Celebrating International Literacy Day And Education in India : Facts & Figures
Literacy is an important aspect of human development. In this blog, we attempt to share why does International Literacy Day matter to Indians and what could be done in the future to commemorate this day better.
Literacy is a measure of a person’s skill and country’s development. In 1800, only 12% people in the world knew how to read and write. Today, over 85% of the world population above 15 years of age is considered to be literate.
Literacy has also been included in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The aim is to focus on literacy rates around the world and celebrate the progress that runs hand in hand.
On 26 October 1966, at the 14th session of UNESCO’s General Conference, global leaders of the world adopted 8th September as International Literacy Day. They wanted to give an opportunity to Governments, civil society and stakeholders to highlight improvements in world literacy rates, and reflect on the world’s remaining literacy challenges.
It is estimated that 617 million youth worldwide lack basic mathematics and literacy skills. Thus, one of the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 4 is to ensure that all young people are literate and numerate. It focuses on implementing programs that give an opportunity to adults who do not have these skills. Universal education and lifelong learning are the keywords that propagate these programs.
Literacy in India is important for the socio-economic growth of the country. It affects our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) significantly. The 2011 Census report states that 74% of India is literate. However, based on Oxfam’s 2015 report, 287 million people (almost 37% of the global population) in India still didn’t have access to primary education. The dropout rates of girls after primary education is the highest.
The ministry of human resource development (MHRD) reports that 62.1 million children are out of school in India. 32.5% of girls drop out of secondary education citing family reasons. Vice President of India, Venkaiah Naidu, said, “ Literacy and Education are foundations for a strong, progressive, inclusive, gender-responsive India. It is essential to promote literacy not just in children but in adults too. International Literacy Day reminds the task to make India fully literate, especially our girl children.”
The theme for this year’s celebration is ‘Literacy and Skills Development.’ What are some of the basic skills required to improve the quality of our lives? Are these skills essential to make a livelihood, live with dignity and practise career and employment of choice? The answer is yes. Many people still don’t get technical, vocational or digital skills and that forces them to stick to employment opportunities brought upon them by cultural, caste or gender discrimination.
We, at Avantskill, sincerely hope that our nation strives hard for education and literacy of its people, especially those who have been marginalised and cannot afford to spend money on private schools or coachings. There are schemes like Mid Day Meals and Samagra Shiksha but they haven’t been completely successful to eradicate illiteracy. Some options we think would help are : working at policy levels, bridging the gap between private and public education sectors and avoiding commercialisation of education.
If you are seeking help in learning to communicate in English, please feel obliged to reach us at info@avantskill.co.in
Sources :
https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/ild2018-concept-note-en.pdf
http://www.un.org/en/events/literacyday/
https://ourworldindata.org/literacy
Written by Roshan Kokane.
