The day is celebrated across the world to draw mass attention towards the importance of literacy to individuals, communities, and societies. Recent years, world literacy rate has significantly improved. Still world is facing numerous literacy challenges. The day provides all concerned authorities an opportunity to examine the improvements in local literacy status, and to set strategy to cope with the illiteracy challenges.
Theme for the year 2018: This year's theme is "Literacy and skills development." It is an undeniable fact that to increase productivity, the demand of skilled workers has been increased rapidly. Companies, corporates and organizations are giving preference to skilled employees. Therefore, skill development is important for improving a person's livelihood and career.
UNESCO describes the theme as "The day focuses on skills and competencies required for employment, careers, and livelihoods, particularly technical and vocational skills, along with transferable skills and digital skills." Skill development involves two steps. First, finding the knowledge that is required to improve oneself. Secondly, being trained in the particular sector to excel in the tasks.
The International Literacy Awards: Since 1967, UNESCO International Literacy Prizes have rewarded excellence and innovation in the field of literacy. Currently there are two UNESCO International Literacy Prizes:
i) The UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize (2 awards): Established in 1989, with the support of the Government of the Republic of Korea. It considers the development and use of mother-tongue literacy education and training.
ii) The UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy (3 awards): The UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy, established in 2005, with the support of the Government of the People's Republic of China. It considers literacy amongst adults in rural areas and out-of-school youth, particularly girls and women.
Each of the five prizewinners receives a medal, a diploma, and US$20,000. The UNESCO International Literacy Prizes are awarded in an official ceremony on the International Literacy Day (8 September).
Illiteracy is a global problem: Generally, a person is illiterate who cannot read and write a short simple sentence on his everyday life. One adult in three in the world cannot read, write or do a simple counting in writing. They are unable to read doctor's prescription and medicine's labels. However, over five decades, the concept of literacy has evolved from basic reading, writing and numeracy skills to broader concept such as functional literacy and a foundation for lifelong learning.
UNESCO statistics reveals painful figures, it states that over 75% of the world's 781 million illiterate adults are found in South Asia, West Asia and sub-Saharan Africa and women represent almost two-third of all illiterate adults globally. South Sudan ranks lowest of them all, with a literacy rate of just 27%, followed by Afghanistan at 28.1%, Burkina Faso at 28.7%, Niger at 28.7%, Mali at 33.4%, Chad at 35.4%, Somalia at 37.8%, Ethiopia at 39%, Guinea at 41% and Benin at 42.4%.
The prime cause of low literacy rate: Poverty is considered as the prime cause of illiteracy. It is a proven fact that countries with widespread poverty would have widespread illiteracy. In many developing countries, poor families not have the sufficient income to afford education for their children and these children forced to keep out of school.
Every child has right to get quality education which helps him to develop his personality, talent, mental and physical abilities. All children must be able to go to school, and thereby benefit from the same opportunities for a secured future.
Contrary, children of poor families have to work in hotels, restaurants, and factories to support the income of their families. Africa and Asia account for over 90% of total child employment. The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that number of working children are about 250 million in the developing countries, of whom at least 120 million are working full time. Of these working children, 61% are in Asia, 32% in Africa and 7% in Latin America.
Under such grim situation, the fundamental right of a child and youngsters to get appropriate education is severely violated.
Women lag behind men in education: It is an accepted fact that a girls' education is important for future generations. According to the World Literacy Foundation, two-thirds of the world's illiterate adults are women, which means 757 million adults who can't read or write, two third of them are women. Women and girls are often excluded from going to school or participating in literacy or other educational programme.
In about two-third of countries, literacy among youth is about the same for young men and women. In many countries, however, particularly in West and Central Africa and South Asia, illiterate women far outnumber their male counterparts. The gender parity index stands at 0.79 and 0.91 for West and Central Africa and South Asia, respectively. In Niger, the gender parity index is 0.44, meaning that there are 44 literate women for every 100 literate men.
In one of the surveys, it has been found out that infant mortality is inversely related to mother's educational level.
Literacy changes life: Literacy skills improve economic opportunities, increases problem solving abilities. Becoming literate opens up world of knowledge and strengthens one's relationships with society and community. Literate parents had been proved better in solving child's problems both in school and in life. An individual with basic learning skills increases the access to lifelong learning and professional development.
Literacy provides an individual considerable health benefits. Illiterate individuals have more workplace accidents, take longer to recover and more often misuse medication through ignorance of health care resources and because they have trouble reading and understanding the relevant information (warnings, dosage, contraindications, etc.).
Literacy ensures integrity of a society: Educators unanimously agree that Literacy is a combination of basic skills (not just one skill) that everyone needs in order to function in society. Literacy and skill development plays key role to eliminate extremism, radical thinking, drug abuse, unemployment and conservative approach in society. Education is essential for creating equality and demolishing discrimination based on race, gender, and financial status. It ensures the promotion of democratic values, holistic and civilized development of society and scientific advancement.
How far behind is Pakistan? Several reports published during the year 2017 showed an embarrassing literacy status. Literacy rate in the country saw an annual drop of 2.0 percent to 58 percent from 60 percent during fiscal year 2015-16 Pakistan's literacy rate is far behind our neighboring countries. Pakistan literacy rate is lower than Nepal 64.7%, Bangladesh 61.5% and India 61%. A report published in the Economist states, "The actual number of out of school children of primary age in Pakistan is 5.1 million. In 6-16 years age group, 7 percent of urban and 23 percent of rural children are out of school". Another report published by UN in 2016 states, "Pakistan is 50+ years behind in its primary and 60+ years behind in its secondary education targets."
The main causes of deteriorating educational system of Pakistan are gender discrimination, family background, double standard of schooling system, lack of qualified teachers and educational staff, poor sanitation in schools, corruption in schools, illiterate parents, conservative society and existence of extremism in many parts of the country.
Measures to promote literacy: There should be more primary schools in rural areas with trained teaching staff and proper sanitary facilities. Basic Education must be free. Quality education must be accessible to every child of the country regardless of his / her family's financial status. Without active enrolment of female students, it is almost impossible to overcome illiteracy in our society. Social media can be an effective tool to raise public awareness against illiteracy. Solid measures should be taken to discourage the corruption in education system.