this ability to read and write is important throughout the globe and the reasons for being important are also simple and known to you. Just a imagine a nation full of illiterates. Literacy is just like a beautiful garden, which has variety of plants(subjects) and which also enriches the land around it. Learning is a life long process, and life teaches us many things till the time we die.
The literacy rate in India is 74.04%, its 82.14% for males and 65.4% for females. In India, Kerala has highest literacy rate of 93.91% while Bihar is the least literate with the literacy of 63.82%. Being literate actually doesn’t mean that every citizen of India must be able to read and write English, but it simply means that we must be able to read and write and have knowledge about the world around us, let it be any language. But priority must be given to mother tongue and Indian languages before we even look towards English or any foreign language.
The theme for World Literacy Day 2020 is “Literacy teaching and learning in COVID-19 crisis and beyond” with focus on the role of educators and changing pedagogies. In these crises the life is still going on and it will go on further. Today, the online teaching concept is at peak and it promises to go on further even after COVID-19 pandemic. Infact, online learning proves that nothing can stop a person from learning.
Now you are able to read this, as you are literate, so that doesn’t mean that you have done your part. How can you help in making India the most literate country ? Ask yourself.
