International Literacy Day is observed every year on 8 September to raise awareness and concern for literacy problems that exist in our own local communities as well as all over the world.
In 1966 the first International Literacy Day was celebrated and this tradition has been held annually for 50 years.
International Literacy Day was established in 1966 by the declaration of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or simply called UNESCO.
The main objective behind this is to remind the public about the importance of literacy as dignity and human rights.
According to the UN’s specialized agency UNESCO, about 774 million adults lack minimum literacy skills. One in five adults is still not literate and two-thirds of them are women.
About 75 million children are not in school and many others attend school irregularly or drop out of school.
Why we celebrate Literacy Day
Better education and health are the foundation of any country’s progress. As everyone knows that to develop and stabilize a country, its citizens must be educated.
Just as food is necessary to live life likewise education is also very important to live a successful life.
An educated person has the potential to enhance the prestige of the family and the country and this day is celebrated to get an education and to make people aware of education.
Education is also the key from which one can change their weakness into strength. education is also making us enough stronger to understand a problem that everyone faces in their lives.
Education provides us the mental ability to think about something and we can take any right decision for ourselves and for our society.
The idea of celebrating ‘Liter International Literacy Day’ to end illiteracy was first mooted from 8 to 19 September in 1965 during the World Conference of Ministers of Education in Tehran, Iran.
The main objective of celebrating International Literacy Day is to encourage awareness of literacy among people so that everyone could know their social and personal rights.
The literacy rates in many countries are very poor as of now. One of the basic human rights “right to education” which means education is a basic human need and every person must know about them.
Literacy doesn’t mean that every person should get higher education or a particular level of education.
But it means that every person can read books of their own language, can write, can fill any form so that every facility from government and other they can understand and take advantage of it.
This is also one of the main motives to celebrate this day that no one should depend on others to read and write anything.
Results
From the day when started celebrating international literacy day, every person has understood the meaning and benefits of education and also understood that this is essential for every single person.
Also, the literacy rate is growing day by day across the globe.
Literacy Rate In The World
As literacy rates of all countries are different and it totally depends on the education system of any country.
The average literacy rate in the world is 86.3%, with a global literacy rate of 86.3% for all people 15 and older. The global literacy rate for all men is 90.0% and the rate for all women is 82.7% (Source: Wikipedia).
What is the scale of literacy in India?
In India, from time to time, several campaigns are being launched to improve the education system and literacy rate in India.
The main of them are education campaigns namely, Adult Education Campaign, Mid-Day Meal Scheme, and Rajiv Gandhi Literacy Mission are being launched to make the people of the country aware of literacy.
Adult Education Campaign
After proposing this campaign, better enrollment of children is reported in schools. The study finds that out of 3 children in a house 2 are enrolled in school according to a govt education report.
This campaign imposed a great effect on the education of girls as well and now in rural areas, non-literate parents also understand the importance of girl’s education and they support them.
Adult education programs had spread a strong awareness of health and hygiene as after getting some detail and basic education on health & care, women can now provide good health and care to their families.
Mid-day Meal Scheme
The mid-day meal scheme is first started for the elementary students to provide the important nutrition meal to the school children at noontime. It was launched in 1995 first.
According to the 2011 census, India achieved a literacy rate of 74.04% as opposed to 64.80% in 2001.
India has made a very vital growth in this direction. The overall literacy rate of India In 2019 is 69.1 percent. Of this overall percentage, both rural and urban India are included.
Kerla has the highest literacy rate (93.91%) in India. This is the no. 1 state according to literate people. Whereas Andhra Pradesh has the lowest rate in the country.
In the list of UNESCO literacy rates in 2015, the adult literacy rate in India is 81% where the youth literacy rate of 15 to 24 years is 91.66%.
Apart from these literacy missions, several other skilled and literacy missions are being launched from time to time to provide a good and skillful education to the students and other candidates in India.
In 2017, the Indian Government launched a new skilled program for the candidate with the name PMKVY which means Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojna. In this educational scheme, several institutions are being opened under the ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship India.
The main aim to start this scheme is to provide practical hands-on experience to the students and other candidates after which they can find a suitable job for themselves or can start their own work.
There were include multiple skilled programs even you can say every job category was included in this government scheme like computer education, fashion, weaving, plumbing, software and hardware, fitting, telecom, and many others.
In India, the government also launch several other short-term schemes for the school students from which they can acquire more skillful knowledge while studying.
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