ADEA joins the World Community in celebrating the 2015 International Literacy Day

Published on Tuesday, 8 September 2015
In Burkina Faso, many newspapers now use local languages to reach the many adults who still cannot read the country’s local papers

September 8, 2015 – Education is a basic right. Unfortunately, too many countries, communities and people continue to suffer from the effects of illiteracy. In today’s digital world, it is shocking that 757 million adults worldwide still cannot write their own name, decipher the exact time on a watch, interpret road signs on a roadmap,  fill a form in order to open a bank account, follow police written instructions, write a shopping list, read local papers or even read a line from a book (UNESCO, 2015). This is a great concern for the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) which is currently championing efforts, with other players, to improve functional literacy and numeracy in Africa.

ADEA joins countries, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and other global actors dedicated to eliminating poverty and illiteracy in celebrating this year’s International Literacy Day. Led by its Secretariat, the Association recommits itself to increasing its efforts to fight illiteracy through its Inter-Country Quality Nodes and Working Groups – in particular the Non Formal Education (NFE) and the Books and Learning Materials (BLM) working groups. 

This year’s celebration of International Literacy Day, whose theme is “Literacy and Sustainable Societies” is dedicated to exploring critical links and synergy between literacy and the future Sustainable Development Goals which will be adopted during the 70th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015.

The theme fully resonates with Africa’s Education Agenda as well as with the mandate set forth by the International Community. For this reason, ADEA joins the Director-General of UNESCO in opening the ground for literacy action in the post-2015 era to address critical issues highlighted in the Education 2030 Framework for Action endorsed at the World Education Forum 2015 (19-22 May 2015, Incheon, Republic of Korea).

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