8 September
International Literacy Day
International Literacy Day is being celebrated on September 8 from 1966 to September 8 at the main initiative of UNESCO. Various government and non-governmental organizations across the world observe this day to conduct awareness campaigns about the need for literacy in individuals, communities and society. Through this day, UNESCO brings to the attention of the international community about the latest statistics of literacy and adult education every year. According to the data, one in every five people in the world is illiterate, two-thirds of the total illiterate people are women. According to the Bell Monitoring Pitt (2008) on universal education in UNESCO, the South and West Asian regions (58.6 per cent) ranked the lowest in terms of regional adult literacy rates. Slightly ahead of this are the sub-Saharan region of Africa (59.7 per cent) and the Arab countries (62.7 per cent), respectively. On the other hand, some of the countries with the lowest literacy rate are Barkina Faso (12.8 per cent), Niger (14.4 per cent) and Mali (19 per cent).It is clear from this data that literacy has a direct relationship with poverty and the social position of women. Universal education has been particularly hampered in countries affected by epidemics such as tuberculosis, malaria, etc. UNESCO has been laying a lot of emphasis on conducting a campaign for literacy by analysing the main barriers behind illiteracy. The governments of the respective countries have to play a major role in literacy drives. That is why unesco provides support to the government in various ways. International Literacy Day has been contributing significantly to running literacy campaigns around the world.