Falayi.
Come Friday, September 8, 2023, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) will celebrate International Literacy Day (ILD) under the theme: ‘Promoting literacy for a world in transition: Building the foundation for sustainable and peaceful societies’.
For the event, which is going to be celebrated globally, the author, Foluke Sijuwola Falayi, told The Guardian she has concluded arrangements for her own programme.
Tagged, ‘Read with Me’, the event holds at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce conference and exhibition centre.
She said the day will bring an opportunity to join efforts to accelerate progress towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) on education and lifelong learning and to reflect on the role of literacy in building more inclusive, peaceful, just, and sustainable societies.
To her, “in doing so, it will embrace the reciprocal relations between literacy and other areas of development: Literacy is central to the creation of such societies, while progress in other areas of development contributes to generating interest and motivation of people to acquire, use, and further develop their literacy and numeracy skills.”
Since 1967, International Literacy Day (ILD) celebrations have held yearly around the world to remind the public of the importance of literacy as a matter of dignity and human rights, and to advance the literacy agenda towards a more literate and sustainable society.
Celebrations of International Literacy Day have included specific themes, in line with Education For All goals and other United Nations programmes such as the United Nations Literacy Decade.
The theme for 2007 and 2008 was “Literacy and Health”, with prizes awarded to organisations at the forefront of health education.
This was also the thematic emphasis of the 2007–2008 biennium of the United Nations Literacy Decade.In particular, International Literacy Day 2008 had a strong emphasis on Literacy and Epidemics with a focus on communicable diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, some of the world’s forefront public health concerns. For 2009–2010 the emphasis was placed on “Literacy and Empowerment”, with special consideration to gender equality and the empowerment of women.
The theme of the 2011–2012 celebrations is “Literacy and Peace”.
The theme of 2022 is Transforming Literacy Learning Spaces to reconsider the basic significance of literacy learning spaces for fostering resilience and guaranteeing high-quality, equitable, and inclusive education for all.
The following writers are also supporting UNESCO through the Writers for Literacy Initiative:
Margaret Atwood, Paul Auster, Philippe Claudel, Paulo Coelho, Philippe Delerm, Fatou Diome, Chahdortt Djavann, Nadine Gordimer, Amitav Ghosh, Marc Levy, Alberto Manguel, Anna Moi, Scott Momaday, Toni Morrison, Érik Orsenna, Gisèle Pineau, El Tayeb Salih, Francisco Jose Sionil, Wole Soyinka, Amy Tan, Miklós Vámos, Abdourahman Waberi, Wei Wei and Banana Yoshimoto.
Not only the writers contribute to raising awareness to the problem of illiteracy: along with the writers’ engagement, there are various companies and charity organisations that support the fight against illiteracy. Some supporters of International Literacy Day include the Global Development Research Centre, Montblanc, the National Institute for Literacy, and Rotary International.
“At a time when we need to reinvent a world of hope, literacy is more important than ever. On this International Day, I thus invite all those involved in education to redouble their investments and mobilise all their resources to unleash the potential of each individual in the service of a shared world,” said Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director General, on the occasion of International Literacy Day.
Despite steady progress made across the world, literacy challenges persist with at least 763 million young people and adults lacking basic literacy skills in 2020.
The recent COVID-19 crisis and other crisis, such as climate change and conflicts, have been exacerbating the challenges.
Rapidly changing global context took a new meaning over the past years, hampering the literacy progress and widening inequalities across world regions, countries, and populations.
In low- and middle-income countries, the share of 10-year-old children who could not read and understand a simple text with comprehension has increased from 57 per cent in 2019 to an estimated 70 per cent in 2022.
During COVID-19 pandemic, 53 per cent of children in low and middle-income countries could not read.
At its peak during the COVID-19 Pandemic, 1.6 billion children were out of school – approximately 90 per cent of the entire student population.
Today, Up to 9.7 million children are at risk of dropping out of school due to rising levels of child poverty exacerbated by COVID-19
“All of this amounts to a global education crisis that cannot be ignored,” Falayi said.
The Ekiti-born Nigerian writer of instructional novellas for primary and secondary students has written 20 books aimed at developing reading skills and cultural and moral awareness in young readers.
She is also an entrepreneur and diligent self-promoter. Some ministries of education in Nigeria recommend and approve her books to be read in schools
She is a graduate of English and Literary Studies from the University of Ado Ekiti, her home state.
According to available data, some 775 million lack minimum literacy skills; one in five adults are still not literate and two-thirds of them are women; 60.7 million children are out-of-school and many more attend irregularly or drop out.
The UNESCO’s Global Monitoring Report on Education for All, said South Asia has the lowest regional adult literacy rate (58.6 per cent), followed by sub-Saharan Africa (59.7 per cent). Countries with the lowest literacy rates in the world are Burkina Faso (12.8 per cent), Niger (14.4 per cent) and Mali (19 per cent).
The report shows a clear connection between illiteracy and countries in severe poverty, and between illiteracy and prejudice against women. All of these countries are under military rule.
