World Literacy Day

For many of you reading this piece on LinkedIn, the ability to read comes naturally, almost without a thought or a moment of pause, a basic skill in essence. However, literacy is such a fundamental skill that its importance remains a matter of basic human rights and dignity. Literacy allows any individual to absorb information through any medium to gain insights, perceptions, and profound knowledge about our world and what is outside of it. Many of us who are literate take it for granted because of how socially connected we are as a species. The importance of this skill has become a major cause to be celebrated and promoted with the introduction of World Literacy Day (WLD) in 1966.

Literacy is vital because it goes beyond just reading - it includes writing, speaking, listening, and language, which serves a vital role in every individual’s functionality, career advancement, self-esteem, and social engagement skills. So, outside the virtual connection between all of us on social networks, there are a considerable number of people, at least 771 million of them, facing challenges because they lack basic literacy skills. The literacy agenda is a cornerstone movement towards bringing forth a more knowledgeable and sustainable society but with these people facing challenges, our global community is not getting any closer to achieving that dream society.

In 1965, the idea for an International Literacy Day was created during the World Conference of Ministers of Education for the Eradication of Illiteracy in Tehran. Then the year after, on October 26, 1966, UNESCO declared September 8th as World Literacy Day to address the global illiteracy issue, which has now become an annual event celebrated for the last 50 years. The ultimate goal for WLD is to educate the public on the value of literacy as a human right while promoting the literacy agenda to create a more literate and progressive society. The day is used to promote literacy as a massive force that can empower people and communities to secure a job and thereby, improve their lives.?

We are fully aware that COVID-19 had massive detrimental impacts on different nations and local communities. It has drastically changed how students in different parts of our world can access literacy education, thus hampering our progress in achieving global literacy. Following the lockdowns, there are close to 24 million children who won’t ever return to a formal education system, within which 11 million are predicted to be girls and young women. Now, educators have a certain notion of normality and comfort for children to return to but before slipping back into pre-COVID teaching methods - it’s important for us to evaluate whether we should return to those ways of teaching. We need to question what elements from the pre-COVID world should we bring back and what methods should be left behind as remnants of a bygone era.

To avoid a similar regression like the COVID-19 pandemic in the future, the theme of WLD 2022 is “Transforming Literacy Learning Spaces” wherein we go into an overhaul mode to revamp and enhance our current learning spaces. We must recognize the need for an integrated approach that enables literacy learning through a strategy of lifelong learning that will combat ongoing literacy challenges and help us achieve our global goal to leave no one behind. This way, we can ensure these spaces help us build resilience and provide quality, equitable, and inclusive education for everyone.

To bring forth this evaluation mode, let’s look at key ways on how we can transform our current literacy spaces across different stakeholders. First, administrators and policymakers should apply this question to how literacy education is provided and accessed. Second, researchers should begin to explore and evaluate the outcomes of digital learning and virtual classrooms to understand how they can accelerate learning after schooling gaps. Third, parents, caregivers, and local societies must find the best strategy to focus on literacy while guaranteeing long-term access to quality and inclusive reading materials for every child.?

In the wake of such a tumultuous change as the COVID-19 pandemic, our world has been given another chance to move along a new path. This opportunity for reinvention and reinvigoration of literacy education should not pass because if we choose to go back to what’s comfortable and known - we will make it our long-term but not so effective “normal.” It'll continue to be drastically disrupted in situations similar to the pandemic with children from poverty-stricken or low-income backgrounds facing the brunt. If we go another route with transformed learning spaces that ensure inclusivity through digital learning or other more effective channels of access, no child or adult will be left behind as they forge their paths to literacy. Our global community can finally have every child and adult join in as socially connected contributors t our world system.?

Written by Yuvika Bhatia, Content Strategist at Ground Z.?